Ecuador

How Ecuador’s Democracy Is Being Suffocated

October 1, 2020 Vijay Prashad and Pilar Troya, Counterpunch. Educate! Ecuador, Elections, Rafael Correa, US Regime Change

A recent poll showed that if Andrés Arauz Galarza were allowed to run in Ecuador’s presidential election of 2021, he would win in the first round with 45.9 percent of the vote. The pollsters found that Arauz—who was the minister of knowledge and human talent from 2015 to 2017—wins across “all the social strata and regions of the country, with a slight weakness among the richest voters in the country.” Andrés Arauz entered policymaking and government when Rafael Correa was the president of the country, from 2007 to 2017.

The Battle For Democracy In Ecuador

September 30, 2020 Guillaume Long, Open Democracy. Resist! Court abuse, Ecuador, Elections, Lawfare

Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and his allies have gone to great lengths to prevent former president Rafael Correa and his political movement from returning to power. In order to achieve this goal, the current government has persecuted opponents and barred candidates from running. Moreno’s authoritarianism has, so far, gone largely unnoticed internationally. With elections scheduled for February 2021, it is crucial that the international community keeps a vigilant eye on the Ecuadorian government’s persistent attempts at perverting the course of democracy.

Political Trials And Electoral Bans

September 20, 2020 Guillaume Long, Open Democracy. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Rafael Correa

Hundreds Of Lawyers File Complaint Against Judge Over Targeting Steven Donziger

September 2, 2020 International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Resist! Chevron, Court abuse, Ecuador, Prosecutorial Abuse

Dozens of legal organizations around the world representing more than 500,000 lawyers along with over 200 individual lawyers today submitted a judicial complaint documenting a series of shocking violations of the judicial code of conduct by United States Judge Lewis A. Kaplan targeting human rights lawyer Steven Donziger after he helped Indigenous peoples win a historic judgment against Chevron in Ecuador to clean up the pollution caused by decades of oil drilling with no environmental controls. The complaint was formally filed by the National Lawyers Guild in conjunction with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). IADL was founded in Paris in 1946 to fight to uphold the rule of law around the world and has consultative status with UN agencies. The complaint documents what its authors say is a pattern of ethics violations committed by Judge Kaplan, a former tobacco industry lawyer. Kaplan denied Donziger a jury, put in place a series of highly unusual courtroom tactics, severely restricted Donziger’s ability to mount a defense, and through his had picked judge to try him for criminal contempt has had him detained him at home for more than one year on contempt charges that were rejected by the U.S. Attorney, and allowed him to be prosecuted by a private law firm that has Chevron as a client.

Chris Hedges: How Corporate Tyranny Works

August 26, 2020 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Chevron, Ecuador, Legal System, Retaliation, Steven Donziger

The persecution of the attorney Steven Donziger is a grim illustration of what happens when we confront the real centers of power, masked and unacknowledged by the divisive cant from the Trump White House or the sentimental drivel of the Democratic Party. Those, like Donziger, who name and fight the corporate control of our society on behalf of the vulnerable see the judiciary, the press and the institutions of government unite to crucify them. “It’s been a long battle, 27 years,” Donziger said when I reached him by phone in his apartment in Manhattan.

CLDC Fighting Corporate-Fueled Legal Persecution Of Human Rights Lawyer

August 6, 2020 Lauren Regan, CLDC. Resist! Chevron, Ecuador, Environment, Steven Donziger

For several years now, human rights attorney Steven Donziger has been in the fight of his life and career after Chevron vowed to destroy him for winning a $9.5 billion judgment for indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon that had been poisoned by the company’s oil drilling. From buying off judges and experts in Ecuador to filing trumped up racketeering charges in the U.S. and getting the inappropriately sympathetic federal judge Kaplan to demand that Mr. Donziger turn over his laptop, cell phone, and attorney-client communications with his extremely vulnerable indigenous clients, Chevron will stop at nothing to evade being held for the life-threatening harm it has caused to tens of thousands of people in the Amazon.

Government Gave Big Oil The Power to Prosecute Its Biggest Critic

July 16, 2020 Walker Bragman and David Sirota, The American Prospect. Educate! Chevron, Courts, Ecuador, Oil and Gas

In recent years, the American government has given the fossil fuel industry hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies and opened up wide swaths of public land for drilling. Now, as the climate crisis worsens, a federal judge has given a private corporate law firm with ties to fossil fuel companies the power to criminally prosecute one of the industry’s biggest foes—a lawyer who notched one of history’s biggest legal victories against a major oil company. In 2011, Steven Donziger led the legal team that secured a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for polluting the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Chevron has not paid that claim, and last year a judge appointed a private law firm to criminally prosecute Donziger for a contempt charge in a countersuit filed by Chevron in federal court in Manhattan. That law firm, Seward & Kissel LLP, has represented Chevron itself as recently as 2018, according to recent court documents. Put another way: The government has taken the extraordinary step of giving prosecutorial power to a law firm that has worked for Chevron—and is allowing that prosecutorial power to be aimed at Chevron’s chief adversary, who has been under house arrest for 332 days.

Ecuador Protests New Neoliberal Measures Amid Lockdown

May 27, 2020 Telesur English. Resist! Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno, Neoliberalism

Unions, students, teachers, workers, and social organizations took to the streets in Quito as others followed from home in several cities Monday with a pot-banging protest. In Quito, Cuenca, and Guayaquil the protesters challenged the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and took the streets to demand the withdrawal of the measures, and also to defend public education, health, and labor rights. Central Workers' Organization (CUT) President Richard Gomez declared the demonstrators will remain in constant mobilization until their purpose is achieved.

Open Letter In Support Of Environmental Lawyer Steven Donziger

May 19, 2020 the National Lawyers Guild International. Resist! Chevron, Ecuador, Legal System, Oil and Gas

New York - Over 75 organizations, including international legal organizations and major human rights networks, signed on to an open letter released today in support of environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who has faced nearly unprecedented sanctions from a U.S. federal judge for his pursuit of Chevron for a judgment against the oil giant over its environmental devastation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The letter identifies the case as “one of the most important corporate accountability and human rights cases of our time.” In 2011, indigenous plaintiffs in the Ecuadorian Amazon received a $19 billion judgment against Chevron for the actions of its predecessor company, Texaco, which spilled over 17 million gallons of crude oil, dumped over 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and left hundreds of open pits throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Ecuador Persecutes Opponents As COVID-19 Crisis Exposes Neoliberal War On Public Sector

May 13, 2020 Denis Rogatyuk, The Grayzone. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Ecuador, Neoliberalism

Up to the end of April, the number of infected and deceased caused by the COVID19 pandemic had spiraled out of control, nearly collapsing the country’s public healthcare sector, already struggling with the cuts and austerity due to the Moreno government’s IMF deal. The official figures tracking the number of infected finally began demonstrating the more accurate picture of the catastrophe, with the total number of infected and dead reaching 7,161 and 297 on April 10 — an increase of 30 percent within 24 hours. By the end of the month, the official figure for the infected stood at 24,934 infected and around 900 dead. These numbers have been widely disputed by the citizenry, the international media and the medical staff on the ground, who have reportedly been terrorized and silenced about what they have witnessed.

Bodies In The Streets: IMF Imposed Measures Have Left Ecuador Unable To Cope With Coronavirus

April 18, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno

If you are using one of the many coronavirus incidence trackers, the Pacific country of Ecuador does not seem to be particularly badly affected by COVID-19. Officially, the country has less than 7,500 cases and 333 deaths. But everybody knows this number is nonsense, including President Lenín Moreno, who freely admitted that authorities were collecting over 100 dead bodies a day from Guayaquil city alone, the epicenter of the pandemic tormenting his country. Ecuador’s limited state has essentially collapsed under the strain of COVID-19, with dozens of videos circulating showing dead bodies left in the streets, with no one to collect them. The country has already run out of coffins, so corpses are buried in cardboard boxes or simply left in trucking containers.

2019 Latin America In Review: Year Of The Revolt of the Dispossessed

December 15, 2019 Roger Harris, Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) Educate! Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

A year ago, John Bolton, Trump’s short-lived national security advisor, invoked the 1823 Monroe Doctrine making explicit what has long been painfully implicit: the dominions south of the Rio Grande are the empire’s “backyard.” Yet 2019 was a year best characterized as the revolt of the dispossessed for a better world against the barbarism of neoliberalism. As Rafael Correa points out, Latin America today is in dispute. What follows is a briefing on this crossroads.

Ecuadorian Opponents Reject Lenin Moreno’s Economic Reform

November 24, 2019 By Juan Manuel Boccacci, Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau. Resist! Criminalization, Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno

The Lenin Moreno Administration is moving in two fronts since the mass mobilizations that took place in Ecuador about a month ago. On the one hand, it is criminalizing social protests so opponents can be charged with “rebellion.” This is how they managed to imprison members of Rafael Correa’s political party, Citizen Revolution, as well as leaders of indigenous organizations. Three legislators of this movement requested asylum at Mexico’s Embassy to Ecuador in this connection. On the other hand, the Government is trying to impose economic measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Days ago, opponents rejected a mega economic reform bill adapted to the markets.

Ecuador: More Uprisings Ahead As Moreno Fails To Listen To The People

November 8, 2019 Juan Manuel Boccacci, Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau Resist! Ecuador, Electoral Politics, Latin America, Lenin Moreno, Regime Change

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno seems to be determined to not listen to the claims being demanded across the country that began only 20 days ago. Revoking Decree 883, which eliminated fuel subsidies, led to a struggle between the Government and indigenous organizations headed by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). As this issue is still under political discussion, the Government continues bowing to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Crises In Ecuador, Chile, “Reflects The Exhaustion Of Neoliberal Policies”

October 29, 2019 Staff, Sputnik, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau Educate! Chile, Ecuador, Latin America, Regime Change

Several neoliberal or right-wing governments in South America are turning authoritarian in the face of mass protests taking place in their countries, undermining thus the “region’s weak democratic institutionalism,” Spanish political analyst Pascual Serrano told Sputnik. “What is going on in Ecuador, and Chile, which are currently the most visible examples, or in Peru where the Congress was dissolved a few weeks ago, is not an institutional crisis but the exhaustion of neoliberal policies undertaken by right-wing governments, which instead of correcting their mistakes are shifting to authoritarian models”...

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