Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
Central Committee
The PCMLE Regarding the Events of September 30
For some months Ecuador has been the scene of the intensification and broadening of the social struggles that various sectors of the working people, trade unionists, indigenous people, peasants, teachers, student youths, public servants, small business people and pensioners have been developing, to oppose the policies of the government of Rafael Correa that have actually harmed the interests of the country, of the peoples and their organizations, that reinforce and support the neoliberal, privatizing and sellout policies.
The workers have carried out actions in defense of trade union rights that the government has wanted to eliminate; the indigenous peoples throughout the country have fought in defense of water as a vital human resource; the peasant and indigenous communities have been opposing the sellout and predatory nature of the Mining Law; the teachers have been demanding better guarantees for national education, opposed to retaliatory and exclusive evaluations; the students and all the universities of the country are against a Higher Education Law that eliminates university autonomy, student participation in running the university, free admission and other gains and rights; the public servants have mobilized to defend their stability, their gains achieved after long struggles; the pensioners to improve their pensions and their treatment by Social Security; the small business people have been in the streets for a Law that guarantees their right to work, social security and other gains.
These mobilizations and protests have also denounced the position of the regime in favor of the imperialist oil, mining and telecommunications monopolies; in favor of foreign indebtedness under disadvantageous conditions; of involving the country in Plan Colombia and promoting a policy harmful to national sovereignty in signing the Convention of the Rights of the Sea (CONVEMAR).
President Correa has responded to these actions of struggle and denunciations by the social organizations, with a repressive policy that is causing fatal and wounded victims and great material damage as in the cases of the attack on the village of Dayuma, on the miners of Azuay, the murder of Shuar [one of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador - translator's note] professor Bosco Wisuma, the violent eviction of the miners of Zamora and other actions. Leaders of worker, indigenous, peasant, student and teachers' organizations, have been detained, indicted and persecuted; they are the objects of abominable attacks and slanders through a resounding and excessive campaign of the big media that the government controls, accusing them of being "mediocre," "terrorists," "corrupt", etc.
In this framework, on September 30 in various parts of the country there took place the rebellion of police troops, the seizure of barracks, the taking to the streets, in response to the approval by the Legislative Assembly of Public Service Law and the presidential veto, which took away from the public workers a series of benefits, gains and subsidies that they had won in the course of several years.
The mutinous troops denounce these acts, they even demand change in the top levels of the institution, but they never called for a change of government or for its overthrow; rather they asked for a dialogue, the cessation of the authoritarian attitudes and that their situation be attended to. Under these conditions, that fight of the police troops is added to those of other popular sectors in defense of their aspirations, their rights and gains.
We revolutionaries, leftists and communists take it as our duty to support this and all struggles that defend the popular interests and those of the country. We consider it a fallacy to say that these actions are part of a "conspiracy" against democracy, against the established government and that it is part on an attempted "coup d'état" of the "fascists," of the "right," with the "participation of the left," without proving these statements in any way.
The insistent denunciation by the regime of the supposed "coup d'état against Ecuadorian democracy" immediately brought out support by the U.S. government and the UN; but at the same time it also generated statements from the UNASUR [Union of South American Nations], of the governments of the region such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and also of Colombia, Chile and Peru.
It is also necessary to point out that most of the social organizations, which have demanded their aspirations, have created lines of demarcation and denounced the real or supposed actions of conspiracy of the right, of the old ruling parties, the oligarchies and imperialism. In this way CONAIE [Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador], ECUARRUNARI [Movement of the Indigenous People of Ecuador], the trade union federations, the Popular Front and all its organizations have stated this, so that the accusations of a conspiracy fall by their own weight.
The Head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, General Ernesto Gonzalez, himself supported the constitutional order and insisted on the request for the revision or elimination of the Public Service Law, the cause of the conflicts, when he appeared on the unlimited and obligatory broadcast on all the mass media of the country as ordered by the government. He also stated to the media the request by all the spokespersons of the rebellious police that their needs be attended to. The well-known "conspiracy against democracy" that the government and its servants denounce, does not exist at all......
The events were serious and generalized, but they got out of hand, when displaying his arrogance, in an openly imprudent attitude, Correa went to face the rebels and received the rejection, even the irascible excesses, of those in the Quito Regiment; he remained isolated in the Police Hospital from where during the night he was removed by a surprising and disproportionate military operation which was spread by radio and TV to the whole country, putting at serious risk the life of the chief executive himself, causing several fatalities from this action, tens of wounded, serious damage to the facilities of that hospital.
After his spectacular exit, Correa arrived to the applause and cheers of his supporters at the Grand Plaza, to repeat his authoritarian, arrogant and intimidating poses; to accuse without proof, to distort the truth and to call for "public punishment", that he "will not forgive or forget" the conspirators, etc.
We revolutionaries, communists, workers and peoples know clearly that democracy is an achievement of the masses won over hundreds of years and therefore we defend it despite its limitations and exclusions. Representative democracy is an expression of the power of the ruling classes, it protects their interests; for the great majority, for the working classes, it continues to be rhetoric in whose name it excludes them and rides roughshod over them. Knowing these concepts clearly, the social struggle, the actions of the workers and peoples, even the rebellion of the police troops, did not propose or plan to break the institutional life of the country and even less is it the result of the conspiratorial desires and coup makers of the right, the old ruling parties and imperialism. The road of the workers and peoples, of the revolutionary left is clearly defined, it is the independent march in search of its definitive liberation and in the daily struggle for its social and democratic rights, aspirations and gains.
We must state, nevertheless, that the governmental sermon that a "coup d'état" took place was successful and it confused a sector of public opinion within the country and abroad. In the popular arena things are clear. The events of yesterday are a new episode in the social struggle.
Beyond the vindictive and retaliatory attitudes and the sanctions that the regime applies, it leaves deep wounds in the police troops and various social sectors; the government of the "citizen's revolution" that is now singing victory should know that the struggle of the workers, the youth and peoples continues; because we continue to be in crisis, injustice is continuing, social inequalities are increasing and acts of corruption are everywhere and not sanctioned. The energy, the social struggle and the aspirations for real change continue to be a banner for ever larger sectors of our people. The popular consciousness grows!
Let us demand the elimination of presidential vetoes and the anti-popular and anti-national elements of the related laws such as the reforms of the Hydrocarbon Law, the Law of Territorial Order, of Public Services, Higher Education, the Code of Public Finances and other that harm the workers, youth and peoples. Similarly, we demand the immediate abrogation of the "state of emergency," because the government itself has stated that there is no internal commotion.
Today it is time to work more insistently for the unity of all the sectors that defend our just aspirations, social gains and rights; for those of us who are fighting for a future better. This is, without a doubt, the strength of the peoples, this is the guarantee of our victory!
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
Central Committee
