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People’s Dispatch |
The indigenous movement finally made the government repeal the decree on October 13th. The negotiations were held publicly and broadcasted nationally. The clarity, articulation and coherence of the members of the indigenous movement … contrasted with the little capacity for proposal and negotiation of the president and his ministers.
Every year on
October 12th, the Ecuadorian indigenous movement organizes a protest
to remember the conquest of America by the Europeans in 1492. The indigenous
movement is the strongest people’s movement in Ecuador, with the biggest
organized base. Their history dates back to the 1920’s when the Ecuadorian
Communist Party helped organize the Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios
(Ecuadorian Indigenous Federation). They gained strength from the 90’s when
they organized a country wide long march remembering 500 years of colonization.
The new, younger, more charismatic and more radical leadership, elected in August 2019 was already organizing the protest when on October 1st a presidential decree eliminating fuel subsidies was issued. The increase in prices was 129% in the case of diesel and 30% in the case of gasoline. The decree also made fuel prices dependent on international market prices, something never done before in the oil producing country.
Ecuador, an Andean country located in the northwestern part of South America, has 16 million inhabitants, 20% of whom are indigenous (measured according to language spoken in the households). Its economy is heavily dependent on oil exports, which also account for 30% of the government budget. Other commodities exported are bananas, fish, shrimps and flowers. Along with the decree, the government announced several other neoliberal economic measures: yet another labor reform, cut in the advance payment of income tax, dismissal of 10,000 public servants, and cutting into half the holidays of public servants.
These measures were taken to comply with demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to obtain a loan. On March 11 of 2019 a letter of intent between the Ecuadorian Government and the IMF was approved. The deal would allow access to a credit of 10,279 million dollars in total until 2021. Some 4,209 million dollars would come from the IMF and the rest from other multilateral agencies like the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).
The measures were clearly designed to socialize the crisis. The regime was, and still is applying classical austerity policies – this being the third round already – trying to make the poor people pay a heavy price for the economic problems largely created by itself because of benefitting the elites with tax cuts and applying remission of tax and social security debts of large companies.
Moreno, who won the elections in April 2017 running for Rafael Correa’s (10 years president 2007-2017 and part of the Latin American pink tide) party – Alianza Pais – betrayed the party and its voters and has been implementing, for almost two years now, the right wing, neoliberal agenda that was defeated in last elections.
Correa’s administrations tripled tax collection, that, together with improved management of the economy and rise in oil prices allowed for public investment in health, education, and housing to increase five times. Illiteracy was eradicated, and poverty decreased from 37% to 23%. The ratio of the average income of the richest 10% to the poorest 10% fell from 42 to 25, clearly reducing inequality.
The regime has already implemented measures such as increase in gasoline price, dismissal of public employees, less regulations for outsourcing, and limits to the obligation of businesses to distribute their profits with employees. In the past July, once again in deference to the IMF diktat, Moreno announced measures such as the privatization of public companies, rise in the price of public services, and cuts in health care and educational services. In addition to the anti-people austerity measures, the protesters also denounced the government’s aid to mining and oil extraction industries.
Moreno’s government has been characterized by a close relationship with the United States and sacrificing the interests of the Ecuadorian people and values to please imperialist interests. The withdrawal from Latin American progressive integration projects as ALBA, CELAC and UNASUR is a clear sign. These organizations were created by former Latin American progressive presidents Chávez, Kirchner, Lula, Correa and Morales to promote peoples integration across the continent and to counteract Organization of American States (OAS), clearly dominated by and obedient to US interests.
In the same line, even if military bases are prohibited by the Ecuadorian Constitution, Moreno’s regime authorized the use of the Galapagos Islands as well as other airports in mainland Ecuador for US military planes.
Moreno’s administration also shamefully handed over Julian Assange to British authorities in April this year. Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, who is being persecuted for publishing leaked documents and videos that demonstrate US government involvement in espionage and war crimes, was in asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.
After the decree was issued on October 1st, bus and taxi drivers were the first ones to go on strike. But after two days they cut a deal with the government: raise in bus fares and more subsidies. Immediately after, the indigenous movement blocked roads in around 20 points all over the country and marched towards Quito, the capital of the country, demanding the repeal of the decree. That march began on October 1st and the first protesters arrived in Quito on October 3rd.
In Quito they stayed in a public cultural center and four universities, where lots of volunteers, mostly students but also urban middle-class people gathered supplies like mattresses, blankets, water and food, as well as organized cooking and caring for children and the elderly. Whenever the indigenous people march, the whole community participates.
In the city the indigenous were joined by urban movements, students, women, and public servants. At a few places there was looting, mostly done by infiltrators, and xenophobic attacks against Venezuelans. The protests also continued in several other cities, mostly in the highlands.
As protests became more violent and did not stop, the government decreed country wide state of emergency and later curfew for Quito. The state of emergency allowed for the military to patrol the streets and repress the protesters.
The President got scared and left for Guayaquil, the biggest city of the country and a busy port. The city is a stronghold of one of the most important right-wing political parties, the Social Christian Party (PSC).
The people defied the curfew and kept on demonstrating at many different points around the city. People at their homes also protested making pans sound (cacerolazo).
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Image Courtesy: TeleSUR |
Repression was brutal, the worst seen in the last 40 years – since the end of the dictatorship. As a result, 11 people were killed, the highest count of deaths in a protest in decades. Over a thousand people were arrested and 800 were injured. Tear gas was thrown in the middle of the night at the shelters where children, the elderly and other people were hosted. The police also used pepper gas, unconventional weapons, firearms and infiltrators to repress. Reports of violence also came from detention centers.
The main corporate media were transmitting cartoons and serials while the protests were on. So, most of the information came from alternative and people’s media outlets and social media. The government raided and censored some of these community outlets, and arrested some journalists, creating what has come to be known in Latin America as ‘media siege’. That is, the main corporate media was hiding the protests as much as possible, and if showing them, used only the footage with violence to create the impression that all protesters were violent when in fact it was the opposite.
The government also tried to frame protests as if there was direct participation of foreigners, as well as foreign resources, within a well-planned ultra-leftist strategy from Venezuela and Cuba aided by Russia. Fifteen Venezuelans were arrested just to be released immediately because of total lack of proof they were doing any other thing than walking in the streets.
The indigenous movement finally made the government repeal the decree on October 13th. The negotiations were held publicly and broadcasted nationally. The clarity, articulation and coherence of the members of the indigenous movement, especially Leonidas Iza, contrasted with the little capacity for proposal and negotiation of the president and his ministers.
The day after the agreement with the indigenous movement, the house of Pichincha province’s governor, Paola Pabón, was raided and she is in preventive prison since then, with no proper justification for that measure. It seems they are trying to strip her mandate, because if she doesn’t show up for work, she will be committing “dereliction of duty” and then she can be legally removed.
The president of CONAIE, the most important indigenous organization and its vice-president are both being prosecuted, accused of rebellion.
After the protests, the government could not approve the neoliberal measures it deemed necessary through a bill. Among other things, these measures were sought to eliminate taxes, erode tax administration, create fiscal shields, impose regressive taxes, reduce the Tax on the Exit of Foreign Currency (ISD), weaken the public telecommunications company (CNT) and, perhaps most importantly, "hand over" the dollarization to private banks. The National Assembly rejected the bill on 20 October, mostly because the right-wing parties’ electoral calculations and lack of agreement between fractions of the bourgeoisie on how to distribute among themselves the benefits from the proposed privatization of public banks, and control of Central Bank.
However, another urgent economic project was approved on December 9. It focused on tax reform, and also gives a 250 million dollar cut in the fees foreign telecommunications companies pay for using the national network. The government is still trying, by all possible means, to approve IMF measures.
As the country's economic situation worsens, the government and Moreno keep losing popularity. According to the last opinion polls he has the support of 15% of the population, a huge fall from the beginning of his term, when 77% were in his favor.
The imposition of new austerity measures will most likely make people take to streets again, but it is unclear if there would be enough strength to challenge the government decisively. Some think that the indigenous movement should have remained on the streets longer in order to achieve more from the government, or even its collapse. However, without clear political alliance of the Left forces, that wasn't possible. That is still the question. Can the left-wing sector of the indigenous movement and what’s left of correistas create an alliance in order to challenge Moreno’s administration and even won elections in 2021.
Pilar Troya Fernández is an Ecuadorian feminist activist and researcher. She works at Tricontinental: Institute of Social Research.