SUPPORTERS of Ecuador’s socialist government took to the streets on Thursday to defend it from a violent attempt at regime change.

In scenes reminiscent of last year’s Maidan Square protests in Ukraine, opposition marchers trying to force their way into Quito’s central San Francisco Square attacked police blocking their way.

Masked members of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) threw missiles, fireworks and petrol bombs and used steel barriers as battering rams.

By contrast, a pro-government rally in Quito’s independence square took place in a “festive atmosphere,” regional news channel Telesur said.

Twenty police and one civilian were injured in clashes with Conaie protesters blocking the Pan-American Highway near Cotopaxi volcano, some 30 mies south of Quito, while five officers were hurt in rioting in Azuay province.

Conaie, along with environmentalist groups and the FUT umbrella group of trade union federations, only representing about one-third of Ecuadorean unions, have allied themselves with the right-wing opposition.

President Rafael Correa called on the people to clear FUT barricades set up by on major roads nationwide. “These things must be rejected, not by the security forces but by the citizenry,” he said.

“A small group is trying to impose its policies on us.”

In Havana, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples director Roberto Cesar Hamilton said: “We reject the destabilising actions of the Ecuadorian right. We demand respect for Ecuador’s sovereignty of and reaffirm our determination to fight to preserve the continent as an area of ??peace.”