Ecuador masses battle austerity program
By Carl Glenn
Marches, demonstrations, and other pro tests
rocked Ecuador Feb. 5. Organizations of workers, Indigenous
people, women and students came out in massive numbers to
reject government austerity policies.
Ecuador is a country of 10 million people,
slightly larger than Great Britain, on South America's Pacific
Coast.
"The crisis is the product of the application
of an economic model that has meant the impoverishment of the
people and a paralysis of national development," stated labor
leader Fausto Dután, referring to sacrifices made by the
Ecuadorian masses to U.S. banks. "The people have nothing left
to give up," he said.
A 35-percent rise in fuel and electricity
prices was the immediate cause of the protests. These price
increases followed close on last September's quadrupling of the
prices of basic goods and services when Ecuadorian President
Jamil Mahuad halted all government subsidies for fuel and
electricity. Reports that U.S. banks were planning to demand
other "austerity" and "free-market" measures sparked the calls
for a one-day national shutdown.
President Mahuad was in Washington while the
protests were taking place, meeting with bankers and U.S.
politicians and being honored, together with Peruvian President
Alberto Fujimori, by the Organization of American States,
headquartered in the U.S. capital.
In an effort to undercut the force of the
protests, Mahuad's government declared a national holiday to
coincide with the general work stoppage. Rather than dampen the
protests, it only seems to have reinforced them.
The date also marked the second anniversary
since former president Abdala Bucaram was forced from office by
massive street protests. Strike organizers set a Feb. 20
deadline for the government to come up with a plan that avoids
placing the heaviest burden on the poorest sectors of
society.
Among those protesting were teachers. On Feb.
4, 120,000 public school teachers struck throughout the country
demanding wage hikes approved by the legislature last year.
This strike is continuing in some parts of the country on an
indefinite basis.
Among the demands were calls for the government
to collect unpaid taxes and renegotiate the national debt.
There was also a call to expropriate the goods stolen by
corrupt former politicians--including Bucaram--now living
outside the country.
Antonio Vargas, president of the National
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, asked how
it was possible for a bank to have been given $750 million to
keep it solvent while an entire province is denied $4 million
to complete the construction of the only road that accesses the
region.
A statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in
Ecuador last June made it sound like the problem U.S.
imperialism has with Ecuador is a "failure to communicate":
"The U.S. is Ecuador's largest trading partner.... American oil
companies have been leading players in the development of
Ecuador's petroleum industry. Ecuador's economic reforms ...
receive strong support from the United States. However ... many
Ecuadorians do not understand why the country must repay its
foreign creditors or pay market-based prices for fuel and
utility services."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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