‘The drone revolution’: Ecuadorians revolt against repressive US-backed President Lenin Moreno’s neoliberal policies

Ecuador’s workers are rising up against the IMF-mandated neoliberal economic reforms of President Lenin Moreno, a close ally of Washington who calls them “zánganos,” or drone bees.

by Denis Rogatyuk

Part 6 - Moreno’s right-wing turn

While Moreno has proved himself a loyal steward of the IMF agenda, Ecuador has  witnessed a steady breakdown of constitutional law. Moreno’s repressive turn has manifested itself on numerous fronts, from his turning over of WikiLeaks publisher and political refugee Julian Assange to the British authorities to his persecution and imprisonment of the former Vice President Jorge Glas on dubious charges to his continuous political witch hunt against Correa and other leaders of the Citizens’ Revolution, such as the former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño and former assembly member Sofia Espin.

The Moreno government has also censored several critical media outlets, making concerted efforts to silence discussion of the INA Papers corruption scandal and the discovery of secret off-shore bank accounts linked to his family.

This all came as Moreno dismantled democratic structures at home, such as dismissing the newly elected Council of Citizens’ Participation and Social Control (CPCCS), and dismantled international structures of regional integration, like withdrawing from UNASUR and OPEC.

The Citizens’ Revolution Movement (MRC) has legally challenged Moreno’s declaration of national emergency, noting that it lacks any specific parameters regarding proportionality, legality, temporality, territoriality and rationality — all of which are mandated by the constitution.

Esther Cuesta, a member of the national assembly of the Citizens’ Revolution Movement, explained her party’s position regarding both the new rebellion and the growing authoritarianism and repression by the Moreno government:

                    “Millions of Ecuadorians, whom we join as the Citizen’s Revolution Movement, reject the neoliberal economic measures, dictated by the IMF and imposed to the Ecuadorian people by Moreno’s government, mainly because they will impoverish the vast majority of the population: the middle class, the working class and the poor, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, to the detriment of the future of children and younger generations.”

Cuesta further explained the significance of the zánganos movement in the historic context of the Ecuadorian people’s struggle against neoliberalism:

                    “Since the paquetazo announcement, what started as a transportation strike, emerged as a growing social protest all over the country and from different sectors of the population. Ecuadorian people have memory. The adjustment policies applied in the country the 1980s and 1990s provoked massive unemployment, impoverishing of the population, and about 12 percent of the population emigrated.”

For his part, former President Correa has cheered on the protest movement, tweeting, “Yo también soy zángano” — “I am also a drone.”

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Source, links, further info:

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/07/ecuador-revolt-lenin-morenos-neoliberal-drone-zangano/ 

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