A milestone in Ecuadorian politics

Editorial of En March, 5th October, 2010 –organ of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)

After the crisis of Sept. 30 Ecuador is not the same. These events leave a deep impression and have an impact, inevitably, in the future government’s political behavior, the Ecuadorian people’s movement, the right-wing opposition and more social and political actors in the country.Principio del formulario

Political polarization is one of the sequels, the most enthusiastic supporters of Correa are affirmed and close ranks around their leader, on the one hand, while the credibility of the President’s word is questioned in ever larger sectors. People who long ago lost confidence in Correa today are joined to members of the police troops with their families (deeply resent the brutal way they were treated and suppressed), but also army troops affected also by the veto Public Service Law.

State institutions also appear affected. It is not simple, by the action of the President; there has been an armed confrontation between police and the army. These institutions, called to ensure the stability of the bourgeois state, experiencing internal problems, conflicts with each other, distrust inside of the institution, demoralization, alienation from the head of state, in this last aspect in the case of the National Police. The Assembly, likewise, is greatly diminished in popularity and acceptance for the content of the adopted legislation, which have led to social mobilization of these days. The executive, the same way, beaten out by all these events, because, the above elements affect it directly, but also the growing popular distrust on this.

However Rafael Correa successfully dodged this one, the worst moment of his government so far, in perspective the things are becoming more complex and negative. He asserted his authoritarian profile in the solution to the crisis, but that does not guarantee that social discontent manifested in open protests stop. The riot police is an expression of what happens in the Ecuadorian social tissue of how they solve problems of the sectors which are concerned by a policy that is increasingly closer to the neoliberal governments that have applied for nearly three decades. Ah, but with two additional ingredients: an unmasked authoritarianism and a strong dose of populism.