Communist Web Saturday 15th April 2000 9.30pm gmt New confrontations building in Ecuador In January, a popular uprising in Ecuador by indigenous farmers united with trade unionists paralysed the Government, brought tens of thousands of protesters to the capital Quito and forced the President to resign. The insurgents' call for power to be transferred to the grass-roots "Peoples' Parliament", however, was thwarted by the head of the army, who betrayed the popular aims of the uprising and helped to have the deputy of the ousted President installed in his place. The new President promptly announced he would continue the same neoliberal (economic rationalist) policies as his predecessor. In February, the American Association of Jurists (AAJ), an NGO with consultative status at the United Nations, decided to send an observers' mission to Quito. William Sloan, who was part of the mission, reports: The mission was led by the AAJ's continental President, Alvaro Ramirez, a former Nicaraguan Supreme Court Justice, and included Waldo Albarracin, the foremost human rights lawyer in Bolivia, Romeo Saganash, Director of Quebec relations for the Grand Council of the Crees, and myself from the Canadian branch of the AAJ. We met with the President of the Ecuador Congress, Ministers of Government Affairs and Defence, the Constitutional and Military Courts, the Judicial Council, and a Minister in the former government. We also met native leaders, trade union leaders, human rights organisations, detained officers and the Ecuadorian branch of the AAJ, which hosted the visit. What we found was a powder keg waiting to explode. On the one hand, 20 years of IMF "restructuring" has been exacerbated by the looting of the country's riches (including personal savings accounts) by bankers and speculators, with the help of successive governments. On the other hand, the United States has expanded its active interest in Ecuador, deciding to use its Air Base at Manta (acquired last November) to co-ordinate operations for Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Its influence on internal events was obvious in January, as the Ecuadorian Army High Command followed direct orders from the US State Department when they installed Gustavo Noboa as the new President. It quickly became evident that Noboa was nothing but old wine in a new bottle. He announced that he was proceeding with the former government's plan to "dollarise" the economy, abolishing the national currency, the sucre. Perhaps this is a pilot project for the American version of the Euro. CONAIE and the other indigenous organisations have returned to the countryside to strengthen and broaden their support, and are apparently linking up with... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/newconfron/newconfron.html
