By
Jennifer N. Collins
Quito,
January 22, 2000: The coup carried out yesterday in Ecuador by mid-level
military officers together with leaders of the indigenous movement lasted less
than 24 hours. Actions taken by officers in the Joint Command of the Armed
Forces has given way to the destitution of President Jamil Mahuad and his
replacement by Vice President Gustavo Noboa, and thereby the return to
constitutionality, but the pressing problems of social injustice and exclusion
remain. The indigenous and popular movements, which led the way to the coup have
not been granted any concessions or a seat at the negotiating table, this may
lead to further unrest.
A
Single Day of Popular Power
After
taking over the Congressional building, declaring a new government of national
salvation, and installing a new "popular parliament," the forces
supporting this rupture with the constitutional order and the installation of a
new popular government moved the center of their activity from the Congress
building slowly towards the National Palace, located in the colonial center of
the capital. At about 5pm that afternoon the protestors and the military
officers who had joined the rebellion began a march from the Congressional
building to the National Palace. At around the same time, President Mahuad
abandoned the seat of government after being informed by the General in charge
of the troops guarding the Palace, that he could no longer assure the security
of the building.
Later that
night, after the leaders of the newly declared government had installed
themselves in the National Palace, it was announced that they would meet with
the leaders of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. This was clearly a crucial
moment; up to that point the high level military leadership had been very clear
in their position of only supporting a constitutional solution to the crisis.
Earlier that day they had called upon President Mahuad to resign, but had by no
means given their support to the mid-level officers who had joined together with
the indigenous and popular leaders. At about 7pm that night, the Chief of the
Joint Command, General Carlos Mendoza, arrived at the National Palace and began
to dialogue with the leaders of the coup in the middle of the plaza. Eventually
they went inside the National Palace and went into a closed session meeting with
leaders of the newly declared "Junta of National Salvation." It was
certainly quite surprising to see this representative of the highest level of
the military command entering into peaceful negotiations with the leaders of the
coup, who had in effect subverted his authority.
In the
meantime, the military cordon that had been blocking access to the plaza in
front of the National Palace was finally broken at 7pm and about 5,000
demonstrators, supporters of the new government flooded into Independence Plaza.
The balconies of the national palace were brimming with people, a mixture of
members of the military and the police together with indigenous and popular
leaders. Members of the military could be seen speaking to the crowd below and
leading them in chants of "Ecuador, Ecuador." Below, illuminated by
the light of TV cameras, the plaza was filled with supporters of the new popular
government.
Just
before mid-night, after about three hours of negotiations behind closed doors,
Coronel Gutierrez, who had led the mid-level officers in the coup announced that
his mission had been completed and that he was handing over power in this new
government to General Carlos Mendoza. At that point Mendoza announced the
formation of a civil-military triumvirate, composed of himself, the President of
the National Indigenous Confederation (CONAIE), Antonio Vargas, and Carlos
Solorzano, a former President of the Supreme Court. Mendoza announced that this
triumvirate would "work for the country, put an end to corruption, and
assure that day by day Ecuadorians would become less poor." In response to
a barrage of questions from journalists about what sort of policies this new
government would implement, Mendoza evaded any concrete answers, and instead
explained that the triumvirate would have to meet the next day and had not yet
made these crucial decisions.
Betrayal
Comes at Night
Thus, last
night the country went to bed with a new civilian-military popular government,
but it awoke to the surprising news that General Mendoza had betrayed his
promise to join this new government. Just three hours after the midnight
announcement, sometime around 3am, Mendoza announced that he was withdrawing
from the triumvirate, and that he would give way to the assumption of power by
Vice President Noboa. In his declarations he basically admitted that he had
purposefully deceived the nation and had never had any intention of allowing
this junta to remain in power. He explained that he took this action in order to
avoid bloodshed and to bring about a peaceful return to constitutional order. By
the time he made this announcement, the demonstrators had abandoned the National
Palace. In other words, it was clear that he had made a show of support for the
popular government in order to deactivate the demonstrations. Once this was
done, he met with the high military command and informed them and the press that
he was not going to continue as a member of the junta.
This
morning (Saturday, January 22) the military officers who led the coup were
arrested and are currently in jail, and apparently the indigenous leadership is
in hiding. Also this morning, Mahuad announced on a national television
broadcast that he had been overthrown by a military coup, and asked the country
and the political elite to give their united support to the new President,
Gustavo Noboa. Also this morning the Ecuadorian Congress met in session in
Guayaquil, i.e. not in the National Congress building into order to take the
legal steps necessary for Noboa to assume the presidency.
What
Happened?
It is
clear in hindsight that the military high command was never in favor or willing
to support this kind of a popular coup, and one can speculate, either that the
mid-level officers who helped lead the coup were simply duped by the position of
the representative of the Joint Command, or instead that they began to realize
that they might not have enough support within the military to successfully
carry out this coup, and so fairly quickly gave in.
Certainly
what must have been another important factor in the decisions made by all
factions within the military was the international reaction to this coup. Every
country in Latin America, with the exception of Venezuela, publicly condemned
the coup and called for a return to constitutional order. The United States did
likewise, and went so far as to threaten that if this coup persisted that
Ecuador would be cut off internationally the way that Cuba has been. Certainly,
this sort of threat would have weighed heavily with the military leadership.
What is
more of a quandary is the position and thinking of the indigenous leadership.
Clearly this action by Mendoza was a blatant betrayal of their cause, and they
appear to have come out of this whole episode in a weaker position politically
than before. Previous to this whole episode they had five representatives in the
National Congress; they had been elected on the Pachakutik ticket, which is a
political movement with strong connections to the CONAIE and other social
movements. In the midst of yesterday’s events three of the Pachakutik elected
representatives resigned from Congress in order to throw their support in with
the new popular government. Two leaders of the center-left Democratic Left Party
(ID), also did likewise. Thus, the small amount of representation that these
movements had in the national Congress has now been substantially reduced.
Vargas,
the President of CONAIE, announced this morning that in view of what had
happened the indigenous uprising would continue. After this statement this
morning the press has not reported on any other statements by the indigenous
leadership. There are, however, rumors that all of the leadership has gone into
hiding in anticipation of retaliations against them. The rank-and-file members
of the movement, who came into Quito from the provinces and have been camped out
in a park, today have been preparing to return to their homes. Again the rumor
that I heard is that they are planning to carry on the uprising in the
provinces. Given what they achieved, even if only for a day, and the level of
betrayal that took place on the part of the military, I can’t believe that some
sort of reaction is not going to take place, and I would not be surprised if the
reaction this time takes a more violent turn than it has in the past.
What
Future for Justice and Social-Political Change?
While I am
a strong supporter of democracy and the importance therefore of democratic
processes and institutions, I have to say that my heart is heavy today. It is
clear to me that here in Ecuador formal democracy has not worked to represent or
safeguard the interests of the poor, which represent the vast majority of this
county, or even of the small middle class. Instead, the vast majority of the
political elite, from the President on down, have acted with incredible
callousness and irresponsibility towards the bulk of the Ecuadorian people, in
benefit of a very small, but economically powerful segment of the population.
Not only has the political and economic elite that rule this country not taken
seriously the need for redistributive measures to ameliorate the high level of
income inequality, but they have not even been capable or willing to take the
steps necessary to construct an efficient and competitive economy that produces
economic growth. Instead a type of crony capitalism has taken root in this
country and is threatening to draw the whole country into chaos.
The
indigenous movement has been valiant in its efforts to raise a united call for a
new type of democracy that can overcome this bias in favor of the wealthy and
powerful. Up umtil now they have worked through peaceful means, but in view of
this blatant and terrible betrayal it would not be at all surprising if this was
taken as a lesson that peaceful means are not very successful at achieving
change. Thus I am afraid that difficult and perhaps tragic days lay ahead for
Ecuador, but certainly the tragedy has been going on for a long time as every
day citizens are denied the means to live with dignity, security, and with
opportunities for bettering their lives.