Ecuadorean elections, turmoil, fragmentation

[John Paramo <albatrosrojo2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe this would be of interest.

Ecuador had been rocked in the last three years by
political events such as indigenous peoples' revolts,
the overthrown of governments, the creation of new
political parties, turmoil in the universities ..

Yesterday, the so-called "candidate of the left,"
former Colonel Lucho Gutierrez qualified to go to the
second round against the most typical of the right
wing candidates: Banana landowner and millonaire 
Alvaro Noboa.

Gutierrez got 19% of the vote, Noboa 18%; right wing
socialist candidate Leon Roldos got 16% (the PSE is no
more than a conservtive party of two-piece suits in
spite the fact they use the images of Che, Allende and
Marx), the christian democrat Rodrigo Borja 15% and
the more right wing social christian candidate Xavier
Neira obtained 13%. Around 34% of the registered
voters abstained, 66% participated.

Other two candidates were the indigenous peoples'
leader Antonio Vargas and the brother of the former
nut case populist Abdala Bucaram, Jacobo. One hundred
(100) deputies for the one-chamber Congress, five
Andean Pact Congress people, 677 City Councillors, 67 
provincial councillors and two mayors for two new
counties were elected.

The Democratic Left also fielded a candidate.

Gustavo Noboa, the sitting president, will turn the
chair on January 15. He got the Presidency while being
the Vice-President of Jamil Mahuad, overthrown on
January 21, 2000 in the popular rebellion 
of indigenous peoples supported by an small wing of
the Armed Forces headed by no other than Colonel Lucio
Gutierrez.

Guttierrez first supported the indigenous rebellion,
but later was instrumental in convincing the rebels to
submit to the "Constitutional" order and give back the
government buildings and the government house they
seized. Guttierrez is often called the "Chavez of
Ecuador" that he dismisses as a simplistic comparison.

In fact, Gutierrez - supported by a coalition
including the Movimiento Popular Democratico, Maoists
and some unions and some important indigenous peoples'
groups, is generally considered to the right of
Chavez.  For example, he never mentioned imperialism
in his electoral propaganda and did not raise the
rupture with the FMI as part of his program.  But he
did not fail to pray and eat antojitos in the feria.

Unemployment in Ecuador is 10%, sub-employment is 60%;
economic growth felt 30% and real wages 50%.
Dolarization is rampant an has ruined peasants, small
merchants, employees ... the state does not 
have its own money and foreign debt now stands at
1.5-Billions. The government was forced to quit
discussions with the FMI about a $240-
Million loan because "could not cut more services and
shrink the state" more than already did.

The second round of the elections will take place next
November 24. 

Antonio Vargas candidacy, of Amauta Jatari Movement.
Vargas, then President of the Ecuadorian Indigenous
peoples Confederation (CONAIE)was behind the rebellion
three years ago, but his campaign collapsed 
because the divisions that developed in the movement
in the last year.

Antonio Vargas was accussed of personalism and of
benefiting his particular ethnic group against the
rights of others. A layer of his organization defected
to the Alliance behind Gutierrez.

In fact, the fragmentation of the Indigenous movement
and the CONAIE is one of the tragedies of today's
Ecuador.

Indigenous peoples represent about 45% of the
12-Million Ecuadorian population.

There is also a Communist Party that supported
Gutierrez and five trotskyist groups that took various
different positions on the elections.






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