- ECUADOR: A CITIZEN REVOLUTION

In 1979 Ecuador returned to a democratic regime when President Jaime Roldos took office, but the people’s expectations were higher than the governmental capacity to make them real. The doubtful death of President Roldos determined the beginning of the Political Parties Dictatorship, a period that was called: The Partidocracia Age. After a deficient government of Oswaldo Hurtado, Roldos’s Vice-president, a powerful politician named Leon Febres Cordero came to power representing the “Partido Social Cristiano” (“PSC”). This government was characterized by authoritarian policies, disrespect of the other functions of the State and social conflict. Alfaro Vive Carajo, a revolutionary guerrilla, started to fight for social justice in the country with violent means following the Nicaraguan example; in turn, the government began a battle against “terrorism”, in which human rights were not respected. In 1988, Rodrigo Borja, another important political leader came to power with the “Partido Izquierda Democratica” (“ID”), which proposed a social democratic tendency but that in practice maintained the neo-liberal system. For the following years these two politicians who were opponents for each other, decided Ecuador’s political history and that period of time was called “Febresborgismo”.

The Political Parties Dictatorships led by “PSC” and “ID” were strong and Febres Cordero was called the Owner of the Country. In 1996, Abdala Bucaram won the presidential elections and the most ashamed chapter of the contemporary history of the country was written by a populist politician without any working plan but his insults and explosive personality. Common people started to protest against the economic policies that increased the price of basic services, but also the protests were in the name of national dignity. In February 5th, 1997, the Congress removed Bucaram adducing mental incapacity and the political parties, showing their unlimited power, appointed Fabian Alarcon, who was the President of the Parliament, as provisional President, however the Constitution established that the vice-president had to assume power. The chauvinism of parties violated the legislation against the ex Vice-president Rosalia Arteaga. That was the beginning of an irrational historical period of weak governments, strong oppositions and total social inconformity. Alarcon called a Constitutional Assembly to write a new Constitution and through a seat distribution method the neo-liberal political parties won majority. In the Assembly of 1998 the political pact of the “partidocracia” was consolidated in the new Constitution which also incorporated an advance in some rights.

No elected government could rule the country under the Constitution of 1998. Jamil Mahuad from the “DP”-“UDC” was removed from power in 2000 by a military and indigenous revolt. In 2002, Lucio Gutierrez, a colonel who participated in Mahuad’s overthrowing, won the presidential elections showing a left tendency that questioned the old political parties. However in the government he showed his real face, isolating Pachakutic and then breaking their alliance. A pact was signed without any condition with the IMF; Gutierrez appointed bankers as economics ministers, external debt was paid in advance, even thought he was opposed to that during the campaign and finally he declared his government the best ally of the United States in Latin America.

On December 9th, 2004, a majority in the Congress controlled by Gutierrez removed the Supreme Court of Justice and named another one according to his own interests, which acquitted Bucaram who returned to Ecuador from his political exile in Panama. Gutierrez’s absolute control of State Institutions and the repression on those who protested against him were the detonating factors that started the “Revuelta Forajida” which constituted a national rejection to the corrupt government. The capital city of Quito was the center of the protests that finally resulted in the overthrowing of Gutierrez who cowardly escaped from the palace and then from the country. The Vice President Alfredo Palacio took on the power promising to refund the Republic with constitutional reforms, but he failed. During his government a new political figure appeared as his first Minister of Economy: Rafael Correa.

Facing the certainty of the collapse in the institutional system and the failure of the Constitution of 1998, Rafael Correa won the presidential elections of 2006 against the multimillionaire Alvaro Noboa who was a defender of Neo-Liberalism. Correa promised a Citizen Revolution through a new Constituent Assembly but the Congress were in absolute opposition to that idea. So the social sectors that supported the idea of a new Constitution started to fight against the Congress and after a complex political process the National Constituent Assembly was inaugurated in the city of Montecristi on November 29th, 2007. The first decisions of the Assembly were the confirmation of Rafael Correa as president and the Tributary Law that was indispensable to begin a culture of taxation, apply progressiveness, sanction evasion, establish the possibility of subtracting personal expenditures from the Income Tax and, with this all, strengthen the Rule of Law. On September 28th, 2008, the Ecuadorian people approved the New Constitution of Montecristi through a Referendum and the great advances of this political letter consist of radical changes to the old structures of power. The Constitution of 2008 guarantees free justice, health and education until the third level, improving the rights of people with disabilities, recognizing the facultative vote for adolescents, nature rights, and the food sovereignty principle.

The Constitutional State of Rights and Justice provided by the Constitution is the guarantee for a country ruled by the citizen power; consequently, the State involves two new branches apart from the three classical ones: The Function of Transparency and Social Control and the Electoral Function. The first one is in charge of citizen participation in the public administration and their responsibility to control power decisions. The Electoral power was reorganized in order to democratize political parties and to avoid this political organizations to be the judge and an interested party. In order to surpass the traditional political conflicts and to warn politicians to achieve transparent political agreements, the New Constitution also provided the Crossed Death which means that the presidential dismissal or Congress dissolution results in general elections for both. And one of the most important advances of the Montecristi Constitution is the new view of development based on people’s necessities instead of marked necessities; the free-market economy model is changed by the joint economy and the Sumak Kawsay, that means Good Living and refers to the principle of living with dignity, satisfying our basic needs and wants in harmony with the environment.

The Citizen Revolution has three years in power and until now the achievements are overwhelming: 146 thousand popular houses have been built; free education and health permitted an increase in school registration and external consultations of 11% and 12% respectively, in 2008. Ecuador is advancing to be a territory free of illiteracy as the percentage was reduced from 9% to 6%. Thirty thousand property tittles were given to peasants. In the middle of the Global Economic Crisis, our poverty was reduced from 37% to 35%. In economic terms the refloating of the small and medium industry and the protection and incentive of the national production were successful. The renegotiation of the External Debt was a world level achievement because it was reduced in 93%; in the medium term this reduction is translated into more o less 10 thousand million dollars in savings. The U.S. Military Base in Manta left the Ecuadorian territory when Correa’s government refused to sign their treaty. The dependency on the oil industry was also reduced from 50% to 30%.

Under the Citizen Revolution government a new way of measuring development has been implanted based on poverty reduction and a major income distribution instead of the economic growth itself, which is important but not the center of the economy. The constitution based on a joint and popular economy also incorporates the informal work as part of production. The Citizen Revolution has a lot to do yet, its achievements are short compared to Ecuador’s problems, but our country knows that this process of change supposes hard times before the society is freed from misery, as dreamt and offered by Rafael Correa; the Established Order was defended by the strong force whose privileges were affected by a leftist government that for first time in Ecuadorian history has returned the power to the common citizen. Jorge Enrique Adoum, one of the great Ecuadorian and Latin American writers wrote his ideal Ecuador that we should achieve some day: “I believe in a country where we can be capable of seeing over the shoulder the ruin that put a curfew on our back, and build a luminous landscape for all, because we go to the light that is forward and is waiting for us at the end of the large tunnel. I believe that that country is this one. I believe in this country.”