Left
Triumphs In Ecuadoran
Elections, Country’s Institutions
To Be Transformed
By Roger Burbach
01 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org
“We
have won an historic victory,” proclaimed President Rafael Correa
of Ecuador. On Sunday the political coalition he heads won an overwhelming
majority of the seats in the Constituent Assembly that is tasked with
“refounding” the nation’s institutions. Taking office
early this year in a land slide victory, Correa has repeatedly called
for an opening to a “new socialism of the twenty- first century,”
declaring that Ecuador has to end “the perverse system that has
destroyed our democracy, our economy and our society.” His government
marks the emergence of a radical anti-neoliberal axis in South America,
comprising Venezuela, Bolivia and now Ecuador.
“The Assembly elections are a devastating blow for the oligarchs
and the right wing political parties who have historically pulled the
strings on a corrupt state that includes Congress and the Supreme Court,”
says Alejandro Moreano, a sociologist and political analyst at the Andean
University Simon Bolivar in Quito. Even Michel Camdesseus, the former
director of the International Monetary Fund, once commented that Ecuador
is characterized “by an incestuous relation between bankers, political-financial
pressure groups and corrupt government officials.”
The victory in the Constituent Assembly is the result of years of agitation
and struggle by Ecuador’s indigenous and social movements along
with an unorganized, largely middle-class movement of people known as
the “forajidos,” an Ecuadoran term meaning outlaws or bandits
who rebel against the established system. In March when the Congress
and the right wing political parties tried to sabotage the elections
for the Assembly, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets
of Quito, blocking the entrances to Congress and backing the disbarment
of the Congressional members who wanted to suppress the elections.
The “Country Movement,” the popular political coalition
lead by Correa, will convene the Assembly at the end of October. Its
charge is to draft a new constitution that will break up the dysfunctional
state, establish a plurinational, participatory democracy, reclaim Ecuadoran
sovereignty, and use the state to create social and economic institutions
that benefit the people. One of its first acts will be to abolish the
existent Congress.
The Assembly will also facilitate an international realignment of Ecuador’s
international relations. The Correa government has already moved assertively
in its relations with the United States. María Fernanda Espinosa,
the dynamic Minister of Foreign Relations, declared that Ecuador intends
to close the U.S. military base located at Manta, the largest of its
kind on South America’s Pacific coast. “Ecuador is a sovereign
nation,” she said. “We do not need any foreign troops in
our country.” The treaty for the base expires in 2009 and will
not be renewed.
Thus far there have been no direct confrontations with the United States,
but the Pentagon has manifested its displeasure. Every year since 1959,
the US Southern Command, together with the Pacific coast nations of
South America, have undertaken joint naval exercises called Unitas.
This year they were to be hosted in Ecuador, but the United States opted
to conduct them in Colombia, its closest regional ally. Ecuador responded
by announcing it would not participate in this year’s exercises,
with Correa proclaiming, “It appears the Southern Command believes
we are a colony of the United States, that our navy is just one more
unit controlled by their country.”
Correa is also standing up to Occidental Petroleum, a U.S.-based corporation
whose Ecuadoran holdings were taken over by state-owned PetroEcuador
last year for selling off some of its assets to a Canadian company in
violation of its contract with the Ecuadoran state. With the takeover
of Occidental’s holdings, PetroEcuador now controls more than
half of the country’s petroleum exports, which themselves account
for about 40% of Ecuador’s total exports and one third of government
revenues. Correa has denounced Occidental’s “lobbying”
of the Bush administration to regain its holdings. “We are not
going to allow an arrogant, portentous transnational that doesn’t
respect Ecuadoran laws to harm our country,” he said.
At the same time, Ecuador is negotiating special bilateral trade and
economic agreements with presidents Chávez and Morales. Venezuela
has agreed to refine Ecuadoran oil and help fund social programs in
Ecuador, while the Bolivian government has concluded an agreement to
import foodstuffs from small- and medium-size producers in Ecuador.
Correa has also signed several petroleum accords with Venezuela, of
which the most important is a $4 billion project for a refinery backed
by PetroEcuador and the Venezuelan state petroleum company.
Alejandro Moreano of the Andean University worries that “that
all of the interests involved in the Country Movement may not back the
tough steps needed to end neo-liberalism and bring the banks and multinationals
under control. This will depend on the strength of popular mobilizations
as the Assembly undertakes its work.” For his part Correa has
repeatedly denounced the private banks in Ecuador for their exorbitant
profit-taking and high interest rates. And he has expelled Ecuador’s
World Bank representative for meddling in the country’s affairs
and has virtually terminated the country’s relations with the
International Monetary Fund.
There is already a steady drum beat by the indigenous and popular movements
to have the Constituent Assembly take over all multinational mining
interests. In early June, the local populace in the gold-mining southern
highland province of Azuay, backed by environmental and human rights
organizations, blockaded major highways, demanding the expropriation
of the mining companies, many of which are controlled by transnational
corporations that have polluted local rivers and aquifers. Alberto Acosta,
an internationally renowned anti-neoliberal economist who will be president
of the Constituent Assembly, met with the protesters. He told them the
mining concessions couldn’t be annulled outright. “This
is a task of the Constituent Assembly,” he said. “It can
establish a legal framework that will enable us to revise all the concessions.”
This month on October 22 a national mobilization will take place that
will call upon the Assembly to nationalize all foreign mining interests
in the country.
Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study
of the Americas (CENSA), based in Berkeley, California. He has written
widely on Latin America and U.S. policy and is currently working on
a book titled The New Fire in the Americas. For more information on
CENSA’s publications, projects, and activities, see http://globalalternatives.org/
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