Ecuadorian Election: US Secures Another Neoliberal Champion Without
Intervening (Overtly)
By the time of the 2021 presidential election in Ecuador, the playing field
had been rendered so precipitously unlevel that the US had little need to
overtly intervene.
by Roger D. Harris
April 27th, 2021
By Roger D. Harris
QUITO, ECUADOR The U.S. role in the defeat of leftist Andrés Arauz in
Ecuadors presidential contest on April 11 was not overt because it did not
need to be, according to a high-ranking Latin American diplomat. We met with
the diplomat and others on an official election observation delegation with
CODEPINK. Names of some sources remain anonymous due to a hostile political
environment towards progressives.
This setback for the Citizens Revolution movement, founded by Rafael Correa,
will have profound implications for Ecuador and beyond, fortifying the
U.S.-allied reactionary bloc in Latin America.
Former President Correa left office with a 60% approval rating. He had been
twice elected president on the first round; unprecedented for Ecuador, which
had a turnover of seven presidents in the previous decade. His Alianza País
Party had won 14 elections, reflecting the popularity of their wealth
redistributive programs, including reducing extreme poverty by half.
Correas chosen successor, Lenín Moreno, will exit on May 24 with a
single-digit approval rating. Much happened in the ensuing four years.
Correa went from being the most popular democratically elected president in
the countrys history to having his party rejected by an electoral majority.
¿Qué pasó? What happened?
In 2017, Correa had campaigned for his former vice president to carry on
their Citizens Revolution. However once in office, sitting President Moreno
turned sharply right against his former colleagues, employing lawfare to
decapitate the leadership of the Citizens Revolution. His own
vice-president, Jorge Glas, is now in prison and other top officials have
been forced to flee Ecuador. Correa, accused of using psychic influence,
was convicted in absentia in an evidence-weak corruption trial that
prevented him from returning to Ecuador.
According to Correas attorney, Fausto Jarrín, Moreno was assisted by the
U.S. in this legal dismantling of his own party. Casting pretenses aside,
Moreno was in Washington on the day of the first round of the Ecuadorian
presidential elections. Just before the second round, Moreno and his top
officials flew to the Galapagos to meet with the U.S. ambassador.
Moreno handed the shop over to the U.S. He revoked Julian Assanges
Ecuadorian citizenship, allowing Assange to be arrested in the U.K.. He
recognized Juan Guaidós bogus claim to the presidency of Venezuela. After
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Ecuador, the FBI was welcomed back.
Even a U.S. military base in the Galapagos (part of Ecuador) was gifted to
Washington.
Moreno expelled Ecudaors Cuban doctors and withdrew from key regional
alliances: UNASUR, CELAC, and ALBA. At a time of COVID, these actions had
lethal consequences. Had Ecuador instead maintained its membership in the
regional organizations, their collective power could have been used to
obtain vaccines and other resources to fight the pandemic.
Moreno imposed an IMF austerity package on Ecuador, only to be partly
withdrawn in the face of a massive indigenous-led protest in October 2019.
Then, under the cover of the presidential election campaign and pandemic,
Moreno reinstated the unpopular measures.
With Anti-IMF Candidate Surging in Polls, Ecuador's Moreno Flies To DC Amid
Talk of Suspending Election
Adding to worries that a Bolivia-style coup might be imminent in Ecuador,
Lenín Moreno will spend his final days in office in Washington, DC.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Feb 2
The turncoat Moreno adopted a full-throated neoliberal program and is
scrambling to enact additional economic reforms before his term is over,
to prevent the next administration from putting the toothpaste back in the
tube. But he neednt worry. Not only does incoming President Guillermo
Lasso pursue the same neoliberal program, but members of Lassos rightwing
political party collaborated with Moreno in the National Assembly.
This has been a brilliant strategy for the right. Ecuador is in economic
crisis, with the impacts of austerity measures exacerbated by the pandemic.
By putting in place a full neoliberal program before leaving office, Moreno
spares Lasso the onus of the unpopular measures while serving international
finance represented by Lasso and the U.S.
Lawfare used to rig the electoral playing field
Ecuadors electoral authority, the CNE, did not recognize the Arauz campaign
until December for a February 7 first-round election. Arauz, who was sick
with COVID in December, had spent the last four months battling for party
certification while the other campaigns were gaining momentum.
Unlike its rich banker opponent, the Arauz campaign was strapped for funds
to build an on-the-ground campaign infrastructure. More important, lawfare
measures prevented them from even using their partys name, forcing them to
cobble together UNES as their new party.
Further, Correa, with his considerable name recognition and popularity, was
banned from running as Arauzs vice president. Worse, the party was
prohibited from using Correas image, name, or voice in its campaign
materials. Yet other parties could invoke Correa to smear the Arauz campaign
by falsely accusing Correa of corruption and associating Arauz with Correa
as also corrupt.
Despite all these hurdles, Arauz won the first-round election with a 32%
vote share, giving him a 13-point lead over second-place Lasso, but short of
the 40% needed to avoid a second-round contest. Arauz also was leading in
the polls, but that was to change with a massive disinformation campaign.
Rightwing propaganda campaign
The rightwing mobilized its near monopoly of mass media to spin sworn
enemies Moreno and the Citizens Revolution as allied, in what an Arauz
campaign leader characterized as the TikTok and meme-ification of
political discourse.
Arauz, an energetic 36-year-old economic wiz, was portrayed as stupid and
lethargic. In contrast, the 65-year-old conservative Lasso put on a pair of
red shoes and was marketed as hip.
A four-year rightist media campaign portrayed Correa and associates as
corrupt. A Citizens Revolution militant explained, if you repeat a lie ten
times, it becomes a truth. The NGO left, funded by the U.S. and its
European allies, contributed to this inversion of reality.
Lasso, third from left, his wife Maria, second from left, and VP Alfredo
Borrero, far left, pose with Moreno in Quito, April 19, 2021. Dolores Ochoa
| AP
Struggle ahead in Ecuador
Guillermo Lasso, owner of the second largest bank in Ecuador, won with a
5-point margin. Arauz said in his concession speech: This is an electoral
setback but by no means a political or moral defeat.
With 49 out of 137 seats in the National Assembly, his party remains the
single largest bloc. The task of the Citizens Revolution politicians,
according to party leaders, will be to maintain unity within their own ranks
while forging coalitions with potential allies.
Meanwhile, they will have to fend off continued lawfare attacks and
repression from the right. Some militants have already left the country.
The second largest bloc in the assembly with 27 seats is the ideologically
diverse and indigenous Pachakutik. The Citizens Revolutions relationships
with the leadership of some indigenous organizations and, for that matter,
certain labor unions have at times been contentious.
Correa opposed the clientelism of the past and shunned selling ministries
and other positions to politically influential leaders in return for their
support. Correa concentrated instead on serving the interests of their
constituents with infrastructure projects for underserved indigenous
regions, granting water rights, and promoting multicultural education and
health policies. Likewise, workers got wage gains.
In retrospect, the Citizens Revolution is now openly self-critical about
running roughshod over some indigenous and labor leaders. Amends will have
to be made, according to a former Correa minister.
Promoting democracy in service of the U.S. empire
Ruling elites hold elections to legitimize their rule, not because they
believe in democracy. By the time of the 2021 presidential election in
Ecuador, the playing field had been rendered so precipitously unlevel that
the U.S. had little need to overtly intervene as it did in Bolivia in 2019.
But that did not mean that the U.S. was not actively intervening. The
websites of USAID, NED, NDI, and IRI make no secret of the imperial hubris
of pretending to promote democracy in Ecuador. The U.S. laid the
groundwork, according to a high-level diplomat, to unify the right and rig
the contest against the left.
Ecuador: US-Backed Govt Scrambles to Privatize the Central Bank Before
Elections
With just days until elections in Ecuador, the government and right-wing
elites are still scrambling to privatize the countrys central bank
MintPress News | Desk | Feb 5
As William Blum revealed, U.S. intelligence had, prior to Correa and likely
since, infiltrated, often at the highest levels, almost all political
organizations of significance, from the far left to the far right
In
virtually every department of the Ecuadorian government could be found men
occupying positions high and low who collaborated with the CIA for money.
Commenting on the new Biden administration, Correas former Ambassador
Ricardo Ulcuango observed that U.S. foreign policy is the same with
Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats, he added, are more dangerous
because they are better at speaking about cooperation when they are in fact
intervening.
