Re: [Marxism] The coup in Ecuador: Ħque se vayantodos!

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

This is great stuff, Joaquín.
It's amazing how little mention there's been in the last week of CONAIE -- last 
time around the bourgeois press felt constrained to mention them constantly as 
the mass force behind the change in personnel. Now they've largely dropped from 
sight, the media doesn't even feel constrained to bait them like they do MAS in 
Bolivia. Por que?

-- Joaquín Bustelo <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I spent most of yesterday glued to the TV. CNN en Español, which I'm able to
see at work, was transmitting live the coup in Ecuador.

For, let's be clear: it was a coup, entirely extra-legal.

It went like this: the majority of the deputies abandoned Congress and
constituted a rump body in another building, Ciespal.

The place where the rump session was held -- CIESPAL -- Centro
Interamericano de Estudios Superiores de Comunicación para América Latina --
bears noting. It is an NGO/private university started by UNESCO in late 1959
to bring the blessings of "objective" journalistic training to Latin
America. Its administrative council includes representatives of the OAS and
UNESCO. A diligent search on its web pages was fruitless in revealing who
finances it.

The rump legislature elected a new vice-president of the Congress, and then
declared that the president of the Congress had "abandoned his post," as had
the Congress's vice president when in fact it was the rump session that had
abandoned the seat of the legislature.

The rump session then by a vote of 60 to 0 declared that President Lucío
Gutiérrez had "abandoned his post" as President. This was, needless to say,
a complete lie, Gutierrez had done no such thing.

The reason for the strange motion is that the constitution supposedly allows
the unicameral legislature to certify that the presidency is vacant by
majority vote, but to get rid of a sitting president you have to impeach him
and then convict him by a two-thirds majority of the 100-member body. This
the opposition had already failed to do last fall.

>From the TV images it appeared that country's vice-president was taken
unawares. You have to take the oath now, said the newly-minted
vice-president of the assembly, Cynthia Viteri, in her capacity as acting
head of the legislative branch since the legislature had said the president
of the legislature had "abandoned his post," i.e., quit. Grabbing v-p
Alfredo Palacio by the arm, she administered the oath of office to him
herself.

To what legal effect is questionable: many constitutions reserve the
swearing in of the executive power to the judicial power. Perhaps Ecuador
also allows the head of the legislative branch to do so, and that is why
they went through all the motions of removing the president and v-p of the
legislature and electing a new v-p, so she could administer the oath of
office as acting head of the legislative branch.

Describing these shenanigans during his "Encuentro" show, CNN anchor Daniel
Viotto asked whether such procedures could be considered legal. But, he
noted, Ecuador right now doesn't happen to have much of a judiciary: the
entire supreme court was fired a week ago by President Gutierrez, once the
court had thrown out politically-motivated charges against Gutierrez's
predecessors, including populist Abdala "El Loco" Bucaram, who was removed
by a similar flim-flam 8 years ago.

(Bucaram is the long-time leader of the "Roldosistas," who look to the
progressive image of former president Jaime Roldos. Roldos died after a year
or two in office in one of those (as Nestor noted) all-too-common airplane
accidents that seem to befall Latin American leaders who have even a whiff
of progressiveness about them. Bucaram was Roldos's brother-in-law, and to
many in Ecuador's ruling elite, he seems to represent the distilled essence
of Bolshevism -- a reputation that as far as I can tell is almost entirely
undeserved).

Last December Gutierrez, allied with Bucaram, who has been in exile in
Panama, succeeded in throwing out the big majority of Supreme Court Justices
and packed it with his own supporters. His removal of all the magistrates
last week was in response to popular protests against that move. This
according to the bourgeois press is what this revolt has been all about.

After V-P Palacio had been sworn in, the armed forces immediately put out a
statement backing the new president: obviously they had been part of the
plot.

The vice president clearly viewed this as a coup, trying to legitimize it by
giving a brief speech saying it was the end of dictatorship, the
"refoundation of Ecuador" and so on and so forth.

It is very hard to tell who is who or what is what in this situation. It is
true that Lucio Gutierrez, a dark-skinned mestizo, had been instrumental in
the ouster of Mahuad, a reactionary,  five years ago and run for President
on a program that promised reforms in favor of the poor. But once in office
he acted as a stooge for the IMF, spending most of the country's petroleum
income on paying off foreign debts.

Palacio who had run as his vice-president distanced himself from the
President after a few months in office. Gutierrez became quite unpopular,
with his supporters getting trounced in the most recent elections.

The more perspicacious reporters have noted that a lot of what was behind
this was racism. Ecuador's population is officially about 25% Indian, 65%
mestizo, and perhaps 10% white, but if you see pictures of the recent
demonstrations and especially of the rump Congressional session, you would
never suspect this.

Tremendous political instability seems to be part of the price now being
paid for centuries of Spanish oppression of the mestizos and especially the
native peoples, now that these have awakened to political life. (This may
help explain the extraordinary circumstance that you have so many of Arab
descent playing such a prominent political role: Bucaram and Mahuad, two
name two just among the Presidents of the last decade or so).

However, Lucio Gutiérrez did not have the support of the organized
indigenous forces. He had won the election with their backing, but
immediately betrayed them by imposing IMF austerity measures, and they broke
with him.

At any rate, the heavily Spanish ruling class also wanted Gutierrez out.
This was reflected in the reporting of major Ecuadorian media, which formed
the basis of most of the reports we're seeing.

Untold in those reports are the main slogans of the demonstrators who
besieged the presidential palace and who ALSO besieged CIESPAL, where the
legislature met and the new president found himself trapped: "Que se vayan
todos" -- they should ALL go.

For in addition to what was clearly a bourgeois, imperialist-approved if not
inspired opposition-military coup, there was, not a counter coup, but rather
a supplementary coup that the more radicalized demonstrators --primarily
university students according to fragmentary reports-- were pressing for.
They wanted, yes, Lucío gone. They also wanted Palacio to resign and the
legislature disbanded.

This was reported by CNN en Español on the basis of cell phone interviews
with those caught with "President" Palacios. Social Christian deputy Marcelo
Dotti called them "a mob ... the spearhead of Communism" in Ecuador. He said
they were being organized by a radio station that was "not in the hands of a
journalist but an agitator."

Other reports confirm that until nightfall, demonstrators laid siege to the
building, and physically attacked several legislators. An attempt by Palacio
to address the demonstrators was shouted down. Eventually, "President"
Palacios managed to sneak out and make it to the ministry of defense when
some incident distracted the demonstrators.

Today the newly minted president gave a speech flanked by his military
backers/bosses. He said he was forming a government of national unity -- of
course! -- but significantly, one from which ALL politicians would be
barred.

Rafael Correa, well known for his opposition to the dollarization plan
(Ecuador abandoned its own national currency in 2000), was named minister of
the economy and he immediately pledged to continue on the course he opposes.
He said it would be "suicidal" to reverse the dollarization, due to a lack
of "political and social consensus" against it, which means the imperialists
like it, so who cares what Ecuadorians think.

Palacio rejected calls for disbanding the national assembly --why, THAT
would be unconstitutional-- but suggested the legislature may want to carry
out an "auto-depuracion," a self-purge (constitutionally, of course). He
left the door open to a constituent assembly --the last one was held just a
few years ago-- but promised to serve out the full term to which he was not
elected.

>From the outset the powerful CONAIE (Confederation of Indian Nationalities
of Ecuador) and its party,  Pachakutik, has declared they will not take part
in the new government and came out for early legislative elections.

We'll see.

Ecuador has been in a chronic state of political crisis for quite a few
years now. The exact Indian and Mestizo proportions of the population I
suspect are not necessarily accurate, I've seen reports as high as 50%
Indian, and, of course, how you identify is also a question of political and
social consciousness. What is unquestionable is that a disproportionately
"white" thin upper crust has exploited and oppressed the native peoples and
mestizos for centuries.

The more immediate roots of the crisis go to the imposition of the so-called
"neoliberal" (in reality, pro-imperialist) measures of the Washington
Consensus during the early 90's. These place above everything else paying
tribute to the imperialist money sharks, threw the country into a terrible
economic tailspin, and aggravated the poverty of the big majority of the
population. Further weakening the national economy was the adoption of the
U.S. dollar as the national currency around the year 2000, just as the
dollar was starting to sink in value.

The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela is the central reference point for
progressive forces. Thus Bucaram promises one, as do other politicians.
Similar to the situation in Venezuela at the end of the 90's, the
traditional political forces seem to have become discredited, but unlike
there, no leadership has emerged capable of uniting the broad masses of
people around a political project of social transformation.

But more fundamentally, the Ecuadorian crisis, suggests the need for a
solution that goes beyond Ecuador's borders. The ruling class remains
dividided between its traditional centers in Guayaquil and Quito. The
country no longer has a national currency, has allowed the U.S. to establish
military bases in its territory, and is under tremendous pressure to
surrender such shreds of national sovereignty as it has left to Washington's
"free trade" negotiations scam. With significant oil production and
unexploited reserves, its peoples could have the resources to create a much
brighter future for themselves, but that would almost certainly require a
broader revolutionary realignment in Latin America.

Joaquín









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