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Geopolitics

Uprising In Ecuador: Lenin Moreno And The Price Of Betrayal

Moreno is now reversing course on austerity measures that provoked nearly two weeks of mass protests. But it may be too little too late to salvage his reputation.

Oct. 11 protests in Quito
Oct. 11 protests in Quito
Roberto Pizarro

-OpEd-

SANTIAGO — A hike in fuel prices proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back in Ecuador. But the root of the problem is President Lenín Moreno's 180-degree shift to the right.

Rather than follow through with his promised policy agenda, Moreno, who was vice-president under leftist leader Rafael Correa (2007-2017), opted to heed the demands of the country's major economic interests.

While pardoning some $4.5 billions' worth of unpaid taxes to big corporate firms, he signed a deal worth $4.2 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to balance the budget. And as tends to happen with IMF deals, it was clearly anti-popular, and unpopular, involving higher sales taxes, privatization of strategic sectors, loosening of labor laws and downsizing the state with dismissals of civil servants. It also meant an end to fuel subsidies.

President Moreno's decisions are clearly designed to protect the interests of the business world, while requiring ordinary folk to help the state along the way.

The state of emergency and curfew have done little to curb this revolt.

The protests that swept the country starting Oct. 3 were thus unrelated to any subversive movement supposedly orchestrated by ex-president Correa, Moreno's predecessor. They were the response to the paquetazo — the "raw deal" that attacked the weak to help the rich.

Moreno seemed to have ignored the lesson of Argentina, where Mauricio Macri is likely to lose the presidency soon because of his austerity push. History repeats itself and, as in Argentina, the vast majority of people reject the IMF deal and especially the irresponsible rise in fuel prices.

The protests forced Moreno to leave the presidential palace and take refuge in the port city of Guayaquil. Workers and indigenous Ecuadorans took to the streets of the capital Quito, though their protests extended well beyond. The state of emergency and curfew did little to curb this revolt.

President Lenin Moreno in Quito — Photo: Agencia de Noticias ANDES

One should recall that Moreno barely won the last presidential elections against a right-wing contender, the banker Guillermo Lasso. Yet the Alianza País, the party that allowed him to win, obtained a comfortable majority in parliament that assured Moreno the ability to rule. There seemed to be no doubts about the continuation of the Citizens Revolution begun in 2007 by Correa.

Yet Moreno chose betrayal. Counseled by bankers, media bosses, the Social Christian politician Jaime Nebot and former president Abdalá Bucaram (whom parliament declared insane in 1997), Moreno turned his back on policies that had assured stability and growth under Correa.

He has also renounced a decade of policies of international sovereignty that marked the Correa presidency. Recent agreements with the United States include negotiating a free-trade treaty and ignoring Ecuadoran court decisions against the oil company Chevron for polluting the Amazon.

On Venezuela, Ecuador has adopted the U.S. government line and joined the states that recognize the opposition chief Juan Guaidó as "acting president." Finally and perhaps worst of all was his decision to hand Julian Assange over to British authorities. This deplorable decision was in response to British interests and above all those of the United States, which is after the WikiLeaks founder for revealing loads of compromising information about U.S. government action.

So after a decade of Ecuador keeping its distance, Moreno has brought the country back into the orbit of U.S. geopolitical, economic and military interests.

On Venezuela, Ecuador has adopted the U.S. government line.

At home, his government has sought to win political points by mixing a campaign against corruption with a bid to remove Correa's allies from positions of power. Zero tolerance for corruption is certainly admirable, but only if not infected with political objectives.

Unfortunately, Moreno has pointed this intolerance straight at Correa and his former officials, ignoring meanwhile the corruption of preceding governments, of districts run by right-wing councilors, businessmen who hide money in tax havens and those who defraud customs.

Lenín Moreno is not to be trusted. He betrayed Correa and his movement as soon as he entered the presidential palace. He has not enacted the program he promised the country, siding instead with big business, corporate media and the United States. He has turned Correa into his principal enemy, accusing him of serious (and highly disputable) acts of corruption. And finally, he has forged a domestic alliance with the Right, and in particular with Lasso, the man he defeated at the polls, in order to make his IMF deal feasible.

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Geopolitics

Why The World Still Needs U.S. Leadership — With An Assist From China

Twenty years of costly interventions and China's economic ascent have robbed the United States of its global supremacy. It is time for the two biggest powers to work together, to help the world.

Photograph of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden walking side by side in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California​

Nov. 15, 2023: Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden take a walk after their talks in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California

Xinhua/ZUMA
María Ángela Holguín*

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — The United States is facing a complex moment in its history, as it loses its privileged place in the world. Since the Second World War, it has been the world's preeminent power in economic and political terms, helping rebuild Europe after the war and through its growing economy, aiding the development of a significant part of the world.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Its model of democracy, long considered exemplary around the world, has gone through a rough patch, thanks to excessive polarization and discord. This has cost it a good deal of its leadership, unity and authority.

How much authority does it have to chide certain countries on democracy, as it does, after such outlandish incidents as the assault on Congress in January 2021? The fights we have seen over electing a new speaker of the House of Representatives or backing the administration's foreign policy are simply incredible.

In Ukraine's case, President Biden failed to win support for the aid package for which he was hoping, even if there is a general understanding that if Russia wins this war, Europe's stability would be at risk. It would mean the victory of a longstanding enemy.

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