State of emergency declared
Protests grow in Ecuador
By Andy
McInerney
Protests by Indigenous and popular forces across Ecuador
have once again thrown the pro-International Monetary Fund
ruling elite into a crisis. Unable to sell the austerity
measures it needs to win approval from U.S. and European
bankers, the regime of President Gustavo Noboa declared a state
of emergency on Feb. 2 to stifle mass protests.
The growing clashes between Indigenous peasants, workers and
students on one side and Noboa's riot police and military on
the other were provoked by a Dec. 28 announcement raising the
price of gasoline, heating oil and bus fares by 75 to 100
percent. The IMF is demanding these hikes as a condition for a
$2 billion loan.
Student-led demonstrations began days after the decree. But
as in past demonstrations, the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) played a decisive role in
spreading the protests across the 12-million-person Andean
nation.
CONAIE launched a wave of road blockades on Jan. 21--on the
first anniversary of the uprising that forced the previous
regime headed by Jamil Mahuad out of office. By Jan. 24, the
blockades came under attack by the Ecuadorian military. After
four Indigenous demonstrators were wounded by military fire,
the protests grew.
"We are not going to back down in front of the military or
the government," CONAIE leader Antonio Vargas told the French
News Agency. "And if we have to die fighting, we will die."
By Jan. 26, food shortages began to take hold in the major
cities as produce from the countryside was blocked.
On Jan. 28, CONAIE representatives and supporters began to
descend on Quito, the capital. "We call on all democratic
forces to join us and continue to protest until the government
repeals its fuel price hikes," Vargas said.
"We will not back down until the government rescinds
measures that are starving the Ecuadorian people."
Two days later, government troops again tried to crack down.
Police arrested Vargas and Luis Villacis, head of the Popular
Front coalition of unions, student and community groups. The
two were released on Feb. 2 after an international outcry.
Their release came the same day that Noboa declared a state
of emergency, prohibiting demonstrations and allowing police
searches at roadblocks and in activists' homes. Noboa warned of
groups trying to "disrupt the order in the Republic, alter the
legal system and illegitimately grasp the power of the
State."
By that time, up to 8,000 CONAIE supporters had made the
Salesian Polytechnic University in Quito their home base.
Ominous news reports of troops surrounding the campus
surfaced.
Fifty of the Indigenous activists declared a hunger strike
to protest the repression.
Client regimes lack social support
The situation in Ecuador is in many ways typical of the
crisis facing Latin America. Crushing poverty and unemployment
afflict millions. Inflation is skyrocketing--in Ecuador, prices
nearly doubled last year. Only 25 percent of Ecuadorians have
full-time jobs, according to a Jan. 3 Reuters report.
The local ruling classes, backed by U.S. imperialism,
continue to seek more profits from an already super-exploited
continent. Nearly 60 cents of every dollar that the Noboa
regime gains if its austerity measure goes through will go
directly to U.S. banks in the form of loan repayments.
The Noboa regime is the fifth in as many years in Ecuador.
Two presidencies have been toppled by mass protests. In January
2000, CONAIE in alliance with low-ranking military officers and
other popular forces briefly set up a people's government,
although it could not withstand the pressure of the U.S. and
the Ecuadorian military high command.
The main contradiction for the IMF bankers is that the
client regimes in Ecuador--and increasingly throughout Latin
America--cannot impose the bankers' dictates. Any move toward
austerity generates mass protest amid an increasingly fragile
system of exploitation.
Ecuador's workers and peasants have shown their
determination to resist the IMF program of mass austerity and
privatization. They have called a national mobilization of
strikes and protests on Feb. 7 to continue the campaign to turn
back Noboa's decrees.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page