Re: [Marxism] Ecuador

[Fred Fuentes <fred.fuentes@xxxxxxxxx>]

ECUADOR: 'Lucio out! Democracy yes! Dictatorship No!'
Duroyan Fertl

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/623/623p14.htm

On April 13, thousands of Ecuadorians protesting in the capital Quito
were violently attacked by riot police with tear gas. The protesters,
led by unionists and students, blocked roads with burning tyres and
shut down the centre of the city, demanding the resignation of
President Lucio Gutierrez and the reinstatement of the Supreme Court
judges sacked by the president last December.

Quito Mayor Paco Moncayo, leader of the opposition Democratic Left
Party (ID) and an organiser of the protest, ordered the closure of
public transport, municipal offices and schools, as protesters shouted
"Lucio out! Democracy, yes! Dictatorship, no!"

About 800 fully armed police and soldiers occupied the two blocks
around the presidential palace, erecting metal barriers and barbed
wire fencing across roadways.

This is just the latest in a wave of protests. On April 11, a group of
about 100 protesters from various social movements occupied the nearby
Metropolitan Cathedral. Despite being denied food and water, they are
refusing to leave until the former Supreme Court is reinstated.

The prefect for Pichincha province, which covers Quito, ID member
Ramiro Gonzalez, declared an indefinite strike from April 12, closing
roads — including the Pan-American Highway — businesses and the local
airport.

Roads were also blocked by demonstrations in the regions of Imbabura,
Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Loja, Azuay and Canar, and the Confederation of
Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE) occupied the education ministry
building in Quito.

Several union leaders were arrested in the demonstrations in Quito and
dozens were injured by police and asphyxiating tear gas in this latest
episode of Ecuador's rapidly deepening political crisis.
Misuse of power

In the aftermath of two enormous protests earlier this year, Ecuador's
volatile political landscape took an explosive turn on April 2, with
the return of "flamboyant" ex-president Abdala Bucaram from an
eight-year exile in Panama.

Bucaram, known as "El Loco" ("the crazy one"), fled Ecuador in 1997 —
after only seven months in office — amidst accusations of corruption,
after the National Congress had deposed him on the grounds of "mental
incapacity".

Bucaram's return has been long expected. Gutierrez, who was military
attache during Bucaram's presidency, visited him in Panama in
September. Then late last year, Bucaram's Roldosista Party of Ecuador
(PRE) helped block an impeachment attempt against Gutierrez led by the
ID and the right-wing Social Christian Party (PSC).

In December, Gutierrez used a temporary majority in the Congress to
fire the Supreme Court and appoint new judges affiliated to parties
supportive of the president — mostly PRE and PRIAN, the party of
Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's richest man and previous presidential
candidate. The majority of the sacked judges were associated with the
PSC. Gutierrez appointed Guillermo Castro, a long-time associate of
Bucaram, as president of the Supreme Court.

Finally, on March 31, Castro cleared Bucaram, as well as former
vice-president Alberto Dahik, and ex-President Gustavo Noboa, of
corruption charges, paving the way for their safe return to the
country and to politics.

The changes to the Supreme Court are widely believed to be
unconstitutional, a view supported by the United Nations in an April 4
United Nations Human Rights Commission report. The report also
suggested that the appointments to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and
the Constitutional Court "show signs of illegality", and urges a
restructure of the legal system.

Gutierrez's attempts at legal reform have all failed to pass Congress.
The parliamentary opposition is instead calling for the reinstatement
of the previous judges and Gutierrez's resignation. On April 5,
several thousand people demonstrated outside the National Congress
against Bucaram's return and the abuse of the legal system, but were
dispersed with tear gas and police violence.
A revolution of the poor?

Bucaram's return has already had a resounding impact on Ecuadorian
politics. PRIAN, worried that a resurgent PRE would cut into its base,
declared it would no longer support Gutierrez in the National
Congress. PRIAN and PRE are both based in the coastal city of
Guayaquil, making them direct competitors.

Despite PRE's support, however, the government recently suffered an
overwhelming defeat in the vote on an economic reform bill supported
by the International Monetary Fund. Sixty-eight of the seventy-one
members of congress present voted against the bill, which advocated
the privatising of oil, water and the pensions sector.

Upon his return to Ecuador, Bucaram addressed a 20,000-strong rally of
supporters in Guayaquil. He highlighted the level of corruption and
poverty in Ecuador, declaring; "I come to Ecuador to copy Chavez's
style with a great Bolivarian revolution", referring to the leftist
Venezuelan president's movement, whose reforms include using some of
that country's oil wealth to fund massive social reforms, such as
literacy and health.

Ecuador, like Venezuela, has large oil reserves, but government
revenue is lost in the endemic corruption that plagues the country,
making such a policy a likely vote winner at the elections due for
late next year. The economy has long been a basket case, despite it's
oil resources and tourism industry. Approximately 50% of the annual
GDP goes towards repaying foreign loans. Unemployment is officially at
10%, but close to 50% of the population lives in poverty.

Bucaram also voiced his opposition to a free trade agreement with the
US, and decried "the imposition of military bases" on Ecuador, a
reference to the illegal use by the US Air Force of the air base at
Manta (the only official US military base in South America) for
surveillance and spraying of lethal herbicides over southern Colombia.

However fine sounding, this rhetoric is not new to Ecuador. Gutierrez
came to power styling himself as an "Ecuadorian Chavez", and
immediately set about breaking all his left-wing promises. He allowed
the creation of US military camps in the border region with Colombia
as part of Plan Patriota (the extension of Plan Colombia — the
US-backed war against Colombia's Marxist guerrillas), signed a new IMF
loan, and began negotiating a free trade agreement with the US.

Subsequently, Gutierrez has lost most of his support. Only five
representatives of his Patriotic Society Party are now in Congress. A
poll cited in the April 12 Mercopress showed his credibility at only
7%, with 58% of respondents saying his immediate resignation was the
way to resolve the crisis. He has been linked with drug-money, and
accused of misuse of public funds and of using violence to intimidate
political opponents.

While he is still making political alliances, Gutierrez's key support
comes from the military. A former colonel, Gutierrez has recently
reconsolidated his base in the army. When Moncayo, who was head of the
armed forces before he was Quito mayor, called upon the military not
to recognise Gutierrez's "corrupt and unconstitutional" government,
the armed forces responded with a warning that they would not tolerate
"anarchy" in the country and that "calls to rebellion are illegal".

Despite Gutierrez's unpopularity, the opposition groups have been
unable to offer a well-supported alternative. Moncayo has tried
unsuccessfully to play this role, but his party's support is limited
to the highland regions — although there are indications that the PSC,
based in Guayaquil on the coast, may be lending Moncayo, a celebrated
war hero, it's support for the next elections.
An alternative to neoliberalism

In contrast, CONAIE and other social movements appear to be moving
further away from an electoral focus, instead rebuilding the mass
movements.

Much to investors' dismay, the current crisis has awakened memories of
unrest that led to the ousting of elected presidents in 1997 and 2000,
when workers and indigenous people overthrew the government by force,
and a similar perspective is returning.

CONAIE president Luis Macas has called for the Ecuadorian people to
come out and fight every day until "a true democracy" has been
obtained, and has started organising strikes, blockades and other
protests against the Gutierrez regime.

Macas makes it clear, however, that CONAIE will not associate with any
of the mainstream political parties, but intends to build a civic
alternative to the corruption of Ecuador's politics and it's
neoliberal agenda.

On April 4, CONAIE convened an assembly of delegates from more than 60
groups, including Pachakutik, the Popular Front and the Ecuadorian
Revolutionary Youth. This assembly resolved to create an "Autonomous
Pole", an alliance of non-party political groups, to overthrow the
corrupt oligarchy and to construct a "true democratic government that
will represent all Ecuadorians".

The popular movement in Ecuador has taken up the slogan used by the
piquetero unemployed workers' movement in Argentina, "They all must
go!", but it is also looking to the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela
for inspiration, and as a warning of the struggles ahead.

From Green Left Weekly, April 20, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. 

On 4/18/05, rrubinelli <rrubinelli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I am usually more happy to disagree than agree with Mr. Gorojovsky, but
> I think he is onto something here-- hesitation, caution, and suspicion
> are critical especially when and where oil is involved
> 
> Signs point to the bourgeoisie making a big play.
> 
> rr
> ________________________-
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> What I think is taking place in Ecuador -though I ignore the reasons
> why- is a "regime change" on line with imperialist needs.  Ecuador
> exports oil.
> 
> Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
> nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Marxism mailing list
> Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism
>
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