Big Ecuador Quakes Force Emergency Economic Steps

The government imposed emergency economic measures Saturday to deal with an earthquake-induced disaster that crippled Ecuador’s oil industry and forced the nation to suspend payments on its foreign debt.

Prices of fuel, gasoline and public transportation were increased.

The government froze the prices of basic foods and vowed to respond with an “iron hand” to speculators who might try to profit from the disaster. There were reports Saturday that staples including sugar and rice were selling at two and three times their normal price.

President Leon Febres Cordero said Friday that 1,000 people were dead or missing in mud slides and flooding resulting from an earthquake and a series of aftershocks March 5 and 6. A day earlier, the stricken area’s chief administrator, Prefect Jorge Gonzalez, had said after making an aerial survey that the toll might be as high as 2,000 dead.

Pipeline Cut

The quakes destroyed a 30-mile stretch of this Andean nation’s main oil pipeline, forcing a halt to production and export of the resource that provides 60% of the nation’s foreign exchange. Officials said the pipeline would take five months to repair.

Febres Cordero said that financial losses from the disaster could reach $1 billion, more than half of the $1.8-billion fiscal 1987 budget.

“We are doing everything we can. This country is not the United States, Great Britain or Germany,” he said of the rescue effort.

The Civil Defense Department said 20,000 people were affected, mainly through property damage, in the states north and east of Quito.

Devastated Region

Destruction was heaviest in a 640-square-mile area on the jungle-covered eastern slopes of the Andes near the volcano El Reventador, 40 miles northeast of Quito.

Febres Cordero flew over areas of destruction in a helicopter.

The quakes set off massive mud slides and flooding that crashed down slopes and through forests, blocking roads, burying buses, demolishing bridges and sweeping through small farms and settlements.

Febres Cordero said 3,000 people were evacuated from the zone around the volcano and that 100 tons of emergency aid were funneled to the region.

The government said that a steady airlift between Quito and affected areas is under way and that three refugee camps had been set up to aid disaster victims.