Ecuador

Wealthy Corporations Use Investment Agreements To Extract Millions From Developing Countries

January 25, 2024 Nicholas Kusnetz and Katie Surma, Scheer Post. Educate! Corporatism, Ecuador, Global South, ISDS, Rafael Correa

When Rafael Correa entered Ecuador’s presidency in 2007, the nation faced an opportunity and a challenge. Ecuador’s economy depended on oil, and global crude prices were near a record high. Much of the oil was extracted by foreign companies, however, so as prices surged more wealth began flowing overseas. More than a third of Ecuadorians were living in poverty, and Correa had come to power as a leftist promising “radical, profound and quick changes to the current model of so much exploitation, of so much injustice.” Soon after taking office, Correa increased a recently enacted windfall tax on oil companies. The idea was to use the tax as leverage to extract better terms from the companies, and this fight against foreign firms quickly became a high-profile pillar of Correa’s broader campaign to assert the nation’s sovereignty.

The US Military’s Real Intentions In Ecuador

January 22, 2024 Alejandra Garcia, Resumen English. Educate! Ecuador, History, Militarization, Military Intervention, US Imperialism

History repeats itself. For centuries, the United States has sought ways to intervene in Latin America to strengthen its military presence and dominance in the region whenever a country is in crisis. And it is happening again. The current security crisis in Ecuador is presented as an opportunity for the United States to deepen its military presence in the Andean country. Under the guise of “contributing together to a safer and more stable region,” Washington announced on January 12 that it was sending the head of the Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, and other senior counter-narcotics and diplomatic officials to Ecuador to discuss with the government of President Daniel Noboa how to combat organized crime.

Violence In Ecuador Is Result Of Deliberate Dismantling Of The State

January 12, 2024 Ricardo Perez, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! criminal gangs, Drug Trafficking, Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Neoliberalism, Poverty, Violence

The systematic violence which has immersed Ecuador is the product of a process of deliberate destructuring of the rule of law derived from policies implemented by the last three neoliberal governments, warned Jorge Paladines, an academic at the Central University of Ecuador and a professor of law and political science, in an interview with Sputnik. That, today, Ecuador is in a situation of internal armed conflict, that the country has been plunged into a state of emergency, and that a live television program was interrupted by armed men, is not the result of spontaneity or chance.

Ecuador In Crisis: A Country Broken By Neoliberalism

January 11, 2024 Gerardo Szalkowicz, People's Dispatch. Educate! Ecuador, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Narcotrafficking, Neoliberalism, Violence

People across the world were shocked to see a drug gang waving rifles and grenades in the TC Television studios in Guayaquil, and the scene was perhaps the cinematic peak of successive days of explosions, riots, lootings, shootings, car explosions, and widespread panic that has paralyzed the country. However, the shocking and unprecedented episode on the public channel in Guayaquil—and the events that preceded and followed it—are just the latest chapter in a spiral of organized violence that has lasted for about five years and that has metastasized in the last two. It is the sad metamorphosis of a country that went from being the second safest in Latin America to becoming the most violent, with a homicide rate that has grown almost 800% since 2019.

Ecuador’s Election Could Have Lasting Consequences

October 16, 2023 Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research. Educate! Ecuador, Elections, Neoliberalism, Rafael Correa

Imagine a developing country where a 43-year-old economist with a PhD from the University of Illinois, who is relatively unknown as a politician, runs for president and wins. Despite the preceding decades of corruption and institutional rot, he puts together a competent government and gets the economic policy right. The numbers tell much of the story: in the 10 years of his presidency, poverty fell by 41 percent; income per person grew at more than twice the rate of the previous 25 years; and public investment and government expenditure on health services doubled as a share of the economy.

To Win The Run-Off Election, Ecuador’s Left Must Confront Past Mistakes

September 2, 2023 Peter Bolton, Orinoco Tribune. Strategize! Ecuador, Elections, Left Politics, Neoliberalism

On August 20, Ecuadorians went to the polls to elect a new president just over two years since the previous presidential elections of 2021. Luisa González of the Citizens’ Revolution party topped the poll with 33%. But since no candidate achieved the necessary threshold to win in the first round, the election will now be decided via a run-off election in October. She will face political newcomer Daniel Noboa of the center-right National Democratic Action Party, who surprised political observers by placing second in a crowded field with 24% of votes counted. González’s party was founded by former firebrand socialist president Rafael Correa after his original party, Country Alliance, became sullied by his successor Lenin Moreno.

Ecuador’s Presidential Election Heads To A Second Round In October

August 24, 2023 Teri Mattson, WtF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. Podcast – WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean Ecuador, Elections, Guillermo Lasso, Violence

Luisa González, of the Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana party, on Sunday took a lead in the first round of Ecuador’s presidential and legislative elections, which have been marred by political assassinations as the Andean nation struggles with a wave of violence that has brought homicide rates, under the Lasso administration, to record levels. Gonzalez is set to face the surprise second-place finisher Daniel Noboa in a run-off election in October, according to the National Electoral Council of Ecuador (CNE), as neither candidate won more than 50% of the ballot.

State Of Emergency As Ecuador Heads To The Polls

August 20, 2023 Aminta Buenaño, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, History, Violence

Once upon a time, Ecuador was considered an island of peace. Once upon a time, we were one of the safest countries in the continent. Once upon a time, the prisons worked, the Ministry of Justice functioned, and we felt that we had a government and a leader. A time when we saw our taxes turned into infrastructure, roads, hospitals, schools, and parks; there were fewer beggars in the streets and more children in schools. How did a country as beautiful as Ecuador become hell? Until recently, the hope of better winds for our nation made emigrants return with the promise of a brighter destiny, after the ferocious robbery of the bank crisis of 1999, which led to the exodus of thousands of Ecuadorians plunged into despair and poverty.

‘Progress Undone’: New Report Examines Ecuador’s Economy Since 2017

August 16, 2023 Center for Economic and Policy Research. Educate! Ecuador, International Monetary Fund, Neoliberalism, Poverty

Washington, DC — A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research examines key indicators for Ecuador’s economy and finds that significant gains of the 2007–2017 period have been erased by subsequent governments that returned to the International Monetary Fund and slashed spending. As a result, poverty and economic inequality have increased, as have crime, insecurity, and worsened health outcomes. “The data make it clear: things have gotten much worse in Ecuador since 2017, with the return to the IMF and to destructive austerity,” CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said.

When A CIA Asset Becomes A CIA Liability

August 11, 2023 Craig Murray. Educate! Assassination, CIA, Ecuador, Julian Assange

Fernando Villavicencio, who with the Guardian’s Luke Harding and Dan Collyns fabricated the notorious Guardian front page lie that Paul Manafort and Julian Assange held pro-Trump meetings in the Ecuadorean Embassy, has been shot dead in Ecuador. The appalling lie, which the Guardian’s $700,000 a year editor has refused to retract or remove, despite criticism even from the Washington Post which named Villavicencio as the fabricator, was aimed to give support to Clinton’s flagging “Russiagate” invention, which was crumbling fast.

Luisa González, The New Face Of Correísmo

July 8, 2023 Ociel Alí López, Orinoco Tribune. Organize! Ecuador, Elections, Guillermo Lasso, Left Politics

Less than a month after a surprise designation as the presidential candidate of the Citizens’ Revolution, polls show Luisa González as the favorite to win the elections in Ecuador, far ahead of her closest opponent. Her candidacy’s strong point lies in being endorsed by the Citizens’ Revolution (RC) movement, led by former President Rafael Correa. This movement has won three consecutive presidential elections: firstly with Correa from 2007 to 2017, followed by Lenín Moreno’s term from 2017 to 2021. It was only in the 2021 presidential elections that the movement faced defeat in the runoff against current President Guillermo Lasso.

President Dissolves Congress In Ecuador Good, In Peru Bad

May 29, 2023 Yves Engler. Educate! Coups, Dictatorship, Ecuador, Peru, Western imperialism

Last week right-wing Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso dissolved the national assembly. In stark contrast to their response to a similar move by the leftist president of Peru five months ago, Ottawa effectively supported the measure. As he was on the cusp of being impeached over corruption allegations Lasso dissolved the national assembly. He called on military leaders to endorse his initiative, sent police to take over Congress and cut internet connections to the legislature. The constitutional provision Lasso cited to dissolve the national assembly has never been employed before and it allows the president to rule by decree for six months (though elections need to be held within three months).

Ecuador’s President Dissolves National Assembly Triggering Early Elections

May 25, 2023 Teri Mattson, WtF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. Podcast – WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean Dictatorship, Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, Impeachment

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree on May 17 bringing forward legislative and presidential elections and heading off an attempt by opposition politicians to impeach him. Opposition politicians wanted to impeach Lasso over accusations he disregarded warnings of embezzlement related to a contract at state-owned oil transportation company Flopec, charges the president denies. A majority of lawmakers had backed a resolution accusing Lasso of allowing the corrupt contract to continue after taking office in 2021, although a congressional oversight committee, which heard testimony from opposition lawmakers, officials, and Lasso's lawyer, said in its report it did not recommend impeachment.

La Via Campesina Warns Of Democratic Frailty In Ecuador

May 22, 2023 Via Campesina, Resumen English. Resist! Democracy, Ecuador, La Via Campesina, Soft Coup

The peasant, indigenous, landless, women and workers’ organizations that are part of the international movement La Via Campesina around the world warn with great concern about the current context in Ecuador, marked by a serious political crisis, accompanied by a deep economic and social crisis, with high levels of violence by criminal groups, the State and the sectors of power that continue looting the people. On Wednesday, May 17, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso signed executive decree 741, which establishes the dissolution of the National Assembly. This in the midst of the political trial opened against him for accusations of embezzlement. The decree also calls for early general elections within 90 days.

Ecuadorian Opposition Rejects Dissolution Of Parliament

May 20, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Constitution, Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, National Assembly

On Wednesday morning, May 17, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso decreed the dissolution of the National Assembly, the country’s unicameral parliament, using the “cross-death” constitutional mechanism. Lasso argued that there was a “serious political crisis and internal commotion” in the country, and that the dissolution of the opposition majority parliament was a “constitutional solution” and a “democratic action.” Lasso’s decision came a day after the parliament began an impeachment hearing against him. He is accused of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources