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  1. Link to Post #41
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Hey Bill, I (we) wish the situation to normalize with the circulation of people and the supply.

    The obvious consequence of this arrangement is that Moreno will remain in power. In such crisis, the priority has been to maintain governability, and at least that, he has achieved today. Let's look at the developments

    Another consequence is that by closing a direct agreement with the Indians, Moreno eventually strengthened them. While Rafael Correa, who is fugitive in Belgium failed to return to the political game, the Indians eventually took place what belonged to Correa and the bolivarians.

    The problem now is that the natives do not have representative frames, since it's an essentially communal group, and this makes room for new leaders who have nothing to do with the natives, in the future embrace "politically" their cause.

    we'll see ..
    Last edited by RogeRio; 14th October 2019 at 21:34. Reason: bad english

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  3. Link to Post #42
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Quote Posted by Ron Mauer Sr (here)
    Bill you can construct a simple antenna for a specific frequency band ahead of the time when you may need it.

    A small solar system with deep cycle batteries may also be required if the electric grid goes down.
    Listening to traffic on the airways can teach you how to use the amateur radio bands.
    Having a local friend who is a Ham would be of much benefit.
    What radio do you have?
    A Yaesu 857D.



    It's a compact mobile unit, designed to be mounted in a car or truck. I have the vehicle antenna, and all the kit.

    I have a power supply for use as a base station, and also a good long base antenna. But I've simply never cranked it up to start working it.

    We could continue this very useful discussion on the Amateur Radio section (in Living Off The Grid).


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  5. Link to Post #43
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Local update. The roadblocks were all lifted overnight after the government backed down last night. I not only had my leaking fuel line to deal with, but also a couple of bills to pay at the bank in town that were way overdue (including my power bill, OMG). So I set off as soon as I could.

    There were huge felled trees over the road literally every half mile, but no-one was there, and the traffic was able to pick its way through. The first thing I did was get my cracked fuel line welded, and then I went to hunt for more supplies. The supermarket shelves were half empty, but I was able to shop around and pick up what I needed. Not much... just extra backup resources (and dog food!) in case it all flares up again.

    Which it might. The indigenous people still have all their long-lasting grievances, and none of those are being addressed as best I know. (But, we'll see.) The indigenous here have already brought down 3 governments, and this one will be a fourth in their sights. They're tough and determined, and ruthless if need be. The government does know that.

    The astonishing thing was how well, and rapidly, this was organized. All through social media, of course, but every poor person in Ecuador (and there are many) was doing their part to bring the country to a sudden, grinding halt.

    That happened within 24 hours, and then it just got worse when the students joined in, and the indigenous people marched on Quito. The solidarity and widespread support — and fast, effective action — were all impressive.

    It was very tough on the other local people: no-one could get to work, or move things, or sell things: it wasn't just the corporations that suffered. But the government was brought to heel by the people. That's what's supposed to happen... we should never forget.

    The last time I witnessed this was in Britain in 2000, with the blockade of the oil refineries. Some reading this may remember. Blockading supply chains really works these days... they're just so very fragile.

    Do remember! This can happen anywhere, at any time, for any reason. None of us live anywhere which is exempt or immune.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...-killing-spree

    Quote Ecuador... And The IMF's Killing Spree

    For close to 40 years the IMF has weaponized its handle on the western economy through the dollar-based western monetary system, and brutally destroyed nation after nation, thereby killed hundreds of thousands of people. Indirectly, of course, as the IMF would not use traditional guns and bombs, but financial instruments that kill – they kill by famine, by economic strangulation, preventing indispensable medical equipment and medication entering a country, even preventing food from being imported, or being imported at horrendous prices only the rich can pay.

    < more at link >
    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

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    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Glad things have eased off for you and the locals Bill. phew.

    Never heard of this before though:
    Quote The first thing I did was get my cracked fuel line welded
    Sounds a bit dangerous to me, 'weld a fuel line' 0.o
    I'm guessing you mean a replacement pipe was fitted.
    I'm a simple easy going guy that is very upset/sad with the worlds hidden controllers!
    We need LEADERS who bat from the HEART!
    Rise up above them Dark evil doers, not within anger but with LOVE

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  11. Link to Post #46
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Don’t fall for beleaguered government’s line: Crisis in Ecuador is just getting started

    RT
    15 Oct, 2019 15:46 /
    Updated 3 hours ago
    Get short URL


    Quito, Ecuador, October 13, 2019 © Reuters / Henry Romero

    Appearances can be deceiving. Nowhere does this old adage ring truer than in Ecuador, which is emerging from the rubble created during an 11-day uprising.

    The protests that rocked the South American country appear to be over. President Lenin Moreno announced Sunday night that he would repeal an austerity measure that caused tens of thousands of people to take to the streets. Over 1,300 people were injured, over 1,100 people were arrested, and at least seven demonstrators were killed in the protests, which demanded that Decree 883, which cut fuel subsidies in the country, be lifted.

    But the truth is that the political crisis that has gripped Ecuador over the past two weeks is far from over: the IMF agreement that spawned Decree 883 is still firmly in place, and Ecuador’s workers are in for a long road ahead.

    But how did we get here? How did Ecuador go from one of being a global leader in poverty reduction to another third world IMF basket case in just two years? The story is a long one, but it goes something like this:
    After a period of 10 years in which they had seven presidents, Ecuador finally achieved political stability in 2007 under the leadership of President Rafael Correa, a fierce critic of the IMF and the US government. A charismatic leader and a doctor in economics, Correa was able to unite social movements in a racially and ethnically diverse –and divided– country through what he and his followers called “The Citizen’s Revolution.” With Correa as President, Ecuador experienced strong, sustainable economic growth, while drastically reducing poverty and inequality.
    The revolution achieved great success, undergoing a transition from a neoliberal political economy dependent on the United States to one that emphasized social investment and regional integration. Ecuador virtually abandoned the IMF, and singled that entity out as a major foe to Ecuador’s development. Ecuador also joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) in 2007, alongside the socialist bloc of Latin America – Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

    Things were going well in Ecuador; one could argue, for the first time since the conquest. So well, in fact, that once Correa’s second term in office was up, his hand-chosen successor, Vice-President Lenin Moreno, easily won the election. Moreno promised to continue the Citizen’s Revolution, just as Correa had.
    But then something changed. Moreno flipped.

    Soon after Moreno took office in 2017, he joined the country’s elites in a witch hunt against supposed corruption within the Correa government. He began cozying up to Washington and pulling away from ALBA. Moreno then signed the deal with the IMF.

    Decree 883, which kickstarted this month’s uprising, was part of a $4.2 billion loan agreement made between Moreno’s government and the IMF. Like all IMF loan contracts in the region, this deal stipulated that Ecuador undergo structural adjustments to supposedly make the country more attractive for foreign investors. That means gutting government programs, cutting social spending, freezing wages, cutting the taxes paid by transnational corporations and shifting the tax burden onto workers. Therefore, the cutting of fuel subsidies, which instantly shot the price of gas up 30 percent at the pump, was just the first domino to fall.

    But not all protesters were content with the simple abolishment of Decree 883. In addition to demanding its repeal, many protesters also called for the IMF agreement itself to be cancelled, and some even demanded Moreno’s resignation.

    These more drastic calls for change were eventually drowned out once the politically moderate, anti-Correa indigenous nations’ group, CONAIE, joined the protests. CONAIE impressively mobilized indigenous groups from across the country to take charge of Quito, but the group had the more modest and practical goal of having Decree 883 lifted.

    Now, let’s get back to the ‘lifting’ of Decree 883. It appears here that CONAIE, which in the past has been accused of being too cozy with Moreno’s government, settled for a bad deal, as the decree can only be replaced by a similar measure.

    “The government will substitute decree 883 for a new one that contains mechanisms to focus resources for those that most need it,” Moreno announced via Twitter. What this ‘new’ decree looks like is anyone’s guess, but it’s likely to look a lot like the ‘old’ one, given that the IMF agreement explicitly calls for the cutting of fuel subsidies.

    As a side note, the language Moreno uses in his tweets is eerily identical to the words used in the IMF agreement that his government signed. For example, the IMF states that Ecuador’s “authorities reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the social safety net to ensure that the most vulnerable households are protected.”

    In these examples, both the IMF and Moreno justify the cutting of social spending through the use of clever wordplay. They both state that the poorest of the poor will receive assistance, but this is a tacit admission that the bulk of the poor will not.

    This is austerity. And this is what Correa’s followers will continue to reject.

    Although CONAIE has been quieted, this may not last. And it’s guaranteed that supporters of the Citizen’s Revolution will not stand pat and watch as everything they’ve worked for gets unravelled by Moreno and the IMF.

    The clock is ticking until Moreno’s term is up in 2021, but if he sticks to his IMF guns – as it appears he must – it’s unlikely that he’ll make it that far.

    By Enrique Rivera, Ph.D., a historian of Latin America.


    Related:
    Last edited by Hervé; 15th October 2019 at 22:51.
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  13. Link to Post #47
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Quote Posted by Hervé, quoting RT (here)
    the IMF agreement that spawned Decree 883 is still firmly in place, and Ecuador’s workers are in for a long road ahead.
    Yep. This is the bit that's easily overlooked. Ecuador's government still has its devil's deal with the IMF. So they now have to do something else.

    And they're weaker now (within Ecuador), and the indigenous groups are a lot stronger, having won the streetfight hands down.

    It all has the superficiality of normality here once more, but I did have the very strong intuition a couple days ago that this was going to drag on, in one form or another, for a long time.

    The indigenous people alone (never mind the unions) can stop the country in its tracks any time they want to. While news about the protest was focused on Quito and Cuenca, with many journalists and photographers watching everything that happened, the indigenous were stopping oil production in the jungle.

    Ecuador lost something like $3 bn in 11 days. That's an economic disaster, so there's even more motivation for the government to try to recoup that. HOW they'll do that, I have no idea, but I have the feeling that whatever they do, the people will push back hard.

    I now have my cracked fuel pipe welded (they removed the pipe, welded it, and replaced it), and stocked up on a lot more inexpensive but important basic supplies like rice, oil, salt, soap, cans of things, candles, matches, and so on. I was doing well in Round 1, but in future rounds, should the bell ring, I'll be just fine.

    What I might get, if I can, is a cheap little generator: just to keep my internet and battery-chargers running, plus a few lights. Chinese generators are very inexpensive here, and it does seem like quite a smart idea.

    The protestors never thought to bring down the power lines, but it'd be really easy for them to do that (with felled tall trees) if they decided to. This thread might not be closed yet.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 15th October 2019 at 20:36.

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  15. Link to Post #48
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    A good summary article about how Ecuador's President Moreno shot himself in the foot. Quite a lot of this I said myself right at the start, though I'm entirely untrained in economics and knew little about Ecuadorian politics. Not tooting my horn! (At all.) Just pointing out that it was simply that obvious.
    Austerity Bites for Ecuador’s President

    Ill-timed cuts to fuel subsidies amounted to a self-inflicted wound.
    14 October, 2019

    Indigenous Ecuadorians celebrate their victory over Moreno in Quito

    Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno knows something about indigenous politics. Before rising to the top office in 2017, he served two terms as vice president to Rafael Correa, the disruptive caudillo who tapped the frustrations of excluded indigenous communities to fuel his “Citizens Revolution” before they turned on him.

    Before that, Moreno saw two other presidents fall, in 1997 and 2000, after they clashed with the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.

    Now Moreno is the target of native wrath. How the usually astute leader failed to foresee the conflagration caused by his Oct. 1 announcement of cuts to fuel subsidies and other austerity measures is a mystery. So are his plans to escape it.

    After 11 days of marches, vandalism, looting and clashes with security forces, indigenous-led crowds chased Moreno from the capital Quito to the coastal city of Guayaquil and back again.

    After appealing for a national dialogue, Moreno on Sunday announced a truce and promised to scrap the offending fuel decree for another negotiated measure. Indigenous leaders in turn agreed to call off their general strike, but tensions still smolder.

    Moreno was right to order the dismantling of fuel subsidies. Ecuador’s economy is slowing, unemployment is ticking upward and consumer confidence is low. Bankrolling cheap fuel costs Ecuador $1.4 billion a year, distorts prices across the economy, encourages waste and helps the wrong people.

    An Andean-sized sierra of policy papers shows that garnishing taxes to keep fuel cheap may please the people, but doing so disproportionately benefits the wealthier classes. The International Monetary Fund found in a study of several developing countries that just 7% of the benefits from fossil fuel subsidies found their way to the poorest 20%.

    Nonetheless energy populism is a classic sleight of hand by crowd-trolling Latin American demagogues and authoritarians: Ecuador’s fuel subsidies date to the days of military rule. Although low-income earners may get relatively paltry benefits, they come to see cheap fuel as a modest compensation for their misfortune. That makes removing subsidies politically hazardous.

    It’s even worse if the national leaders do so at the behest of foreign bean-counters like the IMF, with whom the Moreno government signed a $4.2 billion Extended Fund Facility Arrangement early this year. The fund, typically, prescribed broad austerity measures, including a tax reform and changes to the rigid labor code, which discourages hiring, plus an overhaul of the money-hemorrhaging pension system.

    Correcting those distortions would go a long way to restoring Ecuador’s fiscal health after years of checkbook profligacy. Buoyed by climbing oil prices, Correa lavished money on public works and payroll, driving public debt from around 29% of gross domestic product in 2006 to more than 40% in 2017.

    He further undermined government accounts by loading up on foreign debt through oil-backed loans, relying on China as Western lenders wary of Ecuador’s legacy of defaults kept their distance. Moreno inherited those debts just as oil prices slumped, then added some of his own.

    Yet the sudden end to fuel perks triggered an insurrection. You wouldn’t have guessed that from the wonks in Washington. In its July report, the IMF argued that scrapping subsidies would have “a relatively small impact” on the poor and that the savings (0.5% of gross domestic product this year) would “create additional space for compensation.”

    Moreno apparently was counting on just such a trade-off, and offered a $15 monthly family benefit and a government housing plan for the 5 million poorest Ecuadorans.

    Monica de Bolle, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says that call gets the policy priority exactly backwards. “If you are going to scrap energy subsidies, you create compensations first. Then you transition out of the subsidy,” she told me. “Otherwise you impose an immediate burden on the lowest earners, because fuel prices are inelastic and prices will go up by the amount of the subsidy.” Ecuador’s gasoline prices rose 25% last week while diesel better than doubled.

    A recent Inter-American Development Bank study had flagged the danger, noting that many countries have tried and failed to remove fuel subsidies. The reason: “even if economically inefficient, subsidies are a visible and effective means to transfer some income to poor and vulnerable households.”

    And yet the harsh measure announced by decree was vintage Moreno — a mostly mild-mannered politician nonetheless given to centralizing decision making and then springing fait accompli on a wary public. Recall that in April, Moreno abruptly ordered Wikileaks impresario Julian Assange to vacate the London embassy where he’d taken refuge seven years before.

    That, too, was the right decision: Assange had become the guest from hell. But the move made the Andean nation a target of nasty street protests and still rankles some citizen groups.

    Likewise, the decree ending fuel subsidies came “suddenly, with no public discussion and little apparent preparation,” noted Andres Mejia Acosta, a political scientist and scholar of Latin American politics at Kings College London. “Moreno has a knack for latching onto ideas and then letting off a bombshell.”

    Moreno’s tempestuousness doubtless delighted his opponents. No one perhaps more than Correa, whom Moreno accused of ventilating discontent to force him to resign or call early elections. Although Correa is ineligible to run again for president, he cheerfully offered his services for any other posts.

    Yet Correa’s clout is limited. He left Ecuador for Belgium under a legal cloud and has since seen former aides and associates targeted by police or, like his former vice president, jailed for corruption. Even if Correa returns to politics, his abrasive legacy alienated allies and left a fractured opposition.

    For all his impolitic ways, Moreno is working on fixing problems he didn’t create. His spendthrift predecessor burned through the bounty of the commodities boom and called it a revolution. Moreno got stuck with the check and the riddle of how to break promises no one could keep.

    Restoring subsidies Ecuador can’t afford won’t solve the problem. Angry Ecuadorans must decide whether he deserves a chance to finish the job or, like three presidents press-ganged from office in the last three decades, be shown the door.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Quote Posted by Hervé (here)
    Ecuador finally achieved political stability in 2007 under the leadership of President Rafael Correa, a fierce critic of the IMF and the US government. A charismatic leader and a doctor in economics, Correa was able to unite social movements in a racially and ethnically diverse –and divided– country through what he and his followers called [I]“The Citizen’s Revolution.”
    I remember back in the early 80s nobody ever said anything bad about the IMF except ... the late Lyndon LaRouche! He told Latin American governments that they were being screwed over by the IMF with austerity measures, and that it was a calculated scheme. Now it is common for people to think so, as did Correa.

    Goes to show, the world always needs mutable sun sign people (Gemini, Sagittarius, Pisces, Virgo) to shake the world awake. As Gemini Trump said, he thrives on controversy.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Ecuador – and the IMF’s Killing Spree

    By Peter Koenig
    Global Research, October 14, 2019


    For close to 40 years the IMF has weaponized its handle on the western economy through the dollar-based western monetary system, and brutally destroyed nation after nation, thereby killed hundreds of thousands of people. Indirectly, of course, as the IMF would not use traditional guns and bombs, but financial instruments that kill – they kill by famine, by economic strangulation, preventing indispensable medical equipment and medication entering a country, even preventing food from being imported, or being imported at horrendous prices only the rich can pay.
    The latest victim of this horrifying IMF scheme is Ecuador. For starters, you should know that since January 2000, Ecuador’s economy is 100% dollarized, compliments of the IMF (entirely controlled by the US Treasury, by force of an absolute veto). The other two fully dollarized Latin American countries are El Salvador and Panama.

    The Wall Street Journal recently stated that Ecuador “has the misfortune to be an oil producer with a ‘dollarized’ economy that uses the U.S. currency as legal tender.”

    The Journal added,
    “the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against other currencies has decreased the net exports of non-oil commodities from Ecuador, which, coupled with the volatility of oil prices, is constraining the country’s potential for economic growth.”
    Starting in the mid 1990’s, culminating around 1998, Ecuador suffered a severe economic crisis, resulting from climatic calamities, and US corporate and banking oil price manipulations (petrol is Ecuador’s main export product), resulting in massive bank failures and hyper-inflation. Ecuador’s economy at that time had been semi-dollarized, like that of most Latin American countries, i.e. Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil – and so on.

    The ‘crisis’ was a great opportunity for the US via the IMF to take full control of the Ecuadorian (petrol) economy, by a 100% dollarizing it. The IMF propagated the same recipe for Ecuador as it did ten years earlier for Argentina, namely full dollarization of the economy in order to combat inflation and to bring about economic stability and growth. In January 2000, then President Jorge Jamil Mahuad Witt, from the “Popular Democracy Party”, or the Ecuadorian Christian Democratic Union (equivalent to the German CDU), declared the US dollar as the official currency of Ecuador, replacing their own currency, the Sucre.

    Adopting another country’s currency is an absurdity and can only bring failure. And that it did, almost to the day, 10 years after Argentina was forced by the same US-led villains to revalue her peso to parity with the US-dollar, no fluctuations allowed. Same reason (“economic crisis”, hyper-inflation), same purpose: controlling the riches of the country – absolute failure was preprogrammed. Did Ecuador not learn from the Argentinian experience and converted her currency at the very moment the Argentinian economy collapsed due to dollarization, into the US dollar? – That is not only a fraud, but a planned fraud.

    Ecuadorian goods and services quoted in dollars, became unaffordable for locals and uncompetitive for exports. This led to social unrests, resulting in a popular ‘golpe’. President Mahuad was disposed, had to flee the country, and was replaced by Gustavo Noboa, from the same CDU party (2000 – 2003). Ever since the dollar remained controversial among the Ecuadorian population. President Rafael Correa’s quiet attempt to return to the Sucre, was answered by a CIA-inspired police coup attempt on 30 September 2010.

    In 2017, the CIA / NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and the US State Department have brought about a so-called “soft” regime change. They urged (very likely coerced) Rafael Correa to abstain from running again for President, as the vast majority of Ecuadorians requested him to do. This would have required a Constitutional amendment which probably would have been easily accepted by Parliament. Instead they had Correa endorse his former Vice-President (2007-2013) Lenin Moreno, who run on Correa’s platform, the socialist PAIS Alliance. Therefore, expected to continue in Correa’s line with same socioeconomic policies.

    Less than a year later, Moreno turned tables, became an outright traitor to his country and the people who voted for him. He converted Ecuador’s economy to the neoliberal doctrine – privatization of everything, stealing the money from the social sectors, depriving people of work, drastically reducing social services and converting a surplus economy of tremendous social gains into one of poverty and misery.



    President Correa left the country a modest debt of about 40% to GDP at the end of his Presidency in 2017. A debt-GDP ratio that would be no problem anywhere in the world. Compare this to the US debt vs. GDP – 105% in current terms and about 700% in terms of unmet obligations (net present value of total outstanding obligations). There was absolutely no reason to call the IMF for help. The IMF, the long arm of the US Treasury – ‘bought’ its way into Moreno’s neoliberal Ecuador, coinciding with Moreno evicting Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

    The IMF loan of US$ 4,2 billion increases the debt / GDP ratio by 4% and brings social misery and upheaval in return, and that as usual, at an unimaginable cost, by neoliberal economists called “externalities”. It was practically a US “present” for Moreno’s treason, bringing Assange closer into US custody. What most people are unaware of, is that at the same time, Moreno forgave US$ 4.5 billion in fines, interest and other dues to large corporations and oligarchs, hence decapitalizing the country’s treasury. The amount of canceled corporate fiscal obligations is about equivalent to the IMF loan, plunging large sectors of the Ecuadorian population into more misery.

    Besides, under wrong pretexts it allowed Moreno to apply neoliberal policies, all those that usually come as draconian conditions with IMF loans and that eventually benefit only a small elite in the country – but allows western banking and corporations to further milk the countries social system.

    According to a 2017 report of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), an economic thinktank in Washington, Ecuador’s economy has done rather well under Rafael Correa’s 10-year leadership (2007 – 2017). The country has improved her key indicators significantly: Average annual GDP growth was 1.5% (0.6% past 26 years average); the poverty rate declined by 38%, extreme poverty by 47%, a multiple of poverty reduction of that in the previous ten years, thanks to a horizontally distributive growth; inequality (Gini coefficient) fell substantially, from 0.55 to 0.47; the government doubled social spending from 4.3% in 2006 to 8.6% in 2016; tripled education spending from 0.7% to 2.1% with a corresponding increase in school enrollments; increased public investments from 4% of GDP in 2006 to 10% in 2016.

    Now, Moreno is in the process of reversing these gains. Only six months after contracting the IMF loans, he has already largely succeeded. The public outcry can be heard internationally. Quito is besieged by tens of thousands of demonstrators, steadily increasing as large numbers, in the tens of thousands, of indigenous people are coming from Ecuador’s Amazon region and the Andes to Quito to voice their discontent with their traitor president. Government tyranny is rampant. Moreno declared a 60-day state of emergency – with curfew and a militarized country. As a consequence, Moreno moved the Government Administration to Guayaquil and ordered one of the most severe police and military repressions, Ecuador has ever known, resulting within ten days to at least 7 people killed, about 600 injured and about 1,000 people arrested.



    The protests are directed against the infamous Government Decree 883, that dictates major social reforms, including an increase in fuel prices by more than 100%, reflecting directly on public transportation, as well as on food prices; privatization of public services, bringing about untold layoffs, including some 23,000 government employees; an increase in Aggregated Value Taxes – all part of the so-called “paquetazo”, imposed by the IMF. Protesters called on Moreno, “Fuera asesino, fuera” – Get out, murderer, get out! – Will they succeed?

    The IMF’s guns are needlessly imposed debt, forced privatization of social services and public assets as railways, roads, and worst of all, health, education, water supply and sewerage services. Unemployment rises, extreme poverty skyrockets, public service tariffs – water, electricity, transportation – increase, often exponentially, depriving people from moving to work or look for new employment elsewhere. Diseases that otherwise may have been curable, like cancers, under the new regime lack medication. Patients die prematurely. Depression brings about rapidly rising suicide rates, as the British medical journal Lancet has observed in many IMF oppressed countries, but especially in Greece.

    Targeted are primarily those nations that do not want to bend to the dictate of Washington, and even more so those with natural resources the west covets, or countries that are in strategic geographic locations, where NATO wants to establish itself or get a stronger foothold, i.e. Greece. The IMF is often helped by the World Bank. The former providing, or rather coercing, a ‘debt-strapped’ country into accepting so-called rescue packages, billions of dollars of loans, at exorbitant “high-risk” interest rates, with deadly strings attached.

    The latter, the WB, would usually come in with loans – also euphemistically called “blank checks” – to be disbursed against a matrix of fulfilled conditions, of economic reforms, privatizations. Again, all usually resulting in massive government layoffs, unemployment, poverty. In fact, both the IMF and the WB approaches are similar and often overlapping – imposing “structural adjustment” (now in disguise given different names), to steal a countries resources, and sovereignty, by making them dependent on the very financial institutions that pretend to ‘help’ them.

    The three most recent and flagrant cases of IMF interference were Greece, Ukraine and Argentina. Greece was doubly destroyed, once by her brothers and sisters of the European non-Union that blackmailed them into staying with the euro, instead of exiting it and converting to their local currency and regaining financial sovereignty.

    Ukraine, possibly the richest country in terms of national resources and with an enormous agricultural potential due to her fertile soil, was “regime changed” by a bloody coup, The Maidan massacre in February 2014, instigated and planned by the CIA, the EU and NATO and carried out through the very US Embassy in Kiev. This was all long-term planning. Remember Victoria Nuland boasting that the US has spent more than 5 billion dollars over the past five year to bring about regime change and to convert Ukraine into a fully democratic country and making it ready to enter the European Union?

    The western allies put a Nazi Government into Kiev, created a “civil war” with the eastern Russia-aligned part of Ukraine, the Donbass. Thousands of people were killed, millions fled the country, mostly to Russia – the country’s debt went through the roof, and – in comes the IMF, approving in December 2018a 14-month Stand-By Arrangement for Ukraine, with an immediate disbursement of US$ 1.4 billion. This is totally against the IMF’s own Constitution, because it does not allow lending to a country at war or conflict. Ukraine was an “exception”, dictated by the US. Blamed for the ever-changing and escalating Ukraine fiasco was Russia.

    Another IMF victim is Argentina. In December 2015 through fraudulent election, Washington put a neoliberal henchman into the Presidency, Mauricio Macri. He carried out economic and labor reforms by decree and within the first 12 months in office, increased unemployment and poverty from about 12% he inherited from his predecessor, Christine Kirchner, to over 30%.

    Within 15 years of Kirchner Governments, Argentina largely recovered from the collapse of 2000 / 2001 / 2002, accumulating a healthy reserve. There was no need to call the IMF to the rescue, except if it was a pre-condition for Macri to become president. In September 2018, Argentina contracted from the IMF the largest ever IMF loan of 57.1 billion dollars, to be disbursed over a three-year period, plunging Argentina in an almost irrecoverable debt situation.

    The Bretton Woods Organizations – World Bank and IMF, were created in 1944 precisely for that reason, to enslave the world, particularly the resources-rich countries. The purpose of these so-called international financial institutions, foresaw an absolute veto power of the United States, meaning they are doing the bidding of the US Treasury. They were created under the UN Charter for good disguise, and are to work hand-in-glove with the fiat monetary system created in 1913 by the Federal Reserve Act. The pretext was to monitor western “convertible” currencies that subscribed to the also newly modified gold standard (1 Troy ounce [31.1 grams] of gold = US$ 35) , also established during the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944.

    Both organizations started lending money – the Marshall Fund, managed by the world Bank in the 1950s – to war devastated Europe, moving gradually into economic development of “Third World” countries – and, eventually, in the 1980s showing their evil heads by introducing the neoliberal doctrines of the Washington Consensus worldwide. It is a miracle how they get away with spewing so much misery – literally unopposed for the last 30 – 40 years – throughout the world. Why are they not be stopped and dismantled? – The UN has 193 members; only a small proportion of them benefit from the IMF-WB financial crimes. Why does the vast majority – also potential victims, remain silent?

    *

    Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; Greanville Post; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

    The original source of this article is Global Research
    Copyright © Peter Koenig, Global Research, 2019

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    Last edited by Hervé; 16th October 2019 at 11:21.
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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    A little more. Do see this thread:
    There, a couple of months ago, the Puerto Ricans, including large numbers of young people, took to the streets to successfully oust the corrupt and widely disliked governor, Ricardo Rosselló.

    But there was no violence or aggression of any kind. It was more like a big carnival: dancing, music, but also, underneath that, a really strong united resolve.

    This photo tells the story:



    In Ecuador, People Power also brought the government to its knees. But the mood was much more grim and serious, and there were many outbreaks of violence. Several people died.

    The difference was the deep well of simmering anger that's been unresolved for a long time. Puerto Rico no longer has its indigenous culture: tragically, they were all wiped out long ago. The indigenous gene is still there, but the genetic memory of those bad times is very diluted now.

    But in Ecuador, there are over a million indigenous people, all very much alive, angry, tough and determined. They have their genetic memory as well, and it's very strong.

    So that greatly influenced the tenor of the protests. When caught up in the roadblocks personally, I could feel the anger. It wasn't to be messed with.

    As per some of the articles posted above, this is what President Moreno is now faced with. An angry, active, well-connected indigenous population of 1.1 million. They've stepped back a little now, but their long-term outrage is still right there.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 16th October 2019 at 17:24.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    And more still: a different perspective on the roots of all this.
    (Google translation here, very slightly tidied by myself. The English isn't at all perfect, but the message here can be understood.)

    Ecuador discovers that the enemy is at home, and that the intelligence services failed

    A report by a Colombian TV channel has analyzed images of the recent actions of groups of protesters, especially in Quito, and its conclusion is overwhelming.

    Those groups of young people who had their faces covered and moved with such agility, using protectors and tubes to launch projectiles at the Police, are not ordinary people. The way to move like that, as a military squad, isn't learned in schools or universities, but via rigorous, specialized training.

    That's why they used rocket launchers with such skill, the same ones used by special forces in riot units — the report said. They are experts who teach how to use the protective shields we all saw and covered those who threw projectiles with tubes.

    The conclusions were more dramatic: something similar has been used recently in some Colombian cities, causing severe damage. The investigations that were carried out later realized that those who trained the protesters were agents from Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia itself, all countries where armed groups have caused major problems.

    How did we get to this? Never before in present-day Ecuador had the action of gangs been seen, styled like this as urban guerrillas. 12 days of unemployment and mobilizations removed the blindfold from Ecuadorians who came face to face with terror, with hordes well-trained for evil.

    The building of the Comptroller in flames was a very carefully planned act. The rage against the TV station Teleamazonas by assaulting its facilities, breaking glass and doors and setting fire to the bus and several cars in which its employees were traveling, was in revenge for the journalistic revelations.

    Nor had it ever been seen that uncontrolled hordes entered neighborhoods in search of destruction, intent on harm. That insurgence into towns and cities made men, women, and especially children, know this barbarism all too well.

    The inhabitants there had to stand guard 24 hours to safeguard their lives and property. In several areas of Quito, some well-off, but also in some sectors where simple people lived, it was evident that they wanted to frighten them severely so that the chaos would prevail.

    In Guayaquil, a strategic move, jointly by the authorities and also the citizens there, prevented their city from being damaged on October 9 — a glorious date on which their independence is celebrated. But on the same day, the historic center of Cuenca was vandalized.

    With tools, they broke cobblestones and sidewalks; they shattered traffic lights and some of the new tram infractructure, yet to be operational. And looting the premises of a milk company, as well as flower and vegetable producers, was unprecedented.

    Another act of barbarism was to tear apart patrimonial buildings in Quito, as well as its centuries-old cobblestones, and to burn a Metro station. Videos recorded how cash was delivered to the vandals. It became clear that we must act to remove the evil... but at its real root.

    This indoctrination of the ideology of hate demonstrated what is capable even among people who were peaceful but also naive. Behind everything, there was the most perverse use of the indigenous movement.

    The coup leaders perversely ensured that no justice would befall them. That is why it was unlikely that the president of CONAIE, Jaime Vargas, would allow the Armed Forces to withdraw support for President Moreno.

    In all this, it's clear that political intelligence failed. It just wasn't known that all this had germinated in the country.

    How did they not follow up after Ricardo Patiño announced that they were going through the phase of taking buildings and sowing chaos? How did they not monitor those who Rodrigo Collahuazo, in 2016, trained in the use of weapons and attacks, although they said it was a picnic? How did they not presume that the mafias that traffic fuels to Colombia, Peru and the ships in the Pacific were going to react because of the rising cost of gasoline and diesel?

    The only thing they got right was to warn that the government and the president were at imminent risk. The president did well to move the government headquarters to Guayaquil. But that does not excuse them, in any way, of their negligent attitude that put the whole nation in serious danger.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 16th October 2019 at 21:29.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Thank you Bill. I have a cousin and a friend of my son who had first hand experience with people from Venezuela and Cuba who were “ helping our Ecuadorian brothers “‘ during the riots, destroying whatever they encounter. ( after we open our country while they were escaping from their own ) I will tell you their experience. Unfortunately I am busy getting ready to go and see my daughter ..... but as soon as I have time I will share.

    Edit : that google translation is not bad or you were very good ! Have to teach myself how to use it. Sometimes I find articles that can show another point of view and feel lazy translating them.
    Last edited by Rosemarie; 16th October 2019 at 21:30.
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Quote Posted by Rosemarie (here)
    I will tell you their experience. Unfortunately I am busy getting ready to go and see my daughter ..... but as soon as I have time I will share.
    Wonderful Rosemarie!


    Enjoy your time together.
    ........

    Last edited by RunningDeer; 23rd June 2022 at 12:32.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    The conclusions were more dramatic: something similar has been used recently in some Colombian cities, causing severe damage. The investigations that were carried out later realized that those who trained the protesters were agents from Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia itself, all countries where armed groups have caused major problems.

    I suspect they are agent provocateurs from these countries, orginally, but funded by those who want civil unrest to force regime change. They can then seize or control oil fields and other natural and public resources.

    Whoever wrote this piece would like us to equate the actions of these organized thugs with the political system and leaders of their country of origin. It further demonizes Venezuela and Cuba, killing several birds with one stone.

    Things aren't what they appear, imho

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    From: https://cuencahighlife.com/tension-builds-between-indigenous-and-the-government-as-conaie-rejects-economic-reforms
    Personal note: I'm now well-prepared for the next round of nationwide protests, which is far from unlikely. If this all happens again, it would mean travel, even short distances locally, would be impossible. But I have a good store of food, gasoline, and gas for heating and cooking, and if necessary I could sit out an extended siege in comfort.

    Tension builds between indigenous and the government as CONAIE rejects economic reforms
    15 Nov, 2019

    There has been no progress in efforts to reconcile the positions of Ecuador’s indigenous movement and the government since the two sides agreed to talk October 13, ending 10 days of nationwide protests.


    Jaime Vargas

    “There have been no meetings since October 24,” according to Jaime Vargas, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie). “The government is now engaged in persecution and repression against our people and as long as this continues there can be no talks. If the situation does not change we may be forced to return to the streets.”

    Vargas and other indigenous leaders are angered by the arrests of hundreds of protesters as well as an investigation into comments made by Vargas suggesting that the indigenous would form their own army. “Instead of reaching out to us, the government is treating us as criminals,” he says.

    Indigenous leaders are also upset about the package of economic reforms that the government submitted to the National Assembly and that is currently being debated. “This is even worse than the presidential actions [the suspension of fuel subsidies] that created the national strike in October,” Vargas says.

    Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza adds that the government’s economic reforms are a “capitulation to the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and will punish Ecuador’s indigenous and poor.” He adds that the government is ignoring the economic proposals submitted by Conaie two weeks ago. “This is in the hands of the executive and the National Assembly president but it is not being discussed.”

    Tensions have also risen over a verbal exchange between Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner and Vargas, in which Sonnenholzner rejected Vargas’ suggestion that he needed permission to visit indigenous communities. “As I understand it, an Ecuadorian does not need a visa to travel in his own country,” the vice president said.

    Vargas says that the indigenous movement is considering its next move given the “worsening climate of non-cooperation.”

    Among those considerations, he says, is preparation for the February 2021 elections. “We are building a coalition of support among the indigenous, peasant, transporter, mestizo and Afro communities and believe we will be a powerful force at the polls.”

    Vargas says it is too early to say whether the movement will present a presidential candidate or whether the movement will be organized under the indigenous Pachakutik party banner. In recent elections, Pachakutik has had limited success, rarely polling more than two to three percent in local and national elections.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    RT Spanish pulled from broadcasting in Ecuador 'because they gave me platform' - Correa

    RT
    Mon, 18 Nov 2019 17:10 UTC


    © AFP / Aris Oikonomou

    Former leader of Ecuador Rafael Correa believes his country's national broadcaster suddenly cut its distribution of RT Spanish simply because the channel gave him a platform to air views critical of Lenin Moreno's government.
    "I am very sorry, I feel bad, because I think the National Telecommunications Corporation has cut off RT's broadcast because of me," Correa, who hosts a weekly political talk show on the channel, said.

    "In this particular case it looks like RT is being censored simply because they offered me a platform for my program."
    Correa's comments come days after Ecuador's National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) decided to cease its broadcast of RT Spanish without prior notice or explanation.

    The latter has "not yet received any explanation" from the NTC for its decision, Maya Erkova, deputy head of RT's Distribution Service confirmed on Monday. Curiously enough, last month, Ecuador's Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo publicly complained about the channel's coverage of massive anti-Moreno protests, sparked by planned austerity measures, which rocked the Ecuadorian capital of Quito for weeks.

    In the midst of chaos, Moreno accused Correa of attempting to "destabilize" the state. Moreno's critics argue, however, that his quick embracing of neoliberal IMF-approved economic policies, not outside or foreign meddling, are to blame for recent turmoil.

    Indeed, since the right-wing Moreno government took the reins, Ecuador has gone from being a global leader in poverty reduction to "another third world IMF basket case," historian Enrique Rivera wrote for RT last month. A 2017 paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) found that Ecuador's poverty rate declined by 38 percent and extreme poverty by 47 percent thanks to a doubling of social spending and government programs aimed at helping the poor under Correa's leadership.

    Correa said the decision to cut RT Spanish reflects that fact that the Moreno government "keeps talking about freedom of speech," but in reality "applies double standards," he said.

    "This is a national broadcaster [NTI]. It belongs to all citizens of Ecuador, and it doesn't belong to Lenin Moreno."

    Correa has also claimed recently that Moreno enjoys a cozy relationship with much of the country's media, which has been "distorting facts" and covered the anti-government protests selectively.

    The RT Spanish team covering the demonstrations were assaulted by police attempting to disperse protesters last month, with camera crew and reporters being pushed and beaten with batons. "Our helmets saved our lives," RT correspondent Nicolas O'Donovan said at the time.

    The current leader of the Latin American country has also overseen a drastic shift in policy on the fate of Australian whistleblower Julian Assange, who was granted political refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly seven years under the Correa government. Assange was arrested inside the embassy in April after Moreno decided to revoke his asylum in a decision Correa called "a crime that humanity will never forget." Human rights groups as well as renowned journalists and politicians also castigated the move by Moreno.

    RT Spanish, which began its broadcast in 2009, is popular across Latin America, with a weekly audience of 21 million viewers and a monthly average of 25 million viewers, the channel says.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Excerpted from: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/y...uador-us-coup/

    How Ecuador’s US-backed, coup-supporting ‘ecosocialist’ candidate Yaku Pérez aids the right-wing

    Ecuador’s presidential candidate Yaku Pérez supported coups in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. His US-backed party Pachakutik and supposedly “left-wing” environmentalist campaign is being promoted by right-wing corporate lobbyists.



    QUITO, ECUADOR – Ecuador’s February 7 presidential election concluded in a surprise: The quick count published by the country’s National Electoral Council appeared to show a little-known candidate named Yaku Pérez Guartambel in second place, securing a narrow victory over right-wing candidate Guillermo Lasso, a banker with significant influence in the country.

    Most polls had predicted that the presidential race would boil down to two presidential candidates, who could hardly have been more different: On one side was the conservative banker Lasso, who had the backing of Ecuadorian elites and the United States, and had unsuccessfully run for president twice before; while on the other was a youthful left-wing economist, Andrés Arauz, who follows in the footsteps of socialist former President Rafael Correa and wants to return to his Citizens’ Revolution.

    But while polling consistently showed him coming in third place, Yaku Pérez stayed in the race until the end. And unlike Lasso, Pérez didn’t claim fidelity to the right-wing; he ran what was marketed as a progressive environmentalist campaign.

    Pérez, an Indigenous leader from Ecuador’s party Pachakutik, purported to be the true left-wing option in the election, condemning Arauz and the socialist Correista movement he represents for being insufficiently pure. But Pérez’s political record suggests he is a Trojan horse for the left’s most bitter enemies.

    The support Pérez apparently has from the US embassy reflects his dubious role. Immediately after the election, when Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) had still not officially published results determining who would go to the presidential run-off in April, Pérez said the US embassy called him and assured he would be the second-place candidate.



    Pérez has viciously attacked other progressive movements in Latin America, supporting right-wing US-backed coups targeting Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, and demonizing those countries’ leftist governments as “racist.”

    His political views fuse ultra-leftist, anarchistic critiques of existing left-wing states with an objectively right-wing political agenda. And his opposition to state power is deeply opportunistic. While Pérez harshly criticizes China, he has simultaneously pronounced he “will not think twice” about signing a trade deal with the United States.

    Full article is here: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/y...uador-us-coup/

    [ ... ]

    The party of Yaku Pérez, Pachakutik, identifies as “ecosocialist” and claims to represent Ecuador’s Indigenous communities. But like the candidate that represents it, the party employs left-wing rhetoric to paper over regressive goals.

    Pachakutik is closely linked to NGOs funded by Washington and EU member states. The party’s leaders have been trained by the US government-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI), a CIA cutout that operates under the auspices of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

    The NED publicly lists more than $5 million in grants for NGOs in Ecuador just in the years from 2016 to 2019. Much of this money has bankrolled anti-Correa opposition groups like Pachakutik and its allies.

    [ ... ]

    Pachakutik’s ties to Washington are extensive. One of its most prominent former members is Fernando Villavicencio, an Ecuadorian journalist who spearheaded a disinformation campaign targeting journalist Julian Assange, peddling discredited but deeply damaging claims about the Wikileaks publisher through the major British newspaper The Guardian.

    Villavicencio’s anti-Correa activism also appears to have been funded by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy.

    Villavicencio served as an advisor for Pachakutik National Assembly member Cléver Jiménez, who helped lead the 2010 coup attempt against Correa.

    Yaku Pérez held a public demonstration in support of Villavicencio and Jiménez when Correa sued them for defamation for spreading blatant fake news about him.

    [ ... ]

    The deployment of ostensibly progressive “environmentalist” talking points to destabilize left-wing governments in Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, and beyond was developed over a decade ago, to weaken the democratically elected government of Ecuador’s former socialist President Rafael Correa.

    To undercut Correa, the United States and Western European governments funded civil society groups in Ecuador that claimed to support environmental causes and indigenous rights, but ended up serving as tentacles of the right-wing opposition.

    Throughout their tenures in office, Ecuador’s Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales faced heavy opposition to their ambitious infrastructure initiatives. Environmentalist and indigenous groups, many supported by the United States, initiated widespread protests in 2011 to try to stop the construction of a large highway in Bolivia, with similar demonstrations to obstruct mining projects in Ecuador in 2012.

    Cables from the intelligence firm Stratfor, known as the “shadow CIA,” that were published by WikILeaks show that the US government contractor was carefully monitoring anti-Correa protests, and specifically named Pérez Guartambel, then known as Carlos Pérez, in 2011.

    The most extreme attempt at destabilizing Correa’s government came with a violent US-backed coup attempt on September 30, 2010. Defectors from the Ecuadorian police and military occupied the parliament, blocked major streets, took over state institutions, and effectively kidnapped Correa.

    Five people were killed in the attempted putsch, and hundreds were wounded. Ecuador’s opposition nearly succeeded in removing the elected president from power.

    Full article is here: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/y...uador-us-coup/

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    Quote Posted by Kryztian (here)
    Excerpted from: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/y...uador-us-coup/

    How Ecuador’s US-backed, coup-supporting ‘ecosocialist’ candidate Yaku Pérez aids the right-wing
    Many thanks, Chris — and now things are getting complicated and controversial.

    Pérez claimed election fraud, when (as in the US!) the reported vote count seemed to do something pretty strange at the very last minute. At first a recount was authorized, but that has now been canceled by the National Elections Council. News article here:
    Pérez represents (or claims to represent) indigenous people in Ecuador, and so there's sure to be big trouble ahead unless the recount resumes and is agreed to come to a fair result.

    In October 2019 indigenous groups, together with bus and taxi owners, brought the country to a total standstill. Nothing could move. This was triggered by tax increases on gasoline and diesel, and the country lost billions of dollars. The government backed down after 10 days.

    There were locally organized roadblocks (manned barricades with burning tires even on minor roads), while the police stepped away and did nothing to intervene. I got entangled in all that for a full 36 hours, unable to get home till I eventually found a way via a string of obscure mountain dirt roads.

    Ever since then, I've maintained a healthy backup of supplies, ready to be holed up at home for quite a while if ever necessary. So, we'll see what happens. If they insist on no recount then I'm all prepared.

    But that would be kinda crazy: recounts should never be a problem if an election is disputed. (Someone tell that to the US Supreme Court. ) And Ecuador's economy, like that of many other countries, has suffered considerably. So another blow to the economy would be a severe impact — which of course the indigenous leaders know all too well.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 17th February 2021 at 12:59.

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    Default Re: Turmoil in Ecuador

    VIDEO: Ecuador’s indigenous revolt against their neoliberal president

    😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
    The Grayzone spoke with leaders of Ecuador’s indigenous movements, now engaged in ferocious street protests against the privatization policies of President Guillermo Lasso, a billionaire banker. The activists defended their demands and detailed the brutal repression they have witnessed as their rebellion spreads across one of the last right-wing controlled countries on the South American continent.

    https://thegrayzone.com/2022/06/20/e...ral-president/



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