Above photo: Army members patrol in southern Quito. AFP/Getty Images.
As Ecuador heads into a very important run-off election on April 13, the issues of security, state violence and the economy remain at the forefront for many Ecuadorians. Dollarization, submission to U.S. dictates, the proliferation of arms shipments through privately owned ports, and the expansion of international drug cartels to justify military presence have all combined to make the living conditions of the poorest unbearable, especially for African and indigenous communities with a constant war directed at them from the militarized structures of the state, like the case of the Guayaquil Four .
Black Agenda Report contributor Clau O’Brien Moscoso interviewed Grayzone correspondent and documentary filmmaker Oscar León on January 6, 2025, less than a month after the disappearance and later confirmed death of the four Afro-Ecuadorian boys in Guayaquil at the hands of sixteen Air Force members. Below is the final part of the interview; part one here and part two here.
CO: So with this current state of emergency all the way through next month’s elections (first round), do you see that there’s a possibility the election may not even happen?
OL: Look at the Electoral Tribunal – it’s already stolen about 2 or 3 elections. Clearly Guillermo Lasso didn’t win in 2021. The indigenous candidate (Yaku Perez) won, and they stole it from him. And we now have the confirmation. It just came out that that’s exactly what happened. We won that one and they stole it. Then the next one, the Correista candidate,Andres Arauz, was going to win, and they came out with some scheme where it was alleged they received donations from narcos. So of course the media went nuts and they lost the election turned out later it was all a lie. (The man who alleged this has) been sued and everything.
Then the next election Luisa Gonzalez was going to win, even maybe in the first round and then the candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered, and they allowed the press to blame Correa, so they lost that one. So that’s three elections right there. And let me top this off with saying that the brother of the President of the Supreme Electoral Organization was designated by Daniel Noboa as the assistant to the US Ambassador. So basically, he’s in a cozy job in Washington. So between that, the press being 100% on their side, I think that there’s a bleak, bleak chance that there are actually clean elections in Ecuador. It’s yet to be seen.
The United States is counting because of the treaty they signed with Ecuador in 2022 , because it’s supposed to be for 10 years. There’s no way to kick the United States out of Ecuador. First of all, they can put bases there, and have US soldiers in Ecuador. They can go and kill anybody, and they will not respond to Ecuadorian law. They will respond to their own superiors and military law. But this is just to show how much is on the table for the United States in this election in Ecuador. Because if the left wins, they’re going to have to pack and leave. Do you see them leaving without a problem?
CO: Do you see this as a blowback to the so-called pink wave in the region of leftist and more popular governments? There are still the more explicitly socialist countries of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and those are being sanctioned. What role do you see Ecuador playing in either trying to reconstitute the Lima Group to try to overthrow Venezuela or even what they’re doing right now with Haiti. And Ecuador was pivotal in pushing forward the Multi Security Support Mission in Haiti, as a good little US puppet in the UN.
OL: What comes to mind is that before Moreno, there was UNASUR . It was like a European Union, if you will, but from South America where all the countries were, which was South America plus the Caribbean and Mexico. I was a journalist in Ecuador during this time, and in the presence of Chavez, Kirchner and the presidents that were there in the beginning, which directly challenged the United States. I heard them plan to create South to South institutions, meaning a South Bank that loans to Southern regions just for development, at no interest, and ruled South America. They wanted even a military union of the South. They had big plans for South to South development.
And now look at the situation thirteen years later. Correa is a fugitive in Belgium after a massive hunt, despite whatever his flaws, there is no reason for him to be persecuted. And now Evo Morales, he’s being persecuted. They tried to kill him. The other day we did an interview with him. They tried to kill him, Christina Kishner , went after Lula with lawfare. He came out of jail because the judge opened his mouth when he shouldn’t have in an interview and said that. Yeah, we have no evidence to put Lula away, and they had to release him. In the Ecuadorian case, Diana Salazar on CNN said it herself – “No, we didn’t have any evidence” and the CNN anchor responded, “How is that? You put him away.” and she is forced to say “We had some evidence, but it wasn’t as clear” so she tried to fix it.
Up to this point I thought he was guilty, but when she said that I started looking into it, and things started coming out. And now it’s pretty apparent that they set him up. A year ago I would not have said that myself, but now, I can tell you there’s plenty of evidence that they set him up. Chavez died with cancer – a very weird cancer. That’s what happened to those who put such an important geopolitical challenge to the US regime.
So translate that to now, thirteen years later you have Ecuador. First of all, Lenin Moreno destroyed UNASUR as soon as he got there. The first thing that had to go was all those plans to unite South American nations. In fact, I think the left lost. The cultural battle was clearly won by the right, especially in South America. So no, I don’t see them integrating any kind of union, as far as left wing or pro-workers governments.
Now you can expect Ecuador to support Israel, support Ukraine. Ecuador bought some Russian helicopters at some point and when Noboa got there, he wanted to look good to the Americans, I guess, or I’m not sure but they lied. “Oh, yeah, these helicopters are trash, and we’re just going to give this trash away to Ukraine.” They mentioned the word trash, and then it came out in the press that no, it turned out they weren’t trash. It was actually $100 million each helicopter and they were giving away 5 of those. Then Russia told Ecuador “You guys are giving our weapons to the Ukrainians.” So they started a boycott against Ecuadorian bananas, and guess who Ecuador’s biggest banana client is – Russia. So yes right now, Ecuador is basically an unrecognized and unofficial State of the United States without any rights.
CO: What about the country’s internal right wing? Aside from being in power within the Noboa Government. Do you see, for example, fascist groups, aside from these narco cartels, as a constituted right wing force?
OL: I don’t think there’s such a force in the right wing in Ecuador. it’s never had a radical right wing youth movement. Maybe right now you have the most likely thing which would be the youth voting for Noboa, which is in itself pretty significant. This is people who live in cardboard houses voting for the guy who’s the son of the guy who oppressed their parents all their lives. He pretty much is the reason why they live in those cardboard houses. But they vote for this guy, who has 50% of voter intention, or at least that’s what they say, but let’s say 30 or 40. It’s still a lot in a country that’s 90% poor, 90% indigenous or Africans; they have absolutely nothing in common with this Miami guy. (Noboa was born in Miami.) And his son was born in the US as well. The son of the President traveled to the United States to have a United States born son; there’s nothing in common between them and any worker, yet he’s about to win.
That tells you a lot about political manipulation, and the kind of confusion that the press manufactures, especially the resentment against the Correa government, particularly in the indigenous community. He was oppressing them because of the mines and that’s what I was saying before, the left is separated because if he hadn’t done that, the left in Ecuador would be 100% invincible. But the fact that Correa divided the left because of the mining conflict crushed the left’s chance to win.
But for the right – there’s the Miami side of the right wing that’s the old money using the US government to weaponize and gain power in Ecuador. Then you have the anti-Correismo which is in part because of Correa’s own faults, but partly because of the press. It’s a reactionary movement against Correismo. The fact that they are now supporting Noboa is shocking because a lot of those anti-Correistas are poor people, workers who are voting for their nemesis. That’s why in a country which has historically been racist like Ecuador, historically has been unjust with no recognition of human rights. Now you have this polarization that creates a new type of right wing, a right wing that is poor, voting against their own interest because figures like Milei or Trump managed to give it a certain flavor of radical revolutionary to right wing politics, where they are completely aggressive against their enemies.
That’s the radicalism that Lenin put into the Russian Revolution. In fact, Milei himself quotes Lenin saying that without a doctrine, there’s no revolutionary movement. So you see, that’s why the right wing has managed to drum together this new phase of the right wing, which is not the old money that’s in Miami. No, this is a new revolutionary right, mostly young who are tired of being oppressed, who were told “you’re poor because of your specific fault, it’s not a social fault, it’s your individual fault.” But they don’t want to recognize that anymore. It is someone’s fault, and it’s the people below them. That’s how Trump and Milei demonize the specific sectors who are the ones to blame for your unfortunate circumstances. That’s why they weaponize the poor. They say “no, it’s not your fault you’re poor it’s the Latinos in the United States, or the Arabs. That’s the genius of the right wing to pass the buck.