A little more Ecuador.

I find it particularly telling that soldiers firing in self defense is seen as less justified than firing on people who tamper with oil production.

Ecuador's government warned on Friday that troops could open fire to quell protests that have crippled oil output and forced the country to ask Venezuela for a loan of crude oil so it can keep up exports. .....

Soldiers are authorized to use firearms against protesters who began to invade oil camps, sabotage equipment and block highways on Monday, new Defense Minister Osvaldo Jarrin said just hours after he took over the job.

"If strategic installations are being attacked or there is an attempt to destroy or sabotage them, maximum force will be applied, depending on the situation. They can even open fire in self-defense," Jarrin told a news conference. ........

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Antonio Parra would ask Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for an oil loan at a meeting in Cuba on Friday, Barreiro said.

"We need the crude loan for us to be able to export and partly normalize our exports," she said, without saying how much oil Ecuador wanted.

Ecuador will meet its debt liabilities despite the protest, Barreiro said. ......

The government has accused former President Lucio Gutierrez, who was sacked by Congress in April and is now in Peru, of being behind the demonstrations.

But Palacio himself might have helped trigger the protests by inflaming popular expectations with moves including diverting money from a fund previously destined for debt payments to pay for social programs, according to Alberto Ramos, an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York.

These moves have been harshly criticized by foreign bond holders.

The government is "extremely vulnerable to social activism and other rent-seeking pressures," Ramos said in a research note.

Three Ecuadorean presidents have been toppled amid popular unrest since 1997.