Ecuador: an unprecedented wave of violence
Yesterday, 9 January, we saw on the news across the world a scene of unprecedented violence in Ecuador, mainly in Guayaquil, but also in the capital Quito. What is happening, and why?
Yesterday, 9 January, we saw on the news across the world a scene of unprecedented violence in Ecuador, mainly in Guayaquil, but also in the capital Quito. What is happening, and why?
Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador's banker-president, has used Article 148 of the Constitution – known as the “muerte cruzada” or “mutual death” – to shut down the National Congress just two hours before the vote on his impeachment trial for corruption was due to begin. Elections must now be called within six months to renew both the executive (the president) and the legislature (the Congress), but in the interim, the president remains in office and rules by decree without parliamentary oversight. It is therefore a power grab or, as some have described it, an autogolpe (a self-coup).
Ecuadorians went to the polls last Sunday, 5 February, for municipal elections and to vote in an eight-question referendum called by the banker-president Guillermo Lasso. Lasso’s party came out of the municipal elections completely defeated, while ‘Yes’ – defended by Lasso – lost in all eight questions of the referendum. The elections were a hard blow to the capitalist oligarchy and its political representatives.