But subsidies are just an extremely inefficient way to treat the problem.

Yes, that's absolutely true. But it might still be more efficient than funneling it through the greedy hands of corrupt officials. The dream of the efficient government is, especially here, just a dream.

I would love the government to spend more on public schools - but it's not. Everything that is public is harshly underfunded, and that's not because of the subsidy, but because of distribution. Like in other countries, forgiving big companies huge amount of taxes is not a good way to get funds to run the country.

Yes, the trucks burned etc. is part of the spinning. Turning what started as more or less peaceful blockades into a war very quickly, with tear gas from the first moment. And yes, sending the trucks in was also not because of "humanitarian" goodness, but to create those pictures. To make sure that everyone sees the protesters as terrorists, so he can be the big man, the hero that made it to Otavalo under dire circumstances, fought his way through the barricades, the Ecuadorian Rambo. Provoking certain reactions might not be the original sense of spinning, etymologically. Maybe manipulating. And yes, the protesters fell for it, easily, under their own misconception of heroism, the glorification of what they call resistance.

I don't believe for one second that these undercover police are there to try to do anything as part of some public relation media campaign.

No, they, for themselves, are there to protect the country or whatever they were told, or what they believe. The chain of command does not work that everyone tells the next to "stir some chaos to get some cool pictures." The ground workers receive information and orders that get the stones rolling (if they don't roll by themselves).

Undercover cops in a non-criminal organization is always something critical. I'm pretty sure there are many cases of that in the US, too. As far as I know, blocking the roads and restringing the right to free mobilization is not a crime in Ecuador, but an offense punishable with a fine - and mostly not even that if it's during a protest.