Mexico: Solidarity with the People of Ecuador

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement in solidarity with the struggles of the people of Ecuador, from Sol Rojo – Mexico.

Stop the war against the people!

The old Ecuadorian state has escalated its war against the people to a new level, this time with open warfare, bombing villages, forests, and rural areas with military equipment, using “tanks, BM-21 multiple rocket launchers, recoilless cannons, mortars, and, as if that were not enough, bombs dropped from Super Tucano fighter planes,” according to a statement from our comrades in the Defense Front of the People’s Struggle – Ecuador (FDLP-EC). Aggressions of this level must be analyzed correctly, as they involve heavy (war) weaponry against the (unarmed) civilian population in a context of social mobilization where protests have cornered the regime. In other words, this is a war crime and, at the same time, a declaration of war against the people.

These events are taking place in the town of Buenos Aires, in the state of Imbabura, where the people have risen up against the dispossession and theft of their lands by large mining companies serving imperialism. The reaction has declared this resistance “terrorist,” outlawing artisanal mining. With this, the regime justifies its policy of open war against a highly combative region, turning it into a laboratory in the scenario of popular uprising that is shaking the country.

This great popular uprising began more than 30 days ago with a national strike that has exposed the rottenness of Noboa’s fascist regime, and which in many ways exceeds the scope of the protests of 2019 and 2022, making Imbabura one of its centers. The strike was called by CONAIE in protest against the elimination of the diesel subsidy, which has led to an increase in the cost of living for the masses. The Ecuadorian people are well aware that what they are facing are the policies dictated by imperialism, mainly Yankee imperialism, which are blindly applied by their lackey Daniel Noboa.

Confirming this, this pseudo-dictator has dedicated the bombing of the mountains of Buenos Aires to his master Donald Trump in a post on X.

In this regard, comrades from the FDLP-EC point out: “It is no coincidence: the Ecuadorian regime is replicating to the letter the ‘preventive counterinsurgency’ strategies promoted by the US Southern Command, framed within the doctrine of hemispheric security.”

Although the old Ecuadorian state has deepened its fascist line, the aggression itself is not new. In the repression against the uprising, murders, shootings, and arbitrary arrests of protesters are common. Militarization by the old State is advancing rapidly, and after this bombing, the government has also announced the permanent presence of the reactionary army in the region. The people, for their part, are undisturbed and determined to continue standing in the struggle until the tyrant falls.

Seen in this light, the government’s action is an open declaration of war against the people of Ecuador. The popular masses are well aware of this, and that is why in the daily actions of the uprising they continue to break with the opportunist leaderships of CONAIE, Pachakutik, and Unidad Popular (among others) who want to divert the struggle onto the path of electoralism, which is the bureaucratic path of the parasitic classes in power.

The Ecuadorian working class and its vanguard in formation have clearly stated that state terrorism cannot be swept away through electoral farces or supposed “legal means.” Reactionary violence must be met with revolutionary violence; war against the people must be met with People’s War.

The voices of fearful opportunists who proclaim that this will only cause more suffering and repression are a farce. Opportunists and revisionists always, everywhere and at all times, argue that “the conditions are not right,” “that forces must be peacefully accumulated,” and other platitudes that point to demobilization and capitulation. They traffic in the struggles of the people and negotiate in exchange for a bowl of lentils.

At this moment, the old Ecuadorian state has moved to open war against the people as an immediate fact; now the people must organize and develop new forms of struggle that correspond to the current period, transforming the reactionary war into a revolutionary war.

The comrades of the FDLP-EC have been clear about this since the beginning of the uprising:

“The government and the Armed Forces/National Police have declared war on us. That’s fine: it’s only to be expected in a class society and in institutions that serve the interests not only of the government, but also of the old bureaucratic-landowning state. There is no question of the members of the Armed Forces and the Police being “sons of the people” and calling on them to reflect. They are children of the institutions they represent and defend; they see us and fight us as what we truly are: their enemies. Class hatred is mutual!”

The Ecuadorian people are courageously confronting the armed reaction and imperialism that are bringing reactionary war to rural communities and working-class neighborhoods.

Let us support the struggle of the proletariat and the peoples of Ecuador!

Down with the militarist and fascist regime of Daniel Noboa!

Reactionary war must be met with People’s War!

It is right to rebel!