People’s Rebellion in Ecuador [updated]

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

People’s Rebellion in Ecuador

On 17 June 2022 the Front to defend the People’s Struggles of Ecuador made an important declaration:

„Yesterday marked an important day of struggle throughout the country.

In the province of Imbabura, particularly in the city of Ibarra, the worker-peasant alliance totally paralyzed the city.

Fighting masses of peasants/indigenous took over the city totally and absolutely. The business was closed, the police were repelled and all activities were paralyzed.

The unions supported by the Imbabura Workers’ Defense Front were in charge of supporting this takeover and, in addition, blocking the main entrances and exits to the city.“

The same day in Ilumán the Pan-American highway was blocked. In Quito a stop of transport in most of the city took place, confrontation with the police and military was determined – the permanent siege and struggle to break the siege around the Governments Palace, unleashed true pitched battles – directed at handing over internal security management to the Yankees and particularly to Israel. In the Eastern Ecuador groups of indigenous people captured soldiers who were guarding oil wells. In Chimborazo, once again the Poor Peasant Committees closed the highway that connects the province with Pallatanga. Likewise, the city was completely taken over by the indigenous and peasants. In several provinces, police and military officers were captured and held in the communities.

On the 17th is was annouced not to negotiate but to insist on the demand of the withdrawl of Lasso, president of Ecuador since May 24th.

In response to the struggles the Lasso-Regime declared a state of emergency, sent more than 20.000 soldiers and 27.000 policemen to Quito. Reactionary bullets took their toll but the people stood strong: a contingent of peasants from the Committees of Poor Peasants of Chimborazo marched towards the capital.

The comrades struggled irreconcilable against different phenomena of opportunism, mainly against negotiations with the old state and the stance that soldiers and police are part of the people.

Comrade Guido Guatatoca from Puyo sacrificed his life suffering lethal injuries after he was shot in the head through his eye with a tear gas grenade.

Lately the comrades report on the massive infiltration by military intelligence service not only spying, monitoring and documenting but executing false flag actions in order to demobilise the masses.

This development is very important! Spread it!

Our comrades are doing a wonderful and beautiful work. The Ecuadorian people is struggling with determination. And once again this struggle confirmes:

It is right to rebel!

All power grows out of the barrel of a gun!

People’s War until communism!

Following to our article we reproduce a complete report published by A Nova Democracia:

Ecuador: Peasant rebellion reaches the capital and demands the ousting of the reactionary government

Demonstrators protest and demand the resignation of Guillermo Lasso at a burning barricade in Quito, Ecuador, 20 June 2022.

The peasants’ strike that began on 13 June continues in Ecuador. During this period, the strike turned into a huge popular rebellion of peasants, workers and other popular masses, which took the country from top to bottom and surrounded the capital Quito from the countryside. Thousands of peasants went to protest in Quito demanding the resignation of Guillermo Lasso from the presidency and thousands more continue to block roads, oil wells in protests in the interior of the country against the whole old order of oppression and exploitation.

Riot police repress peasants arriving in Quito on 19 June 2022. Photo: Reuters/Johanna Alarcon

At least 16 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces are mobilised for the strike. Of these provinces, only the provinces of Pichincha (whose capital is Quito), Cotopaxi and Imbabura were previously in a state of emergency. However, the government of banker president Guillermo Lasso, backed into a corner, extended it to Chimborazo, Tungurahua and Pastaza.

Peasants arriving in Quito block roads. Photo: Reuters/Johanna Alarcón

In Cotopaxi alone, the epicentre of the demonstrations in the first week, there were more than 63 mass actions registered by the Interior Ministry. In addition, more than a dozen police and military personnel have been kidnapped by the rebel masses throughout Ecuador and more than 15 vehicles have been attacked.

Faced with the great popular uprising, Lasso, worn out and weak, said he would increase economic aid to the vulnerable sectors, subsidise the price of urea by up to 50% for small and medium farmers, and the public banks would cancel all overdue loans of up to 3,000 dollars, and there would be no increase in the price of fuel, nor privatisation of public services and strategic sectors. Promises that did not succeed in deceiving the masses and diverting them from the militant path of the people’s struggle.

Demonstrators protest and demand the resignation of Guillermo Lasso at a burning barricade in Quito, Ecuador.

The demonstrators denounced that the measures of the reactionary government and the selling out of the country do not solve the economic problems that thousands of families are facing every day. The situation of the ruined peasant economy and the starvation wages of the workers and labourers that decrease with every crisis, as well as the rights taken away by every agreement with imperialism, everything is being questioned by the masses in rebellion in Ecuador. The demonstrators demand the departure of the ultra-reactionary president, as well as the fulfilment of the 10 points of the National Agenda of Struggles launched at the beginning of the mobilisation.

Two youths killed since the strike began

Two young people have already been killed during the national strike. The most recent victim of brutal police repression on 22/06 was Guido Guatatuca, a young Kichwa from the city of Puyo, who died when a tear gas canister was fired in his face and stuck in his face. To deny the murder, the police claimed that Guido was killed by “handling explosives”, however, the videos of his murder clearly show that it was a tear gas canister. Guido was a young peasant farmer from the parish of Curaray, on the border between Ecuador and Peru, belonging to the canton of Arajuno.

Bank of Guayaquil is destroyed after the murder of a farmer by the police. Photo: reproduction

After his death, peasants in Puyo rebelled in a police station, destroyed a branch of the Bank of Guayaquil, took over the government headquarters and burned several patrol cars.

Johnny’s family holds a sign that reads “you gave your life fighting for a better future for all”. Photo: Patricia Armijos

A 22-year-old man, Johnny Saúl Félix Muenala, who was marching towards Quito from the community of Cayabembe, in the province of Pichincha, died when he fell off a cliff during police repression of demonstrators arriving in Guayllabamba, near Quito. . The young man fell some 100 metres, amidst the firing of tear gas bombs by the Ecuadorian police, on 20/06.

His relatives who were marching near Quito say that for hours they heard the fallen youth calling for help. The brutal police repression and the darkness of the night did not allow family, friends and neighbours access to the place where the young man was found.

Johnny had become a father seven months ago to a baby boy and, according to his family, marched to Quito to demand a better future for his son. His mother says she says that “like everyone else”, he was protesting the difficult economic situation.

Photo of Johnny Felix with his son. Source: El Comercio

Three other people were injured in the repression. One with tear gas and two with rubber bullets. About seven people were detained.

The group of peasants from the community managed to break through the police siege and walked from 3 am until midday until they reached the capital.

THE PEOPLE MARCH TO QUITO

Demonstrators welcome the peasants arriving in Quito on 20 January 2022 with celebration.

Despite police blockades and curfews imposed by the reactionary government, thousands of peasants, workers and other labourers arrive in Quito marching on foot or in trucks and cars to participate in the demonstrations in the capital. Since the beginning of the strike, the reactionary Lasso government has resorted to a cowardly repression against the fighting masses, mobilising the reactionary armed forces to attack the demonstrators, who are resisting as best they can.

A protester is rescued by health professionals after being poisoned by tear gas fired by the police.

What has become evident, despite the repression and arrests against demonstrators, is that the demonstrators have managed to enter the city and are already being greeted with celebration by the masses of the capital on the main arrival roads and by other demonstrators who were already there. Students from Quito’s universities have opened the doors of the universities to welcome the demonstrators, where there have also been pitched battles against police repression.

Peasants from all over the country arrive in Quito on 19 June.

In Quito, on 17 June, the struggle was forceful and combative. Transport was paralysed in most parts of the city and the struggle to break the siege around the Government Palace unleashed real battles. In the city centre, the masses resisted the reactionary military. There were also actions aimed at undermining the intentions of the government to hand over the management of the internal security to the USA and particularly to Israel. In the midst of the siege of repression, the demonstrators carried out an act of burning the Israeli flag in denunciation of the semi-colonial status that the Lasso government intends to impose on the nation. On the 18th, dozens of demonstrators gathered in the extreme south of Quito. In the Cutuglagua area, where there was a blockade, a team of the Armed Forces and the National Police was sent to repress the people. However, minutes later, the demonstrators concentrated towards the north, where new clashes took place. The Metropolitan Transit Agency (AMT) reported road closures due to demonstrations at five other points in the capital.

Young peasants, workers and students protest in Quito. Photo: Thomson Reuters

Foto: FDLP-EC

The headquarters of the Casa de la Cultura del Ecuador (CCE) in Quito, founded in 1944 and home to the capital’s museums, film library and library, was taken over by the Ecuadorian police on 19 June to be transformed into a police station.

The president of the headquarters stated that the last time the Casa da Cultura was taken over by the police was 46 years ago, under the military-fascist regime. The seizure of the CCE took place after the Ecuadorian Public Prosecutor’s Office received an “anonymous complaint” that inside the CCE there was a group of people, among them foreigners, storing war material such as explosives and handmade weapons, with the aim of entering the Presidency of the Republic. Republic. Nothing was found inside the premises. The only “crime” committed by the CCE was, during the 2019 uprising, to host demonstrators from the interior of the country to Quito for days to protest. The car of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), where the organisation’s president was staying, was shot at on 18/06, while parked in front of a television station. In addition, trucks full of military and police officers are stationed around the Conaie headquarters in Quito, monitoring the area through surveillance cameras, bringing in undercover agents and whipping the demonstrators during the early hours of the morning.

WORKER-PEASANT ALLIANCE

Foto: FDLP-EC

In the province of Imbabura, particularly in the city of Ibarra, the alliance between workers and peasants has completely paralysed the city. Commerce was closed, the police were repelled and all local activities were paralysed. The Frente de Defensa de los Trabajadores de Imbabura (Workers’ Defence Front of Imbabura), which brings together several unions of workers and rural workers, blocked the main entrances and exits to the city, demanding the departure of Guillermo Lasso from the government and claiming that there is no possibility of negotiation with the banker president. The workers also pointed out that no popular leader can be talking about “dialogue”, and that the only way out of the crisis is for Lasso to leave. In Ilumán, despite the fact that a group of opportunist organisations decided not to join the mobilisations, the masses carried out the strike on the Pan-American Highway in an independent and militant manner.

Fotos: FDDT-I

In Chimborazo, the Committees of Poor Peasants (CCP) again closed the road connecting the province with Pallatanga. The city centre was also completely taken over by indigenous people and peasants. In addition, many masses of the CCP are marching towards the capital.

FARMERS STOP OIL PRODUCTION FOR EXPORT

Oil is Ecuador’s main export. Peasants and workers, tired of having to pay dearly for an abundant product – which goes only to imperialist countries and at very low prices – and which is exploited on large tracts of land – occupying peasants’ land and expelling them – massively blocked the oil route. There are currently more than 609 paralysed oil wells in the Amazon region. Petroecuador’s general manager also said that 124 “incidents were recorded on roads in its area of operation”, such as the felling of trees to block roads, which led to the filing of 20 complaints for sabotage, but so far no arrests have been made. In Limoncocha, in oil block 15, in Sucumbíos, peasants who tried to enter the block to protest against oil exploitation on their land were met with repression by dozens of reactionary soldiers from the Armed Forces, and some 10 seriously injured soldiers were taken to hospital.

Peasants block oil block 15 in Limoncocha. Photo: reproduction

In the town of San Sebastián del Coca, located in the province of Orellana, the local population, who were blocking the bridge over the Cañón de los Monos, were brutally repressed on 19/06 by the reactionary army so that trucks from an oil company could pass. The people had blocked the bridge for six days, allowing only pedestrians, emergency vehicles and at a set time for the passage of vehicles in general. The attack against the workers started at 2 am and the peasants and workers resisted for about two hours against dozens of tear gas bombs used by the reactionary military. One vehicle was set on fire by the local population. In the end, the military retreated in the face of the fury of the masses and the blockade continued at the Payamino bridge.

In another sector of Orellana province, in the parish of Dayuma, the Waorani community of Yawepare held a blockade on the road to Pindo and, defying the presence of the reactionary army in the area, the community refused to allow the entry of the generators from oil block 14 to be connected.

On 19 June, in the province of Pastaza, in the town of Villano, peasants maintained the blockade of oil block 10, which was guarded throughout the week by police and military personnel.

PEASANTS TAKE OVER GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The seat of government in the province of Pastaza, in the city of Puyo, was taken over in its entirety by demonstrators. More than 300 peasants from different communities of the interior marched to the place, broke down the iron fences surrounded by the police who prevented their advance and, given the great numerical superiority in relation to the reactionary military contingent, which could do nothing to prevent the victorious action of the masses, the people took the seat of government. One soldier of the reactionary Armed Forces was taken to hospital during the confrontation with the masses.

Camponeses take the city of Puyo. Photo: El Universo

In the province of Macas, city of Morona Santiago, more than a hundred people broke through the police siege and also took over the seat of government. In the province of Guaranda, city of Bolivar, protesters managed to enter the government headquarters and occupied it, placing the flags of their people on the terrace.

WE DON’T WANT DIALOGUE, WE MARCH TO GUAYAQUIL’.

On 18 June, indigenous people from La Maná, Cotopaxi province, announced a march to Guayaquil, the country’s second largest city. “We have made a decision: we are going to advance to the city of Guayaquil, we are going to get there. We don’t want dialogue, we want the government to withdraw”, said an indigenous leader after the peasant community was attacked by the National Police. And he assured that they will go to the city despite the obstacles placed by the Guayaquil City Council, such as trucks and heavy machinery at the five entrances to the city to prevent the protesters from entering.

‘UNTIL THE BANKER IS BROUGHT DOWN!’

Peasants from all over the country arrive in Quito on 19 June. Photo: Reuters/Johanna Alarcón

The Frente de Defensa de las Luchas Populares (FDLP) of Ecuador affirms that, once the masses have responded to the call and are mobilising throughout the country, the 10 points of the National Agenda of Struggle are not enough: “the correlation of forces has changed, the scenario is different from before the mobilisations began, what now corresponds is to unilaterally overthrow the banker; there is no room for dialogue, for agreements, or did we not learn from October when Moreno, the servant dog of the USA, deceived the indigenous/popular leadership?”.

In this regard, the revolutionaries affirm that this is not a re-edition of the rebellion of October 2019, the characteristics of this revolt are different: “The old landlord-bureaucratic state approaches it differently, it learned a lesson from how they were humiliated, crushed, defeated in that rebellion; and the masses know it, and we understand that the characteristics that we must imprint on this struggle are also of another kind: the wearing down, the weakening of the productive apparatus, the strangulation of the big cities in the countryside, the political deterioration of the government and its repressive apparatus, today more unpopular than ever, of isolating the opportunists until the final blow is struck.”

It also denounces the cowardly repression by the reactionary government of Lasso: “The response of the government and the state was repressive, harsh, as it could not be otherwise (…) [all this] shows the intentions of the regime to remain in government at any price, assuming in fact fascist behaviour”. And he also denounces that opportunism and reaction united in parliament to approve “the progressive use of force, a legal tool that the members of the repression were clamouring for and that they are unceremoniously ready to apply today in the course of the mobilisations”. “. . This means that there was already a fully defined plan of persecution and neutralisation of political activists as a prelude to the current repressive campaign”, recalling that before the Conaie meeting, a group of young people had already been arrested on charges of “terrorism” and subversive “activities”.

The revolutionaries also assert: “Lasso has pointed out that he does not need the National Assembly to govern; he has developed a populist campaign to win supporters among battered citizens; he has involved the US and Israel in internal security matters, further ceding national sovereignty; finally, he relies on repression to try to maintain the government and a political project that aims to reactivate the bureaucratic capitalism of the interests of the big comprador bourgeoisie, big business, bankers, landowners and importers”.

Therefore, they affirm that “there is no turning back, this mobilisation must go to the bottom and to the top, we must get the banker out of the government, we must neutralise imperialism’s plan to deepen the semi-coloniality of our country, we must seal with the struggle not only the objectives of reaction, but also the discriminatory and racist voracity of the big bourgeoisie that with crude pretensions spits out its feudal rancidity”.

The revolutionaries also launched a series of publications on their website pointing to the need to denounce the crimes of repression, demand the immediate release of all political prisoners and shatter the pacifist illusions of trusting in the promises of the old Ecuadorian bourgeoisie-landlord-servant state. of mainly US imperialism.