Getting rid of "El Loco"
The massive rainbow coalition which forced the Ecuadorian parliament to remove President Abdalá Bucaram only six months after his election is the largest social mobilisation the country has seen in the last half century. Fernando López A week is a long time in politics, especially at times like these. The snowball protests of early November were much more than a continuation of the struggles against neoliberalism which public sector unions, peasants and Indians have been undertaking for years. It would be triumphalist, and dangerous, to assume that the majority rejection of Bucaram implies a thorough rejection of his neo-liberal policies. Because this was also a civic movement, led by a sector of the grand bourgeoisie, which recognised its own lack of a strategic project.
Nevertheless, a new generation of militants was inducted in the massive protests of February 5, 6 and 7.
Bucaram and his neo-liberal crusaders alienated a majority of the population in record time - six months, since he was elected on a populist and eclectic programme, as the "lesser evil". Despite his electoral promises, Bucaram followed a much more serious neo-liberal programme than his Social Christian predecessors. And rather than build a minimum consensus for his programme, he preferred, from the morning after his election, to provoke conflicts with the opposition, to weaken and intimidate them.
While Indian activists, public sector trade unionists and the women's movement felt the direct impact of his attacks, he also managed to alienate soccer supporters (by proclaiming himself chairman of Barcelona, the country's leading team), and inhabitants of regions which he felt did not support him. The extravagant consumption and waste that accompanied his travel, and the corruption that blossomed as never before alienated poor and middle class alike. His 19 year old son Jacob even held a massive party to celebrate his first $1 million "earned" through control of the customs authorities in Guayaquil. Meanwhile, the price of butane (domestic gas), milk and other basic products soared, creating buying panics and shortages which infuriated the poorest sections of society.
This diverse anger began to overflow on December 1st, when Bucaram announced a new economic plan, which would include the full convertibility of the national currency. This would ruin weaker sectors of the
3m108 economy, particularly in the mountain regions, terrorise the middle classes, concerned about their savings and shops, and provide fantastic opportunities for the governing clique to enrich themselves even further.
The division between the bourgeois fraction supporting Bucaram, and the section supporting the Social Christian party overlapped with the growing division between the government and those popular
Ecuador * cd bol sectors which openly opposed the neo-liberal economic policies being implemented.
What really divides the two bourgeois fractions is a struggle for booty - at the moment, the struggle for the proceeds of privatisation of the state sector and the social security system. As the gulf between them widened, with the parliamentary opposition increasingly relying on popular discontent, Bucaram was increasingly forced to rely on the support of international financial
March 1997 #286 23
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* Ecuador institutions, which loved his economic plans, the Armed Forces, and those sectors of the population which he had managed to immobilise or win over with his populist
The massive protests of February 5-7 were supported by the bourgeois right, led by the Social Christian Party, and the majority of business leaders, and by the country's leftwing forces and social movements.
What the left initially called a General Strike movement became a kind of national civic protest, with a constantly widening opposition front, coming to include most of the universities, local goverment bodies and "civil society". When even the Chambers of Commerce added their support, it became clear that the class nature of the protest had shifted conUntil a few days before these massive demonstrations, the bourgeois sectors certainly did not seek to bring down the government. Opposition politicians saw the protests as the first step towards their victory at the next regular elections, and an opportunity to force the government to reconsider the most unpopular and unjust elements in its programme. Only when they realised the size of the movement behind them did the deputies of the National Congress begin to discuss using Article 100 of the constitution to declare the President of the Republic unfit to hold office by reason of mental incapacity. Spontaneity
This was a cross-class civic movement, and a basically spontaneous one. It is hardly surprising that the bourgeois political forces dominated it. But each sector, each social force in Ecuador expressed themselves in their own way. Most of the sectors which became active had never before taken to the
The movement also reflected and expressed local characteristics. The citizens of Quito and Cuenca articulated their feeling that they had been neglected by the rulers. While the peripheral, coastal provinces of El Oro and Esmeraldas, Bucaramista powerbases, launched a call for a new federal arrangement on February 8th, in the middle of their hero's final struggle. Economic discontent was the glue which held these disparate social sectors together. Bucaram had broken all his beautiful electoral promises, and all people could see was arrogance, corruption and circus antics.
The radicality of these days of mobilisation can only be explained by the fact that some of the social forces in play were essentially defining themselves politically. Businessmen from the mountain inlands realised that the proposed convertibility of the national currency would wipe them out. The Indian movement CONAIE realised that the recent creation of a Ministry for Ethnic Affairs would be a mortal blow to their independence and existence. The Social Movement Co-ordination realised that, if the movement failed, Bucaram, who had already weakened the petrol workers, would be able to flatten the labour movement.
The role of the Armed Forces as guarantors of the established order was revealed during this crisis. The Army has certainly increased its credibility. The active role which the American Embassy plays in our national political life was also demonstrated.
Probably the most important consequence of this movement for social liberation movements is the powerful democratic consciousness which the Andean, Indian and lower-class population demonstrated, when they demanded the right to revoke political mandates, and a level of direct democracy, in which those below would be able to make the important
The "vanguard," the militants in the social movements, recognised that, without this popular upsurge, Bucaram would have been able to smash the opposition. We learned that the popular movement has the capacity to transform its demands into national demands, which can find an echo and sympathy in the wider masses. It was the Social Movement Co-ordination which first suggested the slogan "Bucaram must go" ("Que se vaya Bucaram"). By February Sth, the majority of the population agreed and, the next day, the slogan, under a full-page photograph of the demonstration, formed the front page of the Quito daily Hoy.
In the past, progressive forces like Pachakutik Nuevo País had, from time to time, absorbed and adopted the political demands of the Indian movement. In the movement of February 1997, the Indian demand for a national constituent assembly became an important democratic demand for the nation as a whole. While the precise content of the demand is hardly clear, the idea of a constituent assembly is certainly a slogan which will continue to mobilise people. The priority now is to give this slogan a popular and democratic form and content.
Given the weight of the bourgeoisie within the movement, there was no real possibility of a popular leadership emerging. Some people on the left still claim that we could have shaped a different scenario. We couldn't. We didn't have enough weight. Not only were the Armed Forces active in seeking and imposing a solution, but at the moment this mobilisation started, the social movements were so weak that they simply could not have sustained an independent initiative within such a wide, large cross-class movement. And, unexpectedly and most unusually for this kind of movement, the bourgeoisie and their political representatives were actively involved from the
Nevertheless, the man or woman in the street knows that s/he was what brought down the Bucaram government, and that the new government was imposed as a result of this mobilisation. The population still does not trust the political system and politicians in general. On February 7th, the new Presidential candidate Fabián Alarcón was almost deafened by the chants of "Watch out Alarcón, or you'll go the same way as the thief Bucaram]" and "Watch out Alarcón, the people are watching you" words, although Alarcón enjoys a high level of legitimacy, he doesn't have a blank cheque from the population. *
In the next issue of International
Viewpoint we will publish a longer analysis of recent events in Ecuador, a survey of the left, and an interview with
Nuevo País MP Rosendo Rojas.
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