[Marxism] Ecuador gov gives guarantees to US, promises to masses -- US-OAS relax

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Militant -- May 16, 2005
Imperialist powers warm up to new regime in Ecuador 
Gutiérrez was ousted by layers of bourgeoisie
backed by middle-class protests
 
BY SAM MANUEL  
WASHINGTON, D.C.?The new president of Ecuador, Alfredo Palacio, said
Quito would honor all existing treaties, including one that allows U.S.
military operations at one of the country?s key air bases. He also said
that Ecuador would continue to pay the interest on the country?s $16.6
billion debt to international banks, while at the same time promising to
increase spending on health care, education, and other social needs. 
While no Latin American government has recognized the new Ecuadorian
presidency, Washington and the European Union (EU) each have said that
their relations with Ecuador will continue as usual. The Organization of
American States (OAS) also struck a conciliatory note, saying that it
wishes to help strengthen democracy in Ecuador. 

Palacio was installed April 20 by opposition members of Ecuador?s
Congress who had organized street protests in the capital, largely
comprised of middle class professionals, that forced President Lucio
Gutiérrez to flee into exile in Brazil. Palacio was vice president in
Gutíerrez?s government. 

Gutiérrez had been among ?leftist? bourgeois figures elected recently in
Latin America. Support for his government among peasants and the
country?s large Indian indigenous population fell sharply as Gutiérrez
continued austere economic policies prescribed by Wall Street and other
imperialist investors. Sensing Gutiérrez?s isolation, opposition leaders
in Ecuador?s Congress, who are to the right of Gutiérrez?s government,
were able to remove him by mobilizing relatively small protests
dominated by Quito?s middle class. 

Gutiérrez?s opponents focused on his political maneuvers, charging the
government with corruption. Protests against his government increased
starting in December when allies in Congress removed 27 of the 31
Supreme Court justices and packed the court with their own candidates.
The new court then cleared several politicians in exile of corruption
charges, including ex-president Abdalá Bucaram. 

?Ecuador will be a nation that respects its commitments without
restriction,? Palacio said. ?This includes the Manta base. If the Manta
base has been conceived as a front against drug trafficking, Ecuador
will continue in that struggle.? In 1999, Ecuador?s government signed an
agreement allowing the U.S. military use of the Manta Air Base.
Gutiérrez, who criticized the agreement in 2000, nevertheless continued
it after being elected in 2002. As part of its ?war on terrorism?
Washington has strengthened its military presence throughout Latin
America. 

Following a meeting with Palacio, U.S. ambassador to Ecuador Kristie
Kenney said, ?We never broke relations and we continue to work with the
government.? Just prior to a meeting of EU foreign ministers, EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana said, ?Until everything is clarified, what we
are doing is to recognize the country.? 

After three days of meetings with officials in Palacio?s government and
opposition groups, members of an OAS special mission said the body would
back Ecuador?s efforts to ?strengthen democracy,? and brushed aside
questions on whether they considered the new government to be
constitutional. 

The new regime has already shown signs of instability, as Palacio
attempts to cobble together a coalition that includes left critics of
Gutiérrez?s austerity policies and opponents to the right of the
Gutiérrez government. In his first public appearance, new finance
minister Rafael Correa said the decision of President Jamil Mahuad in
2000 to adopt the U.S. dollar instead of the sucre as the country?s
currency was the ?greatest economic error.? At an exchange rate of
25,000 sucres to one dollar, the measure virtually wiped out meager
savings and earnings of millions of Ecuadorians. Correa added, however,
that the policy should not be reversed. 

Mahuad was driven from office in 2000 when thousands of protesters
occupied the parliament. The protests were led by the country?s largest
indigenous organization CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador). A short-lived provisional governing
triumvirate resulted from the revolt. It consisted of the president of
CONAIE; Gutiérrez, then an army colonel; and a former supreme court
president. The group ceded power to the military, which then handed the
government to Mahuad?s vice president, Gustavo Noboa. 

Correa also said that a stabilization fund derived from oil revenues, 70
percent of which is earmarked for debt payments, should be abolished.
Palacio said the fund will be restructured to increase social spending. 

The new commerce minister, Oswaldo Molestina, implied that Ecuador might
abandon negotiations for a multiregional trade pact with the United
States, Peru, and Colombia. Correa added that any final deal would have
to be put to a referendum. In an effort to allay concerns of foreign
investors, Palacio said, ?We cannot say whether we will enter into a
free trade agreement, but we want to exercise our sovereignty in an open
conversation.? 

Gutiérrez was elected in 2002 largely on the strength of his association
with the popular revolt that had toppled Mahuad two years earlier.
Couching his speeches in populist demagogy, Gutiérrez carried out
similar policies to those of his predecessors, earning him a reputation
among Wall Street bankers as ?fiscally responsible.? 

Calling himself ?the president of the needy,? Gutiérrez insisted as he
fled the country that ?in Quito and Guayaquil you can hear voices
calling for my return, in the Amazon, along the Pacific Coast, and in
the poor neighborhoods there are millions of people who support me.?
This has proved not to be the case. Gutiérrez?s ouster has met with
little opposition. The vast majority of workers, peasants, and
indigenous peoples in Ecuador who just four years earlier led mass
struggles that toppled the government, did not mobilize to defend him. 

?In the beginning he talked about the poor, but then he went to the side
of the rich,? said Marta Tigusi, an indigenous street vendor who sells
crafts at an artisan market in Quito. ?Then we lost trust in him.?  
 
 
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