PROTESTERS in Ecuador have released 10 captured police officers after making them bear the coffin of an indigenous rights campaigner killed during the protests.

The country is still in uproar over the neoliberal “package” imposed by President Lenin Moreno, at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, which cuts fuel subsidies and attacks workers’ rights, for example by halving public-sector workers’ holiday entitlements.

The capital Quito remains in protesters’ hands, with the government having fled, and the 10 captured police officers were paraded before crowds before their release. Furious crowds are demanding Mr Moreno’s resignation after years of betraying his mandate — elected on a continuity platform as head of socialist former president Rafael Correa’s PAIS Alliance, he instead slashed public spending, realigned the country with the United States, drove Mr Correa into exile and purged the party, election regulators and judiciary of his opponents.