A look at the Ecuador & Panama presidential elections

Ecuador, with a population of more than 14 million, re-elected President Rafael Correa on April 26 and Panama, with 3 million, elected as president businessperson Ricardo Martinelli on May 3. Both these Latin American countries have “dollarized” economies, that is, they use the U.S. dollar as their official currency. The aspiration of both peoples, as well as those all over the world, is to have a better life. Will these elections help attain that goal?

Latin America’s progressive turn

The recent broad ascension into government of leftist or more progressive forces is a new political development in Latin America’s political history. Despite contradictions and diverse political ideologies that vary from mere reformist and social democratic to pro-socialist and revolutionary, these changes are a leap away from the pro-imperialist dictatorships that devastated the region in the past. This has awoken hope among all the peoples in the region, particularly those most excluded and exploited who want no return to that past.

One important consideration about this development is the way that the new government is established. Is winning the highest office in itself the ultimate goal? Will a victory simply mean managing the capitalist state? Or will it further involve the population and deepen the struggle for socialism, which in the end is the only way to attain real peace with social and economic justice?

A second consideration, the new president’s relationship with the United States, can help answer these questions. The White House and the Pentagon don’t see every Latin American country in the same light. Colombia, the closest U.S. ally and Venezuela, Washington’s “headache,” are the prime examples of these differences to keep in mind.

The degree of Washington’s interference, whether through the CIA, its associated organizations or the U.S. embassies in the various countries, can show U.S. hostility or friendliness to the current governments. Make no mistake, however. Washington will try to eliminate any progressive government that U.S. officials believe will undermine U.S. control and interests in any country in the region.

Compare the U.S.’s relatively warmer relations toward Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Panama, with its blatant hostility to Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela, where it actively helps organize the right-wing opposition to the current governments.

Ecuador elections bring a welcome relief for the masses

In Ecuador, where the Correa government expelled the first secretary and an attaché of the U.S. Embassy for interfering with Ecuadorian internal affairs, Correa was re-elected in a historic electoral victory. Before Correa took office in January 2007, corruption and disregard for the people had been the standards of Ecuador’s government, which had seven presidents in the 10 years from 1996 to 2006.

Mass struggle opened the door for President Correa to the highest office. He has made transparency and self-determination a key component of his administration. In what is called the Revolución Ciudadana (Citizen’s Revolution), the current process has made many changes on behalf of the poorest of its population, particularly the Indigenous.

When Correa first took office, he promised a new constitutional assembly to create a new path for the country. Constitutions alone are not a revolutionary solution, but they can be the basis for popular organizing and developing the necessary changes that raise consciousness that can then lead to a real people’s power. What Correa has in common with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is the involvement of the peoples. Correa writes, “It is not the task of one man or a government, but of all the people.” (www.rafaelcorrea.com)

Some 64 percent of Ecuador’s voters approved the new constitution in a September 2008 referendum. The document begins by stating that it has been created by “the heirs of the struggle for social liberation against every form of domination and colonialism.” The aim of this new constitution is to attain the “sumak kawsay,” Quechua words meaning “a good life.”

The constitution establishes a new economic concept of “social economy” that substitutes for “market economy” to achieve a more equal distribution of wealth. It guarantees universal access to education, health care, jobs, housing and other services. It prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases, therefore ending the U.S. contract to use its air base in Manta.

The constitution also establishes that no migrant is illegal and there is no death penalty. No discrimination is allowed on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, among other considerations. This new constitution established the current electoral process, even though Correa had been in office less than three years.

Panama, still needy 20 years after U.S. invasion

Voters in Panama went to the polls hoping to elect a president who would finally end corruption in government and bring about the transformation the country sorely needs. Panama’s unemployment rate is high and its income inequality the second greatest in all Latin America.

Martinelli, heading Cambio Democrático (Democratic Change), won with slightly more than 60 percent of the votes. He ran in an umbrella coalition, called Alianza para el Cambio (Alliance for Change). Some call Martinelli “a right-wing populist.”

Reminiscent of the successful Barack Obama campaign calling for “change,” Martinelli used electoral propaganda that resonated with the masses about bringing some relief to the many poor people and ending the corruption epitomized by the current PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party) president, Martín Torrijos, son of popular former military and political leader Omar Torrijos, who died in a suspicious plane explosion in 1981.

During the Martín Torrijos administration, Panama’s people saw neoliberal practices take hold in their country to the detriment of the poorest. Besides overseeing a growth in corruption, Omar Torrijos’ son signed a free trade agreement with the U.S. in 2006. His government adopted many other unpopular measures. Though Panama’s economy expanded, the majority’s quality of life rapidly deteriorated.

In spite of his popular-change propaganda and unlike Ecuador’s Correa, however, the new President Martinelli is closely allied to Washington, he embraces the anti-people Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., and he promised to decrease taxes for the rich. These policies promise no relief for the masses.

Progressive candidates for the presidency, one of whom was professor Juan Jované, were blocked in these elections by the corrupted institutions. In Jované’s case, the Panamanian Supreme Court of Justice had finally decided only three days before the elections that he could run. Though several progressive organizations backed his candidacy, the decision came too late for him to run an effective campaign.

A victorious 2005 month-long general strike of the people against Martín Torrijos’ attempt to “reform” the country’s social security program showed that Panama’s people will still struggle to win the better life they deserve. Time will show that only the organized people can win a better life for themselves and future generations.