Ecuador-Underdeveloping Democracy

...Its powerful leader, Assad Bucaram, of Lebanese parentage, was prevented from running for the presidency in 1978 by an NovlDec 1980 Ecuadorean law which forbids candidates who are not natural citizens...

...Because of competition on the international market, however, non-traditional Ecuadorean exports will have to keep their prices low by restricting benefits to workers...

...Following primary elections which narrowed the presidential field from six candidates to two, the electorate faced a choice between Sixto Durdn, candidate of the Right, and Rold6s, who was supported by what could be called Ecuador's political center...

...Already there are signs of social discontent, political frustration and worsening living conditions for the majority of people...

...Together with the rise in wages, a price freeze was decreed on basic necessities and services...

...Instead of concretizing the 21-point program, it rather presents a broad exposition of development policy...

...In another area of the economy, the government's oil policy seems to be a positive exception...

...With the current CEPE administration, contracting is at the company's risk and payment is in money...

...And the Armed Forces frequently hint that they are prepared to "save the country from the forces of disorder and subversion...

...This has meant shaping his policy to the detriment of popular hopes for change...

...The "21 points" During the electoral period, presidential candidate Rold6s (CFP) and his running-mate Oswaldo Hurtado (PDP) campaigned on a 21-point program...

...The fundamental issue is that a political regime is struggling to take shape in Ecuador which differs from traditional oligarchical or populist regimes...

...Yet that very alliance assured that the new government would be divided and hamstrung...

...This new majority has not succeeded in implementing its goal of activating a "legislature for change...

...The Current Legislature Beginning on August 10, 1980, when the second set of regular Congressional sessions began, and new leaders were to be elected, the political situation in the country changed slightly...

...In relation to El Salvador, however, the presence of Christian Democrats in the Ecuadorean government has prevented it from taking a more clearly condemnatory stance toward the militaryChristian Democratic junta...

...Oswaldo Hurtado, ideologue and top leader of the PDP, and Rold6s' vice-president, had already hurled the first epithets in 1976, declaring that the CFP, instead of evolving and developing its positions, had "become involuted...a mere instrument for the personal interests of its new caudillo"--Assad Bucaram...

...Roldos: An Unprecedented Victory Despite their control over the return to civilian rule, traditional power groups did not score an unqualified victory when Rold6s was voted into power...

...Rold6s never called the plebiscite...

...Soon after his victory, Rold6s broke with Bucaram...

...The Right's current tactic of putting Cabinet ministers on the dock may well weaken the government to the point that when municipal elections are held in December, it will have lost its image as benefactor in the eyes of the people...

...From this viewpoint, industrialization and import substitution are synonymous with national independence from world 38 capitalist centers...

...Up to now, CEPE has been selling oil at around U.S...

...eSocial policy: Separating "economic policy" and "social policy" as two areas of state administration, the plan defines its industrial and occupational programs in terms of first economic and secondarily social priorities...

...In the NACLA Reportupdate*update update update current situation, where world hydrocarbon reserves are saturated, a marginal oil-producing country like Ecuador is in a difficult position...

...Secondly, at the same time as it has provided credit and tax incentives for private firms, the government has seen fit to raise final prices...

...Despite this, prices have continued to rise illegally (on such items as milk, sugar, bread, green vegetables, meat, medicine, gasoline, transportation, rent, education...

...And, contrary to the Political Constitution, which stipulates that strategically important sectors like natural resources, public services and branches of social interest are reserved for the state, the Plan opens the door to private investment in the exploitation of oil, gas, minerals and forests, as well as steel and auto production...

...Backwardness versus progress...

...Prices have been reviewed or raised on agricultural goods, without solving the problem of intermediaries or strengthening the state commercial network which exists, in a weak form, to benefit small producers...

...Conditions, however, led to a different reality...

...So one can at least speak of an oil policy which safeguards the interests of the state...

...The CFP's partner in the alliance was the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), the result of a merger in 1978 between the Christian Democrats and the "progressive Conservatives," a split-off from the old Conservative Party...

...And weak because rather than resolve the "historical conflict" by means of democratic participation by the people, Rold6s has chosen to deal with it by traditional means, by making costly deals with the powerful sectors in dispute...

...It is a 30-year-old mass electoral party, defining itself as "national, anti-feudal and progressive...

...But these groups have never constituted a coherent force...

...It was implied that the "return process" would lead to a democratic opening and social reforms...

...With the participation of leftist activists, peasant demands for agrarian reform made themselves felt in 1973...

...The CFP launched an attack on the PDP in Congress, calling it "the historical conflict between those forces which seek the country's progress and those which resist in order to defend their traditional privileges...

...Or just more political infighting among powerful groups like all the others the country has known...

...Opening up to private capital: If industrialization is to be the axis of the new economy, it will be dominated by private investment-61 %, according to the Plan...

...The state has supported the development of large companies producing goods for export...

...Soon after taking power, Rold6s developed good relations with the Sandinista government in Nicaragua...

...Nonetheless, Ecuador's private industry has preferred to produce for export rather than satisfy internal demand and thus lower the cost of wage goods...

...There is no doubt that this distribution of investments will have an effect on the quality and final prices of housing...

...Because of this, both Texaco, associated with the Ecuadorean State Petroleum Corp...

...The Military Paves the Way The Ecuadorean military had begun preparing for "el retorno"-the return of civilians to government-in 1976...

...New laws regulating elections and political parties, together with President Jaime Roldos Assad Bucaram 36 NACLA Reportupdate*update update update punitive action against the mobilized popular sectors, created conditions which assured that the process would not run the risk of opening the way to genuine social change...

...In fact, the new government's concrete response has been to exacerbate conditions...

...The Popular Democrats have been evolving toward the political center...

...1.65 billion...

...The official line has been to "encourage economic development in the function of social justice...

...This is composed mainly of three sectors: the deputies who left the Bucaram-dominated CFP and defined themselves as roldocistas, the Christian Democratic deputies, and those from the Democratic Left (a party affiliated with the Socialist International...

...In agreeing to this alliance as an electoral expedient, the two parties postponed dealing with their simmering contradictions...

...A Developmentalist Government In March 1980, the government issued its "National Development Plan" for a 4-year period...

...In synthesis, the main aspects of the Plan include the following: *The road to development: encouragement of non-traditional exports...

...It must be recognized, however, that this has been state policy since 1975, in milk products for example...

...It is true that in January 1980, the minimum wage was raised by 100...

...Their nationalist illusions had faded, while civilian sectors, first through their trade and professional associations, and then through political parties, had begun to seize the political initiative...

...But neither before nor still less after their victory were the allied forces able to agree on strategies or concrete plans of action to develop the program...

...According to official statements, private enterprise is consolidating its share of power thanks to an opening provided by the government...

...It had remained stationary since 1976, during which time the real value of the Ecuadorean sucre had fallen to 30 centavos...

...Ecuador's countryside has been substantially transformed in recent years, thanks to the slow decomposition of traditional social relations and the formation of medium and large-sized business units...

...do not participate in the decisions that determine the course of the new government, despite the government's formal adherence to the rules of representative democracy...

...An electoral alliance between two parties, representing different political strategies and laced with personal power struggles, made the victory possible...

...In the United Nations, Ecuador confirmed its support for the Palestinian people...

...International Compensation The government of Jaime Rold6s has managed to be more aggressive in its foreign outlook than its domestic accomplishments...

...And the country's housing deficit, which has now reached 800,000 units, will persist...

...The country's first year of constitutional government is now past...

...The most extreme manifestation of this was the massacre of 125 workers at the AZTRA sugar mill on October 18, 1977...

...By 1984, the Plan foresees the construction of 300,000 housing units, for which private investment should provide about U.S...

...And the country played a leading role within the Andean bloc in censuring the antidemocratic military coup in Bolivia, though it stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations with the Garcia Meza regime...

...But at the rate things are going, it seems inevitable that the tendency towards the concentration of wealth and the country's dependency will only grow stronger...

...13.2 million...

...Achievements of the Government It would seem that the Rold6s government's immediate purpose is to fulfill the bargains made with traditional power groups...

...By the end of September not one major law had been passed...

...The character of the large voter turnout indicates that a clearly defined reformist coalition should have come to power on August 10, 1979...

...Despite two agrarian reform laws (one promulgated in 1964 37update*update*update update and the other in 1973), the tragic reality remains one of a mass of peasants on the fringes of land, irrigation and credit services, still exploited as day laborers or tenant farmers...

...The first party, Rold6s' own Concentration of Popular Forces (CFP), is today's expression of Ecuador's long populist tradition...

...The foreign policy outlined by Jaime Rold6s has attempted to defend the democratic rights of other peoples...

...Traditional power groups quickly took charge of the "return process" and, together with the military, concocted a repressive legalpolitical transition arrangement...

...CEPE), and the companies which buy the oil have mounted a ferocious campaign to make the government lower the price to under U.S...

...state investment would total only U.S...

...This is a great deal for a regime which has shown itself to be a weak government-weak in that the majority of Ecuadoreans who, according to Rold6s, "have more confidence in my intentions than in my actions...

...Bucaram was able to prove his Ecuadorean birth but in the meantime his political prot6g6 and nephew, Rold6s, was pushed forward as the party's candidate...

...The 21 points comprised a general list of goals which gave rise to the supposition that the two young personalities would form a reformist government...

...In 1975, Ecuador's three trade union federations carried out a successful national strike, followed by a second strike in 1977 and a widespread work stoppage by teachers...

...However, with the reins of power in their hands (the CFP and PDP also won a majority of seats in Parliament), the confrontation moved to the forefront...

...On the other, the Ecuadorean Right knew how to recoup the situation and launch some surprising offensives by exercising ruthless scrutiny over the executive...

...By January 1980, the belligerence between the executive and legislative branches which characterized the first set of sessions had led Rold6s to threaten to call for a plebiscite-a constitutional recourse to reform the political charter-and, by winning it, to dissolve the Congress...

...The foreign exchange which oil brings in makes up the most important component in the budget...

...The traditional policy was to grant concession areas to the companies, and pay for their services in oil...

...In the words of Ecuador's rulers, "social agitation" was on the rise...

...Without denying the existence of a leadership struggle, even one within the CFP (i.e...

...For example, the eighth point advocates: "rural development and the advancement of the peasantry through agrarian reform, colonization, provision of technical and financial services, and the construction of local roads...

...And throughout these years, the urban poor had begun to mobilize for land and housing...

...On the one hand, the heterogeneous majority was in a better position to dethrone Bucaram than to produce positive legislation...

...In the meantime, however, 1.2 million people will remain unemployed...

...The new majority bloc has barely more than the necessary simple majority of seats, thus there is the constant risk of losing votes, as has happened on two recent occasions...

...This hope brought out 1.3 million votes for Rold6s, an unprecedented victory...

...33/barrel, although at the beginning of the year the price was up around $36...

...He preferred to deal with some of the NovlDec 1980 belligerent sectors in Congress directly, with the intention of isolating the CFP bloc led by Assad Bucaram...

...This is intended to promote a substantial influx of foreign exchange which would allow the country to industrialize and displace imports...

...to reflect the general "policy of real prices" which the employers' associations have agreed on with the government...

...Beginning in August 1980, the policy of stimulating firms which produce basic necessities acquired primary importance...

...In this context, Rold6s represented the only kernel of hope for progress that might benefit the people...

...He succeeded in doing this by holding "internal" congressional elections on August 10, so that by the end of his first year in office there was a new legislative majority in the House of Representatives...

...Thus, 490,000 new jobs will be created by 1984...

...Another aspect of the problem concerns contracting services to prospect for new reserves...

...And not least important has been the political repression of those peasant organizations which have taken de facto measures, called by the authorities "invasions" of private property...

...The eighth point does not adequately address this reality...

...Neither was there at the time a grass-roots social movement which could effectively challenge a social, political and economic system so rife with injustice...

...The state has stopped expropriating land and distributing it to marginal sectors in the countryside...

...between Rold6s and Bucaram), this is not central...