FDLP-Ecuador: YANKEES GO HOME!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a note published by the Defense Front of the People’s Struggles in Ecuador.

With great fanfare, the government has announced the arrival of members of the United States Air Force at the FAE base in Manta.

This confirms, once again, that Noboa disrespects the Constitution and disregards democratic achievements. That is why we insist that it was pointless for opportunists and revisionists of all stripes to drag the masses into the referendum. The electoral path is not a path to liberation for the people. It was evident that its results would not mean a real conquest of rights for the majority, and that they would be ignored by the ruling classes, clinging to a central premise: the State belongs to them and operates as an instrument of the dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie and big landlords, at the service of imperialism.

With or without a constitution, the government has allowed the installation of Yankee and Zionist combat, surveillance, and intelligence equipment on national territory. It does so rapidly and shamelessly, because it responds to the needs of imperialism, even more so in a context of growing threats of military intervention in the Caribbean.

The official justification for this new settlement of foreign troops is the same as always: “to combat organized crime” and “to combat international drug trafficking.” This rhetoric has been used to impose states of emergency, reorganize public institutions at will, and cynically hand over the country, including the Armed Forces and the Police, to the tutelage of imperialist military and intelligence apparatuses.

This violation of national sovereignty reveals the regime’s true objective: to turn into state policy the idea, repeated by ADN assembly members [Translator’s note: National Democratic Assembly, political platform of Daniel Noboa], that “we would be better off as another state of the US.” In other words, to go from being a semi-colony to an open colony of imperialism.

We must also clearly point out where the real centers of drug trafficking and corruption are. In Ecuador, the big bourgeoisie and big landlords control banking, foreign trade, exports; in short, a semi-feudal productive structure. If drug trafficking moves more than $3.6 billion a year in the country, according to official sources, it is obvious that this mountain of money is not kept “under the mattress,” but circulates and is laundered in the financial system. The facts speak for themselves: in the midst of the crisis, banks such as Banco de Guayaquil and Banco del Pichincha, among others, increased their capital and profits disproportionately. At the same time, there has been a surge in drug shipments found on ships linked to exports such as bananas (Noboa group), and an accelerated process of land concentration in the countryside is advancing in the service of big landlords.

Meanwhile, the regime announces daily the capture of “high-value targets,” almost always gang leaders based in poor neighborhoods, without material evidence of fortunes consistent with the official narrative. However, when they can no longer cover it up, links to commanders in the armed forces and police emerge. This happened with the army’s chief of operations in the Buenos Aires region and with special forces commanders involved in criminal structures. There have also been reports of high-ranking officers, and even figures such as Tanya Varela, a retired general, linked to mafia networks.

Therein lies the vortex of violence and corruption that is bleeding the country dry: in the upper echelons of economic power and in segments of the State’s repressive apparatus. That is why the US military presence in Manta is not a “security” measure, but rather another step in the political and operational occupation of the country, serving the imperialist war plans in the region and Noboa’s sell-out project, which has already placed the territory at the service of transnational mining companies and now also seeks to subordinate national sovereignty to foreign military strategy.

Given this scenario, it is urgent to create an Anti-Imperialist Front that will rally, organize, and mobilize the broad masses of the people against imperialism of all kinds, fundamentally Yankee imperialism, against Zionism, and against the submissive government that disregards the will of the people and reinforces a regime of repression and dependence.

We cannot remain impassive or allow fear to neutralize our will to fight. Fear must change sides so that the balance of power shifts toward the masses and the nation.

GET THE YANKEES AND ZIONISTS OUT OF THE COUNTRY!

LET’S CREATE AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT TO SERVE THE OPPRESSED PEOPLES OF THE WORLD!

ORGANIZE, COMBAT, AND RESIST!