Ecuador's
President Embraces Bolivarianism
By Stephen Lendman
22 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Hugo Chavez Frias gained an Ecuadoran
ally last November when voters rejected Washington's choice and the
country's richest man and elected Raphael Correa its President by an
impressive margin. Correa is a populist economist and self-styled "humanist,
leftist Christian" promising big changes for another Latin American
country long ruled by and for the elite and against the interests of
ordinary people Ecuador abounds in whose voices finally spoke and prevailed.
Correa took office January
15 in a country of 13 million, over 70% of whom live in poverty. They
voted for a man promising social democratic change and the same kinds
of benefits Venezuelans now have under Hugo Chavez they too now have
a chance to get. Correa is the country's 8th president in the last decade
including three previous ones driven from office by mass street protest
opposition against their misrule and public neglect.
Correa campaigned on a promise
of change including using the country's oil revenue for critically needed
social services Ecuadoreans never before had. He promised a "citizens'
revolution" and to be an "instrument of change" beginning
by drafting a new Constitution in a Constituent Assembly he hopes will
be authorized by popular referendum following the same pattern Hugo
Chavez chose in 1999 following his first election as Venezuela's President
in December, 1998.
Ecuador's majority right
wing Christian Democratic Union (UDC) party tried stopping him but overwhelming
popular support for it finally got enough members in it to go along.
The vote came February 13 and won out 54 - 1 with two abstentions in
the nation's single-seat legislature. Most opposition deputies walked
out before the vote when it was apparent they'd face defeat.
Following the vote, Ecuador's
Supreme Electoral Council (TSE) set April 15 for the referendum vote
that's virtually certain to pass as popular support for its purpose
runs around 77%. After passage, as expected, voters in June or July
will select 130 delegates to the Constituent Assembly that should begin
meeting in August or September. It then will have six to eight months
to write a new Constitution that would go before voters to be ratified,
and if it changes the Congress or presidency would require new elections
be held for legislators and the nation's highest office.
It things go as planned,
Ecuador is now poised to change its method of governance the same way
Venezuela did it eight years ago. Raphael Correa promised it, and he's
now moving ahead to give his people the same kind of 21st century socialism
Venezuelans now have and embrace. Ecuadoreans want it too and now have
their best chance ever to get it under a leader working for them just
as Chavez does for Venezuelans with overwhelming approval.
Correa is confident of success
and told his people on February 17 on his weekly radio program he'll
resign if his supporters don't win a majority of seats in the Constituent
Assembly. He said he'd rather go than "warm the bench and be just
another of the bunch of traitors and impostors we've had in the presidency...."
That's not likely as long-denied Ecuadoreans overwhelming support their
new President and the process of change he's now poised to deliver for
them the same way Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela that works.
It's one more step left in
Latin America but just a small one on a continent long under Washington's
ominous shadow watching events closely and not about to let its control
slip away without resisting. Any leader trying knows the threat, but
those willing to risk it are the ones to watch. Hopefully others in
the region and beyond will join them, and they have a courageous model
in Hugo Chavez who defied the odds and continues moving ahead boldly
after eight successful years. If Chavez can do it, why not others if
they'll try. The more who do, the stronger the process for real social
change becomes that with luck could be unstoppable. What a glorious
impossible dream, but even those kinds come true.
Correa intends a further
challenge to US hegemony by following through on another campaign promise
to close the major US military base at Manta when the 10 year treaty
authorizing it expires in 2009. Doing it won't make Pentagon top brass
happy as it's their largest base on South America's Pacific coast and
one costing many millions to build. It's certain they'll try getting
Correa to reconsider and won't go light on the pressure doing it. But
as of now Minister of Foreign Relations Maria Fernanda Espinosa stated
her country's position: "Equador is a sovereign nation, we do not
need foreign troops in our country (and they likely will have to go)."
Correa also plans a new relationship
with US-dominated international lending agencies following through on
his campaign to renegotiate the country's $16 billion foreign debt and
hasn't ruled out an Argentine-style default to free up revenue for vitally
needed social programs including 100,000 low-cost homes, raising the
minimum wage, and doubling the small "poverty bonus" 1.2 million
poor Ecuadorans get each month. For now, Correa opted to make a scheduled
$135 million debt payment to foreign bond holders while pursuing his
greater aim to renegotiate the whole debt and annul the odious part
of it resulting from previous governments' corrupt dealings it profited
from at the peoples' expense.
Correa is also negotiating
bilateral trade and other economic deals with Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's
Evo Morales based at least in part on Venezuela's Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas or ALBA model. It's the mirror-opposite of FTAA or
NAFTA-type one-way pacts sucking wealth from developing states agreeing
to them. Instead it's based on sound principles of complementarity,
solidarity and cooperation to achieve comprehensive integration among
Latin American nations agreeing to them and being willing to work together
toward developing their "social state" in contrast to US-type
deals being all for its corporate giants and the privileged.
These are the early bold
steps of a courageous new leader promising and now proceeding to follow
in the footsteps of the example Hugo Chavez set. He's off to a fast
start on a road sure to have promise and perils but with great potential
payoff for his people if he can persevere and succeed. He's showing
he intends to try.
Stephen Lendman lives
in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site
at sjlendman.blogspot.com and tune in each Saturday
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