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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Reaping a bitter harvest
By Faiza Rady
An estimated 10,000 native people -- including women and children -- left Ecuador's rugged and mountainous hinterland and descended on the capital, Quito, to denounce President Jamil Mahuad's ill-fated economic adjustment policies. Following days of militant demonstrations by angry Ecuadorian natives, the country's vice president, Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, was sworn into office on Sunday.
"Under the laws laid out in the constitution, I find myself under the obligation of assuming the presidency of Ecuador," Noboa said at a news conference. Following his embattled predecessor's lead -- Mahuad had asserted earlier in the week that he was confident of the military's full support -- Noboa asserted in turn that he had the military's backing. A man of his words, the new president was trailed by officers wearing camouflage clothing and army fatigues.
Slipping through a massive deployment of some 35,000 security forces manning military cordons and police check points throughout the Andean hinterland, native protesters gathered in Quito to call for Mahuad's resignation. "We have come to Quito to stay until Jamil goes back to his home," said a native activist.
Led by Antonio Vargas, the charismatic president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the protesters organised an "indigenous uprising" against the neo-liberal policies of globalisation -- and subsequent impoverishment -- affecting some seven million Ecuadorians living below the poverty line.
"We have come to found a new Ecuador," declared Varga at the capital, "conceived from an indigenous viewpoint." The confederation represents Ecuador's four million native people.
Political chaos erupted on Friday afternoon when protesters, and a group of dissident junior army officers and soldiers, stormed and seized control of the Congress building. In the wake of the joint indigenous-military uprising, the motley crowd announced the end of Mahuad's rule, declaring that they had created their own "parliament of the people" to abolish so-called reform measures, like Mahuad's recent 410 per cent electricity and gas price hikes.
However, the parliament of the people remained utopian. The situation changed radically when the "people's power" was swiftly overtaken by the military: Key members of the ruling brass decided to usurp the indigenous uprising and organise a coup. The balance of power effectively turned when Ecuadorian Armed Forces Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Carlos Mendoza joined the insurrection and took control Friday evening.
Following a closed meeting between the military leadership and Vargas, Mendoza emerged to announce that the country would be headed by a ruling council composed of Mendoza, Vargas and former Supreme Court judge Carlos Solorzano.
"We have assumed [power] as a council that will have the Ecuadorian people's hopes in mind," Mendoza said. "We will work to help the country; we will work against corruption so that we are less poor."
But the council's rule, like the parliament of the people, was to be short-lived. Regional condemnation of what was widely regarded as a suspension of constitutional rule and a military takeover came rapidly, and the newly-fashioned council backed down. The Clinton administration and the Organisation of American States denounced the coup in no uncertain terms -- threatening to slap the Andean country with tough economic sanctions of the kind imposed on so-called rogue states.
Peter Romero, the US State Department's top official for Latin American Affairs told the council that they would face "political and economic isolation" similar to Cuba's should they decide to remain in power. Heeding the US warning, the council stepped down in favour of the lacklustre Noboa, a convinced neo-liberalist and Mahuad's key partner in imposing economic reforms.
Ecuadorian indigenous demonstrators wave the national flag from the terrace of the National Congress building in the capital Quito on Friday
(photo: AFP)Native leader Salvador Quishpe was quick to denounce Noboa's ascent to the presidency, arguing that the vice-president was "one of the politicians responsible for this debacle" and vowed to continue the protests.
Native and poor people in Ecuador have a long history of struggle. In 1997, 2.25 million of the nation's 11.5 million population took to the streets to protest then President Abdallah Bucaram's neo-liberal course. Despite his progressive credentials -- Bucaram heads the populist-left party, Roldosist (PRE) -- he imposed a tough austerity programme on an impoverished population, with 300 per cent hikes on the price of gas, telephone services and electricity.
Bucaram's endorsement of neo-liberal strategies particularly angered poor Ecuadorians, who had voted him into office on the strength of an alleged populist platform, and he was ousted and succeeded by Fabian Alarcon. Elected in August 1998, Mahuad only aggravated already dire material conditions by steering the same course as the unpopular Bucaram.
In a recent report, the National Conference of Bishops in Brazil identified four essential human rights denied to the majority of the population: access to land; access to education, including culture and information; access to the job market and an income; and, finally, access to health care, social security and housing. Although the conference statement only denounced gross social inequalities and conditions of extreme duress in the wake of economic deregulation and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in Brazil, similar conditions are found elsewhere in the region -- but especially so in Ecuador.
For the best part of the last two decades, Ecuadorians, like other Latin American people, have heard their leaders sanctimoniously exhort the allegedly unfailing virtues of SAPs. According to World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) pat global recipes, fiscal and monetary austerity -- read: social welfare and health benefits cutbacks -- will inevitably result in a reduction of the public deficit. Liberalisation, deregulation and the export-oriented economic model will eventually bring wealth and prosperity to the impoverished masses -- or so international financiers predict.
Reality, nevertheless, has blatantly disproved this theory. "The whole edifice is about to collapse and lead to a period bleaker than the disastrous 1980s," notes political analyst Carlos Gabetta. Most Latin Americans refer to this time as the "lost decade".
Even though the country is rich in natural resources, Ecuador possibly fares the worst among other Latin American nations. Ecuador has vast oil resources and rich agricultural areas, making it a major exporter of oil, bananas and shrimp. However, huge drops in the global prices of primary products has resulted in a drastic decline in Ecuador's export revenues. When world oil prices did bounce back last year, Ecuador's revenues did not significantly increase: the growth rate barely reaches one per cent and recession is rampant. Moreover, the country's agricultural output was severely damaged by El Niño storms in 1998.
Under SAPS, and despite strict fiscal and monetary austerity measures, inflation has soared from 43 per cent in 1998 to 60 per cent this year. And the percentage of Ecuadorians living below the poverty line has increased from 34 per cent in 1994 to 63 per cent this year.
Struggling for their dignity and the right to work and live, the Ecuadorian people's uprising will not be easily quelled. In the words of Quito activist Marina Bustos: "We are protesting because we can't live like this anymore. It's reached the point where we don't have anything to eat."
