[WSMDiscuss] (Fwd) Eric Toussaint on lessons from Rafael Correa's misrule: economic after 2011, extractivist and political
Patrick Bond
pbond at mail.ngo.za
Wed Apr 14 12:44:20 CEST 2021
("/The election of Lasso as president opens a new stage in the
implementation of policies that will be even more favourable to
Ecuadorian Big Capital, to foreign multinational corporations, to an
alliance among right-wing presidents in Latin America and to the pursuit
or indeed reinforcement of US domination on the continent. The election
outcome on 11 April 2021 is a dark signal for the popular side. In order
to understand why a significant part of of the popular side refused to
vote for Arauz to defeat Lasso, we have to examine the policies
implemented by Rafael Correa after he was reelected president in 2010...
Correa’s failure even to begin abandoning the extractivist-export model
was a fundamental flaw of his presidency. This model consists of a set
of policies aiming to extract from below ground or from the land’s
surface a maximum of primary goods (such as fossil fuels, minerals or
timber…)/")
https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno
Ecuador: From Rafael Correa to Guillermo Lasso via Lenin Moreno
14 April by *Eric Toussaint*
<https://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=19698>
On 11 April 2021, Guillermo Lasso (52,4%), the right-wing candidate,
defeated Andres Arauz, the candidate supported by Rafael Correa and part
of the Left, by 52.4% vs 47.6% in the second round of ballots for the
presidential election. Lasso was elected thanks to the division of the
Left, since a significant part of it, which has become deeply diffident
of Rafael Correa, called for a null vote. Votes on the popular side,
that represented a clear majority in the first round of February 2021,
were divided, which made it possible for a former banker to be elected
president. The situation is serious for an opportunity to break away
from Lenin Moreno’s brutal neoliberal policies has been lost. Former
banker Lasso, though critical of Lenin Moreno’s positions out of sheer
electoral calculation, will continue in the same harmful direction: a
deepening of neoliberal policies, submission to the private interests of
Big Capital, particularly of Ecuador’s powerful banking sector and of
the import-export industry, and submission to the United States. How can
we explain that a significant part of popular votes did not go to Andres
Arauz to prevent Guillermo Lasso from getting elected? It can be
accounted for by the rejection prompted by Rafael Correa’s policies,
particularly after 2011, among part of the Left, notably with the
CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador.
Contents
* Reminder of policies implemented by Correa from 2007 to 2010
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#reminder_of_policies_implemented_by_correa_from_2007_to_2010>
* Rafael Correa’s U-turn from 2011
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#rafael_correa_s_u_turn_from_2011>
* The Yasuní-ITT Initiative abandoned in 2013
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#the_yasuni_itt_initiative_abandoned_in_2013>
* Rafael Correa and the social movements: A conflictual relationship
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#rafael_correa_and_the_social_movements_a_conflictual_relationship>
* Conclusion on Rafael Correa’s presidency
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#conclusion_on_rafael_correa_s_presidency>
* Lenin Moreno or the return to neoliberal policies and to submission
to US interests
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#lenin_moreno_or_the_return_to_neoliberal_policies_and_to_submission_to_us_interests>
* The programme of Guillermo Lasso, elected president in Ecuador on 11
April 2021 and the new (...)
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#the_programme_of_guillermo_lasso_elected_president_in_ecuador_on_11_april_2021_and_the_new_stage>
* Ecuador’s future with Guillermo Lasso as president
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#ecuador_s_future_with_guillermo_lasso_as_president>
* Final considerations on the election on 11 April 2021
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#final_considerations_on_the_election_on_11_april_2021>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The election of Lasso as president opens a new stage in the
implementation of policies that will be even more favourable to
Ecuadorian Big Capital, to foreign multinational corporations, to an
alliance among right-wing presidents in Latin America and to the pursuit
or indeed reinforcement of US domination on the continent"
Lasso’s victory was anything but predictable for, in the general
elections, the two leading political forces were on one hand the
political movement supported by Rafael Correa with 42 representatives
and on the other Pachakutik, the political extension of the CONAIE with
27 elected members, which was the best parliamentary result ever for the
indigenous movement. In the presidential election, the outcome of the
first round was clearly in favour of the popular side; indeed, if you
added votes for Andres Arauz (a little more than 32%) and those for Yaku
Perez (just under 19%) you had a majority, to which could be added part
of the votes for a candidate that came fourth under the social-democrat
label and had gathered close to 14%. Former banker Lasso came second
with 19% but only a very short edge on Yaku Perez, the Pachakutik
candidate in February 2021, and 13% less than Andres Arauz. Yaku Perez
and the CONAIE first complained about what they called a massive
electoral fraud. Then a couple of days after the first round Yaku Perez
passed an agreement for mutual support with Guillermo Lasso, an
agreement that was soon cancelled by Lasso. Next the CONAIE and other
left-wng forces called for a null vote in the second round and refused
to vote for Andres Arauz to beat Guillermo Lasso. The CONAIE and
Pachakutik were divided on this issue for a right-wing section of
Pachakutik called for a vote for Lasso while the president of the
CONAIE, Jaime Vargas, had called to vote for Andres Arauz with the
support of a majority of indigenous organizations in the Amazonian part
of Ecuador. In spite of discordant voices announcing that they would
vote for Lasso or for Arauz, the CONAIE confirmed its call for a null
vote, which eventually amounted to 16.3% on election day.
The election of Lasso as president opens a new stage in the
implementation of policies that will be even more favourable to
Ecuadorian Big Capital, to foreign multinational corporations, to an
alliance among right-wing presidents in Latin America and to the pursuit
or indeed reinforcement of US domination on the continent. The election
outcome on 11 April 2021 is a dark signal for the popular side. In order
to understand why a significant part of of the popular side refused to
vote for Arauz to defeat Lasso, we have to examine the policies
implemented by Rafael Correa after he was reelected president in 2010.
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Reminder
of policies implemented by Correa from 2007 to 2010
As detailed in several former articles
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-s-poisoned-loans-from-the-World-Bank-and-the-IMF>,
from 2007 to 2010, Ecuador’s government led the way in making the
sovereign decision of auditing its public debt to identify illegitimate
debts and suspend repayment. The suspension of payment of a large part
of its commercial debt, followed by its undervalue repurchase, shows
that the government was not content with merely expressing outrage. In
2009 it unilaterally restructured part of its external debt and won a
victory against private creditors, mainly US banks and investment funds
<https://www.cadtm.org/Investment-funds>. In 2007, at the outset of
Correa’s presidency, Ecuador’s government came into conflict with the
World Bank <https://www.cadtm.org/World-Bank-WB> and expelled its
permanent representative. Moreover, from 2007 to 2010, under Correa’s
presidency, a number of important positive policies were initiated: a
new constitution was democratically adopted, announcing significant
changes which, however, never really materialized; Ecuador put an end to
the US military base of Manta on the Pacific coast; Ecuador attempted to
set up a Bank of the South
<https://www.cadtm.org/The-alternative-would-be-a-Bank-of> with
Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay; Ecuador
left the WB tribunal.
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Rafael
Correa’s U-turn from 2011
2011 marks a U-turn in the policies of the Ecuadorian government on
several fronts, whether social, environmental, commercial or concerning
debt. The conflicts between the government and a number of significant
social movements such as the CONAIE on the one hand, teachers’ unions
and the student movement on the other, deteriorated. Rafael Correa and
his government went ahead with trade negotiations with the EU, making
more and more concessions. As for debt, from 2014, Ecuador gradually
began to have recourse to international finance markets, not to mention
the debts contracted with China. On the environmental front, in 2013
Correa’s government abandoned the commitment not to extract oil in a
very sensitive part of the Amazon. Correa also condoned patriarchal and
reactionary positions on the issue of depenalizing abortion and on the
LGBTQI+.
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>The
Yasuní-ITT Initiative abandoned in 2013
The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was presented in June 2007 by Rafael Correa.
It consisted of leaving underground 20 % of the country’s oil reserves
(about 850 million barrels of oil), situated in a region of outstanding
biodiversity, Yasuní National Park, in the North-West of the Ecuadorian
Amazon. [1
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb1>]
As Matthieu Le Quang explains, “To compensate for the financial losses
of non-exploitation, the State of Ecuador asked the countries of the
North to make an international financial contribution equivalent to half
of what the country would have earned from exploitation (3.6 billion
dollars, based on the price of oil in 2007). This was an extremely
ambitious policy, particularly the goal of changing the energy matrix of
a country which, although exploiting and exporting crude oil,
nevertheless remained an importer of its derivatives
<https://www.cadtm.org/Derivatives> and dependant on them to generate
its electricity.” [2
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb2>]
Matthieu Le Quang goes on, “A very strong decision made by the
Ecuadorian government was to have registered the Yasuní-ITT Initiative
in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), that
is, to have placed the emphasis on the non-emission of greenhouse gases
that would result from non-exploitation of oil.” In August 2013, Rafael
Correa, who had been re-elected for a third presidential mandate in
February with over 57 % of votes in the first ballot, announced the end
of this project. He justified his decision by the very real lack of
commitment from the various countries supposed to finance the
non-exploitation of oil in Yasuni-ITT.
"Rafael Correa’s failure even to begin abandoning the
extractivist-export model was a fundamental flaw of his presidency"
Rafael Correa’s failure even to begin abandoning the extractivist-export
model was a fundamental flaw of his presidency. This model consists of a
set of policies aiming to extract from below ground or from the land’s
surface a maximum of primary goods (such as fossil fuels, minerals or
timber…) or to produce a maximum of agricultural produce intended for
foreign market consumption, in order to export them on the global
market. In the case of Ecuador this means bananas, sugar, African palm,
flowers, broccoli. [3
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb3>]
To these should be added the export of farmed prawns and tuna fished on
an industrial scale. This model has numerous harmful effects:
environmental destruction (open-air mines, deforestation, contamination
of running water, salinization/ depletion/ poisoning/ erosion of soils,
reduction of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.); destruction
of the natural habitat and way of life of entire populations (first
peoples and others); depletion of unsustainable natural resources;
dependency on global markets (stock-markets for raw materials and
agricultural commodities <https://www.cadtm.org/Commodities,1154>) where
the prices of export products are determined; salaries kept low to
remain competitive; dependency on technologies owned by the highly
industrialized countries; dependency for inputs (pesticides, herbicides,
seeds whether transgenic or not, chemical fertilizers…) produced by
major transnational companies (mostly from highly industrialized
countries); dependency on international financial and economic conditions.
François Houtart (1925-2017), who had studied the process unfurling in
Ecuador closely and supported Rafael Correa’s policies, did not hesitate
to express criticism and make it known to the government. Shortly before
he died, he wrote the following about the agricultural policies: “These
are also short-term policies. They do not take account of natural
changes and their long-term effects, of food sovereignty, workers’
rights, or the origins of rural poverty. They emphasize an agro-export
model presented as an objective without mentioning the consequences.” He
further stated: “As authors, we asked ourselves in our report whether it
was possible to build 21^st century socialism from19^th century
capitalism. (…) Once again as throughout history, it is the rural world
and its labourers that pay the price of modernization. It was the case
for European capitalism in the 19^th century, for the Soviet Union in
the 1920s, and for China after the Communist revolution.” [4
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb4>]
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Rafael
Correa and the social movements: A conflictual relationship
Rafael Correa’s government had great difficulty in taking on board the
contributions of a certain number of front line social organizations.
Rafael Correa’s tendency and the orientation of his political movement
/Alianza PAIS/ (“for a proud and sovereign country”, in Spanish), most
often consisted of side-stepping or ignoring the biggest of the
indigenous organizations, the CONAIE, the biggest teachers’ union (the
National Union of Educators, or UNE), the union of Petroecuador (the
national oil company) and a good many other social organizations. All
these organizations underwent regular attacks from the executive
authority that accused them of mobilizing for corporatist reasons with
the aim of defending privileges. Moreover, Rafael Correa did not act
upon the historical claim, mainly carried by the CONAIE, for integration
of the indigenous component of society in the decision-making process on
all the major issues relating to the government’s orientations. For its
part CONAIE, fighting for the general principles of the Constitution to
be transcribed in law, [5
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb5>]
did not hesitate to confront Rafael Correa. On several occasions, the
government tried to push measures through without entering into any
dialogue with the organizations of the social sectors concerned. This
approach is not unlike that adopted by the Lula government in Brazil,
when the latter undertook a neoliberal-style reform of the pension
system in 2003 (just when, in France, the right-wing government led by
Jean-Pierre Raffarin was putting a similar reform in place). Lula
conducted his campaign for pension reform by attacking the rights of
civil service workers, labelling them as privileges.
"Among the most serious disputes opposing the executive power to
Ecuador’s social organizations were, on the one hand, the draft bill on
water, and on the other, Rafael Correa’s policy of opening the economy
to private foreign investment in the mining and oil industries"
Among the most serious disputes opposing the executive power to
Ecuador’s social organizations were, on the one hand, the draft bill on
water, and on the other, Rafael Correa’s policy of opening the economy
to private foreign investment in the mining and oil industries. [6
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb6>]
At a special meeting held on 8 and 9 September 2009 in Quito, the CONAIE
did not spare the Correa government’s policies that it stigmatized as
neoliberal and capitalist. [7
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb7>]
The CONAIE /“demand[ed] of the State and the government that they
nationalize the country’s natural resources and instigate an audit of
concessions in the domains of oil, mining, aquifers, hydraulics,
telephone, radiophone, television and environmental services, external
debt, tax collection and the resources of the social security” and also
“the suspension of all concessions (extractive, oil, forestry, aquifer,
hydro-electric and those linked to biodiversity)”/. [8
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb8>]
After 30 September 2009, the CONAIE took action, organizing rallies,
blocking roads and bridges against a draft bill on water. President
Correa reacted against these anti-government mobilizations first by
refusing any kind of negotiation, then by casting suspicion on the
indigenous movement by claiming that Right-wing forces were at the heart
of it, especially former president Lucio Gutiérrez. But finally the
CONAIE obtained public negotiations at the highest level. Thus 130
indigenous delegates were received at the seat of the government by
President Correa and several ministers, and they finally managed to get
the government to back down on several points, notably the instigation
of a permanent dialogue between the CONAIE and the Executive, with
amendments on the draft bills on water and the extractive industries.
Another social conflict also broke out against the government with the
mobilization of teachers, under the aegis of the main union of the
profession, the UNE, in which the MPD [9
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb9>]
party is extremely influential. There too, the conflict finally led to
dialogue. In November and December 2009 a third social front emerged
with the protest movement in universities against a draft reform which
aimed in particular to reduce the autonomy of universities, something
that is considered in Latin America to be an irreversible element of
social progress and a guarantee of independence regarding political
authorities.
All in all, Rafael Correa’s government soon showed serious limitations
when it came to defining policies involving the point of view of the
social movements without the latter having to make their point through a
power struggle. In 2010 and 2014, there was major social mobilization
against the Correa government’s policies. The list of demands upheld by
organizations which, led by CONAIE, called for people to join the
struggle in June 2014 speaks volumes about the government’s orientation:
resistance against mining and oil extraction, against the
criminalization of social protest, against the new Labour legislation;
demands for a different policy for energy and water; for the rights of
indigenous communities and especially the refusal of ethnic community
school closures; [10
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb10>]
rejection of the Constitutional reform which would enable unlimited
electoral mandates; rejection of the free-trade agreement to be signed
with the European Union.
In December 2014 Rafael Correa wanted to expel the CONAIE from its
premises which incited the CADTM, like numerous other organizations,
both Ecuadorian and foreign, to insist that the government renounce this
decision. [11
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb11>]
The government backed down. At the end of 2017, Rafael Correa’s
government wanted to withdraw legal personality from a left-wing
ecological organization called Acción Ecológica. Again, it took a wave
of national and international protest to get the authorities to finally
give up this infringement of liberties. [12
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb12>]
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Conclusion
on Rafael Correa’s presidency
From the beginning of his first mandate, Rafael Correa took care to
include both ministers from the left and ministers with more or less
direct links to different sectors of the traditional Ecuadorian
capitalist class in composing his government, which led to constant
arbitration. As time passed, Correa made more and more concessions to
big capital, both on the national and the international level.
"Despite a discourse in favour of changing the productive model and of
21^st century socialism, Correa, in ten years of 21^st century
presidency, did not initiate profound modification of the country’s
economic structure, of property relations or of relations between social
classes"
Despite a discourse in favour of changing the productive model and of
21^st century socialism, Correa, in ten years of 21^st century
presidency, did not initiate profound modification of the country’s
economic structure, of property relations or of relations between social
classes. Alberto Acosta, formerly minister of energy in 2007, president
of the Constituent Assembly in 2008 and an opponent of Rafael Correa’s
since 2010, wrote with his colleague John Cajas Guijarro: “the absence
of structural transformation means that Ecuador remains a capitalist
economy tied to exporting raw materials and therefore tied to long-term
cyclical behaviour dependent on the demands of the transnational
accumulation of capital. This long-term cyclic behaviour is due to the
contradictions inherent in capitalism, but is also strongly influenced
by dependency on massive exportation of barely transformed raw materials
(extractivism). In other words, capitalist exploitation – of both labour
and nature— following international demands, keeps Ecuador ’chained’ to
a succession of ups and downs which originate as much within the country
as abroad.” [13
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb13>]
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Lenin
Moreno or the return to neoliberal policies and to submission to
US interests
In 2017, at the end of Rafael Correa’s presidential mandate and just
when he was succeeded by President Lenin Moreno (the candidate Correa
had supported), the country’s debt surpassed the level attained 10 years
earlier. Rapidly Lenin Moreno turned once more to the IMF
<https://www.cadtm.org/IMF-International-Monetary-Fund,1114>. That led
to massive popular protests in September-October 2019 which obliged the
government to capitulate to the people’s organizations and abandon the
decree which had triggered the revolt.
We should remember that Correa’s government offered asylum to Julian
Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from June 2012 onward.
Correa resisted pressure from the UK and the US, demanding that Assange
be delivered to them. Lenin Moreno, who succeeded Rafael Correa in 2017,
disgraced himself by handing Assange over to the British justice system
in April 2019 and by withdrawing the Ecuadorian citizenship that
Correa’s government had granted him in 2017. [14
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb14>]
"In 2019, Lenin Moreno acknowledged Juan Guaido as president of
Venezuela whereas the latter was calling for a US armed intervention to
overturn the government of the elected president Nicola Maduro"
In 2019, Lenin Moreno acknowledged Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela
whereas the latter was calling for a US armed intervention to overturn
the government of the elected president Nicola Maduro.
En 2020, Lenin Moreno signed another humiliating agreement with the IMF
and in 2021 he tried to have a bill voted that would make the Central
Bank <https://www.cadtm.org/Central-Bank> completely independent of the
government and thus even more closely subjected to the interests of
private banks.
His popularity faded to nothing: in the last polls, Lenin Moreno had a
mere 4.8% approval rating. Candidates supported by Moreno at the general
elections and in the first round of the presidential election in
February 2021 did not get more than 3% of the votes.
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>The
programme of Guillermo Lasso, elected president in Ecuador on 11
April 2021 and the new stage
When Rafael Correa became president of Ecuador in 2007, it was thanks to
the social mobilizations that punctuated the years from 1990 until 2005.
Without them, his proposals would never have received the attention they
got and he would not have been elected. Unfortunately, after a very good
start, he clashed with a significant part of the social movements and
opted for modernization of extractivist-export capitalism. Then his
successor, Lenin Moreno, broke away from Rafael Correa’s policies and
went back to brutal neoliberalism.
"It is fundamental for the future of the popular camp to radically and
actively oppose the government that Lasso will form"
This hard-line neoliberal policy will be further developed by Guillermo
Lasso. He has clearly announced that he wants to lower taxes on
companies, to attract foreign investment, to give even more freedom to
bankers, to consolidate the policy of free trade by joining the Pacific
Alliance. It is likely that Guillermo Lasso will try to somehow
integrate leaders linked to Pachakutik and the CONAIE into his
government or administration. If this succeeds, the CONAIE and
Pachakutik will emerge even more divided than they were on the eve of
the run-off elections. It is fundamental for the future of the popular
camp to radically and actively oppose the government that Lasso will form.
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Ecuador’s
future with Guillermo Lasso as president
Once again, only social mobilization will end these policies and bring
back the measures of anti-capitalist structural change indispensable for
emancipation. In 2019 the CONAIE and a whole range of trade union
organizations, feminist associations and ecologist collectives drew up
an excellent alternative proposal to capitalist, patriarchal and
neoliberal policies: this should constitute the basis of a vast
government programme. [15
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb15>]
The issue of rejecting the policies of the IMF, the World Bank and
illegitimate debt will be back at the heart of the social and political
battles. [16
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb16>]
In a document made public in July 2020 by more than 180 Ecuadorian
people’s organizations can be found the following demand: “suspension of
payment of external debt and an audit to be carried out on external debt
accumulated between 2014 and the present, as well as citizen controls of
how the debts contracted were utilized.” [17
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nb17>]
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#outil_sommaire>Final
considerations on the election on 11 April 2021
With 98.84% of votes counted,
* Arauz got 47.59%, which corresponds to 4,100,283 votes.
* Lasso got 52.4%, which corresponds to 4,533,275 votes.
* Null votes: 16.33%, which corresponds to 1,715,279 votes.
* Total of voters: 10,501,517 voters.
* Absenteeism: 2,193,896 people.
Null votes reached 9.5% in the first round; the null vote increased by
6.83% between the first and second rounds; in terms of votes this yields:
* Null votes February 2021: 1,013,395 votes.
* Null votes April 2021: 1,715,279 votes.
* Difference: +701,884 votes.
All in all, a large part of this difference can be traced to the
campaign led by Pachakutik, the Conaie, social movements and left-wing
organizations that did not support Correa’s candidate. This means that
less than half of their voters chose a null vote; remember that Yaku
Pérez had got 19.39% in the first round, i.e. 1,798,057 votes. Assuming
that a majority among those voters follow Pachakutik, this means that
39% of its voters opted for a null vote. As it is likely that other
sectors opted for an null vote, it is a fair assumption that the null
votes related to Pachakutik be around 30% of its voters. In other words,
one Pachakutik voter out of three opted for a null vote, probably the
most reliable and determined Pachakutik voters.
Unfortunately the remaining 70% mostly went to Lasso, probably in
rejection of Correa’s heritage in terms of a history of aggression
against the popular movement; but this still means a right-wing vote,
thus reneging their votes in the first round.
This also shows how fragile a vote for an alternative away from
polarization between Correism and traditional Right is.
It further shows that if the CONAIE, Pachakutik and other left-wing
organizations had called to vote against Lasso or for Arauz, it was
perfectly possible to defeat Lasso and put pressure on Arauz for him to
take into account the demands formulated both in the CONAIE text of
October 2019 and in the proposal by the parliament of the peoples of
July 2020. Those are excellent statements that are further left than the
content of Yaku Perez’ electoral campaign for the first round or Andres
Arauz’ programme.
To find out more about Ecuador over the last 20 years see
* Ecuador’s poisoned loans from the World Bank and the IMF:
https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-s-poisoned-loans-from-the-World-Bank-and-the-IMF
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-s-poisoned-loans-from-the-World-Bank-and-the-IMF>
* Équateur : Les résistances aux politiques voulues par la Banque
mondiale, le FMI et les autres créanciers entre 2007 et 2011 (in
English soon…):
https://www.cadtm.org/Equateur-Les-resistances-aux-politiques-voulues-par-la-Banque-mondiale-le-FMI
<https://www.cadtm.org/Equateur-Les-resistances-aux-politiques-voulues-par-la-Banque-mondiale-le-FMI>
- In defence of the rights of indigenous and peasant communities against
Chevron: Open letter to the President of Ecuador:
https://www.cadtm.org/In-defence-of-the-rights-of-indigenous-and-peasant-communities-against-Chevron
<https://www.cadtm.org/In-defence-of-the-rights-of-indigenous-and-peasant-communities-against-Chevron>
- We denounce the renegotiation of the debt by Lenín Moreno’s
government:
https://www.cadtm.org/We-denounce-the-renegotiation-of-the-debt-by-Lenin-Moreno-s-government
<https://www.cadtm.org/We-denounce-the-renegotiation-of-the-debt-by-Lenin-Moreno-s-government>
/
Translated from the French by Snake Arbusto, Vicki Briault and Christine
Pagnoulle (CADTM)/
Footnotes
[1
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh1>]
For a presentation of the project in 2009, see Alberto Acosta
interviewed by Matthieu Le Quang “Le projet ITT: laisser le pétrole en
terre ou le chemin vers un autre modèle de développement” (The ITT
Project: leave the oil in the ground or the path towards another model
of development) published 18 September 2009,
http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=4757
<http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=4757> (in
Spanish and French).
[2
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh2>]
Matthieu Le Quang interviewed by Violaine Delteil, “Entre buen vivir et
néo-extractivisme : les quadratures de la politique économique
équatorienne” (Between good living and neo-extractivism: how Ecuador’s
economic policy squares up) in /Revue de la Régulation/, Semester 1,
2019, https://journals.openedition.org/regulation/15076
<https://journals.openedition.org/regulation/15076> [accessed 30
December 2020] (French only).
[3
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh3>]
Regarding broccoli production in Ecuador, François Houtart wrote:
“Mention should be made of the 2013 study on broccoli production in the
Pujilí region, in the province of Cotopaxi. 97 % of broccoli production
is exported mainly towards countries capable of producing their own
broccoli (the United States, EU, Japan), for reasons of comparative
advantages (low salaries, less demanding environmental laws, etc.). The
production company monopolizes water resources, leaving insufficient
water for the needs of the neighbouring communities. They also ‘bombard’
rainclouds to deflect showers from the broccoli fields to the
surrounding area. Chemical products are used within the legal limit of
200m of human habitations. Polluted water runs into the rivers. Workers’
health is affected (skin, lungs, cancer). Contracts are drawn up partly
on a weekly basis, with a foreman who gets 10% of the workers’ salaries.
Overtime is often not paid. The company that transforms the broccoli for
export works 24 hours round the clock, in three shifts. Workers are
often obliged to work on two successive shifts. Trade unions are
prohibited. Moreover, of the two firms, which have now merged, one had
its capital in Panama and the other in the Dutch Antilles.”
https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la> (in Spanish only)
[4
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh4>]
The original text in Spanish: “Estas políticas son también a corto
plazo. No tienen en cuenta los cambios naturales y sus efectos a largo
plazo, la soberanía alimentaria, los derechos de los trabajadores, el
origen de la pobreza rural. Se acentúa un modelo agro-exportador
presentado como una meta, sin indicar las consecuencias.” “Como autores,
nos hemos preguntado en nuestro informe, si era posible construir el
socialismo del siglo XXI con el capitalismo del siglo XIX ¿(…) Una vez
más en la historia, es el campo y sus trabajadores los que pagan el
precio de la modernización. Fue el caso del capitalismo europeo en el
siglo XIX, de la Unión Soviética en los años 20 del siglo XX, de China,
después de la Revolución comunista.”
https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la>
[5
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh5>]
See Floresmillo Simbana /“Movimiento indígena y la revolución ciudadana”/:
https://www.cadtm.org/Movimiento-indigena-y-la
<https://www.cadtm.org/Movimiento-indigena-y-la>
[6
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh6>]
Ecuador’s economy is based mainly on oil revenues. It is important to
bear in mind that in 2008, oil represented 22.2% of GDP, 63.1% of
exports and 46.6% of the State’s general budget.
[7
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh7>]
Asamblea Extraordinaria de la CONAIE: Resoluciones de Nacionalidades y
Pueblos, “Declarar al gobierno de Rafael Correa como gobierno neoliberal
y capitalista por sus acciones y actitudes”, accessible at:
https://kaosenlared.net/resoluciones-de-los-pueblos-y-nacionalidades-del-ecuador/
<https://kaosenlared.net/resoluciones-de-los-pueblos-y-nacionalidades-del-ecuador/>
(in Spanish).
[8
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh8>]
Ibid.
[9
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh9>]
MPD: Popular Democratic Movement, the electoral arm of the
Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) Communist Party of Ecuador.
[10
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh10>]
Concerning the Correa government’s intention to close the community
schools, François Houtart wrote in 2017: “the plan to close 18 000
community schools (known as ’poverty schools’) in favour of ’millennium
schools’ (early 2017: 71 were built, 52 under construction and by the
end of 2017, 200 were functioning) highlights the problems. No doubt
these millennium schools are well-equipped, with competent teachers, but
they belong to a philosophy which breaks away from traditional life,
opening up to a modernity which is now called into question because of
its social and environmental consequences. Nor do they easily fulfil the
constitutional right to a bilingual education. Furthermore, in several
cases, the transport system has not been adequate to needs and obliges
students to walk for hours on badly maintained paths, which also results
in high rates of absenteeism.”
https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-Un-factor-de-control-de-la>
[11
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh11>]
See Letter from the CADTM Ayna to Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador,
published 27 December 2014
https://www.cadtm.org/Lettre-du-CADTM-Ayna-a-Rafael
<https://www.cadtm.org/Lettre-du-CADTM-Ayna-a-Rafael>
[12
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh12>]
See in Spanish “Acción Ecológica, ¡ GRACIAS !”, published 17 January
2017, https://www.cadtm.org/GRACIAS <https://www.cadtm.org/GRACIAS>
[13
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh13>]
Alberto Acosta, John Cajas Guijarro, /Una década desperdiciada Las
sombras del correísmo,/ Centro Andino de Acción Popular Quito, 2018.
The original quote in Spanish: “la falta de una transformación
estructural provoca que el Ecuador se mantenga como una economía
capitalista atada a la exportación de materias primas y, por lo tanto,
amarrada a un comportamiento /cíclico/ de larga duración vinculado a las
demandas de acumulación del capital transnacional. Tal comportamiento
cíclico de larga historia es originado por las contradicciones propias
del capitalismo pero; a su vez, es altamente influenciado por la
dependencia en la exportación masiva de productos primarios casi sin
procesar (extractivismo). Es decir, la explotación capitalista –tanto de
la fuerza de trabajo como de la Naturaleza– en función de las demandas
internacionales, mantiene al Ecuador ’encadena do’ a un vaivén de
animaciones y crisis económicas que se originan tanto interna como
externamente.”
[14
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh14>]
CADTM AYNA, “Ensemble avec le peuple équatorien”, published 15 October
2019,
https://www.cadtm.org/Ensemble-avec-le-peuple-equatorien
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ensemble-avec-le-peuple-equatorien> (in French
and Spanish). See also the collective work: Franklin Ramírez Gallegos
(Ed.), /Octubre y el derecho a la resistencia. Revuelta popular y
neoliberalismo autoritario en Ecuador/, Buenos Aires, CLACSO. It can be
downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-latinoamericana/buscar_libro_detalle.php?campo=titulo&texto=derecho&id_libro=2056
<http://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-latinoamericana/buscar_libro_detalle.php?campo=titulo&texto=derecho&id_libro=2056>
[15
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh15>]
CONAIE, Entrega de propuesta alternativa al modelo económico y social,
31 October 2019,
https://conaie.org/2019/10/31/propuesta-para-un-nuevo-modelo-economico-y-social/
<https://conaie.org/2019/10/31/propuesta-para-un-nuevo-modelo-economico-y-social/>
[16
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh16>]
Collective statement signed by Éric Toussaint, Maria Lucia Fattorelli,
Alejandro Olmos Gaona, Hugo Arias Palacios, Piedad Mancero, Ricardo
Patiño, Ricardo Ulcuango “We denounce the renegotiation of the debt by
Lenín Moreno’s government”, published 1^st August 2020,
https://www.cadtm.org/We-denounce-the-renegotiation-of-the-debt-by-Lenin-Moreno-s-government
<https://www.cadtm.org/We-denounce-the-renegotiation-of-the-debt-by-Lenin-Moreno-s-government>
[17
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-From-Rafael-Correa-to-Guillermo-Lasso-via-Lenin-Moreno#nh17>]
See PROPUESTA-PARLAMENTO-DE-LOS-PUEBLOS.pdf published in July 2020
https://rebelion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PROPUESTA-PARLAMENTO-DE-LOS-PUEBLOS.pdf
<https://rebelion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PROPUESTA-PARLAMENTO-DE-LOS-PUEBLOS.pdf>
Author
<https://www.cadtm.org/Eric-Toussaint?lang=en>
Eric Toussaint <https://www.cadtm.org/Eric-Toussaint?lang=en>
is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the
universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM
International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France.
He is the author of /Debt System/ (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019),
/Bankocracy/ <https://www.cadtm.org/Bankocracy> (2015); /The Life and
Crimes of an Exemplary Man/
<https://www.cadtm.org/The-Life-and-Crimes-of-an-Exemplary-Man> (2014);
/Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to
the Present/, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012 (see here
<https://www.cadtm.org/Glance-in-the-Rear-View-Mirror>), etc.
See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint>
He co-authored /World debt figures 2015/ with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel
Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet /Debt, the
IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers/
<https://www.cadtm.org/Debt-the-IMF-and-the-World-Bank>, Monthly Review
Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek
Truth Commission on Public Debt
<https://www.cadtm.org/4-April-2015-a-landmark-in-the> from April 2015
to November 2015.
Other articles in English by Eric Toussaint (554)
*
Series: 1944-2021, 77 years of interference from the World Bank and
the IMF (Part 28)
The World Bank did not Foresee the Arab Spring Popular Uprisings and
still Promotes the very same Policies that triggered them
<https://www.cadtm.org/The-World-Bank-did-not-Foresee-the-Arab-Spring-Popular-Uprisings-and-still>
12 April, by Eric Toussaint
* Rwanda: A look back at the 1994 genocide
<https://www.cadtm.org/Rwanda-A-look-back-at-the-1994-genocide>
6 April, by Eric Toussaint
*
Série : Ecuador: Progress and limits of resistance to the policies
of the World Bank, the IMF and other creditors
Ecuador’s poisoned loans from the World Bank and the IMF
<https://www.cadtm.org/Ecuador-s-poisoned-loans-from-the-World-Bank-and-the-IMF>
31 March, by Eric Toussaint
* The Paris Commune of 1871, banks and debt
<https://www.cadtm.org/The-Paris-Commune-of-1871-banks-and-debt>
18 March, by Eric Toussaint
* India: Proposals against new attempts to privatise state-owned banks
<https://www.cadtm.org/India-Proposals-against-new-attempts-to-privatise-state-owned-banks>
11 March, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar
* Thomas Piketty and Karl Marx: Two totally different visions of
Capital
<https://www.cadtm.org/Thomas-Piketty-and-Karl-Marx-Two-totally-different-visions-of-Capital>
9 March, by Eric Toussaint
* India: from loans to credit since 4000 years and the existence banks
for 2500 years
<https://www.cadtm.org/India-from-loans-to-credit-since-4000-years-and-the-existence-banks-for-2500>
24 February, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar
*
Version 2.0: A new debt trap from the South to the North
The external debt of Developing Countries: a Timebomb
<https://www.cadtm.org/The-external-debt-of-Developing-Countries-a-Timebomb>
22 February, by Eric Toussaint , Milan Rivié
Best,
Eric Toussaint
www.cadtm.org
Nouvelle adresse CADTM international, 35 rue Fabry
4000 Liège
Belgique
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