Desperate
to ingratiate his government with Washington and distract the public
from his mounting scandals, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has
sacrificed Julian Assange – and his country’s independence
by
Denis Rogatyuk
Part
3 - The IMF Deal and a turn towards the US
During
the recent meeting of the Executive Board of the IMF, the financial
body approved a loan package of $4.2 billion to the government of
Lenin Moreno for what it called a “more dynamic, sustainable,
and inclusive economy for the benefit of all Ecuadorians.” The
agreement coincided with layoffs of over 10,000 public sector
workers, in addition to the ongoing policy of slashing in public and
social spending, a decrease in the level of minimum wage and the
removal of secure work protections that marked the sharp neoliberal
turn of the Ecuadorian government under Moreno.
The IMF
deal coincided with the intensifying attempts by the Ecuadorian
government to proceed with the expulsion of Julian Assange from its
London embassy. His arrest therefore stands as a sign that Moreno is
willing to give up any part of his country’s sovereignty –
political, diplomatic, or economic – to comply with the demands of
international finance.
The same
pattern has been seen in Moreno’s increasing level of collaboration
with the Trump administration and its foreign policy in Latin
America. From holding private meetings with former Trump campaign
manager Paul Manafort, to publicly hosting Mike Pence in the
Ecuadorian presidential palace, to authorizing the opening of a new
“Security Cooperation Office” in place of the old US military
base in Manta, Moreno’s embrace of Trump’s “Monroeist” policy
towards Latin America has become all too apparent.
At the
same time, Moreno has gone to great lengths to undo the progress of
Latin American unity and integration initiated by his predecessor and
other progressive leaders in the region.
On March
13th, Lenin Moreno announced that Ecuador would leave the Union of
South American Nations (UNASUR) international agreement originally
founded in 2008 by leaders of South America’s so-called pink tide
like Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Lula
Da Silva of Brazil. The project was inspired by the long-standing
vision of Simon Bolivar who envisaged South America as a federation
of various republics, and was meant to consolidate the growing
economic and political integration among the increasingly progressive
governments across the region, ultimately emulating the current
structure of the European Union.
Moreno
complained in his press release that UNASUR has been compromised by
the lack of participation of the right-leaning governments in the
region, as well as what he called, “irresponsible actions of
certain leaders that replicated the worst vices of socialism of the
21st Century.”
In a
manner similar to Francisco Santander and the project of Gran
Colombia during the 1820s, Moreno has opted for a pro-US foreign
policy and commercial relations based on free trade and economic
liberalization. He has also followed the path of other right-wing
leaders in the region such as Jair Bolsonaro and Mauricio Macri in
officially recognizing Juan Guaido as the President of Venezuela.
Moreno was even among the attendees of the founding summit of Prosur,
a newly convened regional block of US-aligned neoliberal governments.
Source,
links:
Nearly a year ago, these predictions unfortunately are now reality: https://t.co/gQonJV7uSC— failedevolution (@failedevolution) April 12, 2019
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