Ecuador – FDLP: Armed Police Raid a Concert in Support of Political Prisoners
We hereby share an unofficial translation of statement published by Defense Front of the People’s Struggle – Ecuador (FDLP – EC) on September 26.
ARMED POLICE RAID A CONCERT IN SUPPORT OF POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THOSE BEING PERSECUTED
The Defense Front of the People’s Struggle – Ecuador expresses its solidarity with the comrades who organized the September 25 concert at the Casa de la Cultura as part of the campaign in support of political prisoners and those persecuted for political reasons.
The organizers met all the required conditions and obtained permission from the Police Department to hold the event. Despite this, the same authority showed up at the concert with a contingent of uniformed officers armed with automatic rifles and pistols to demand that they show the authorization that the authority itself had issued. What were they trying to verify? The permit existed! The show of force had another purpose: to intimidate the musicians, the organizers, and the audience.
Who the hell goes to a popular event with assault rifles to check for operating permits? The fascist regime propped up by Yankee imperialism!
We condemn this attack on a cultural event of solidarity. A musician of the people should not have to face armed men simply for taking the stage and expressing support for political prisoners and those who are politically persecuted. Casa de la Cultura cannot be a place where the police storm in with weapons to intimidate those who, through music, culture, or art, show solidarity with people unjustly imprisoned or persecuted for exercising their legitimate right to rebel. Regardless of their political affiliations, this regime harass those who denounce its repressive, criminal, prison-like, starvation-inducing, and subservient nature.
If the municipality had any observations, it could have addressed them without surrounding the concert with armed police, who appeared ready to seize upon the slightest reaction to unleash their brutality. The mayor took the bureaucratic-repressive route: displaying force to sow fear and seeking a pretext that would allow him to suspend the event.
We denounce the old State and the regime for this provocation. We demand an end to the harassment of popular artists and the persecution of those who defend political prisoners and the politically persecuted.
The reaction is dreaming if they think that these violent acts will put out the fire they themselves started. Solidarity, defiance, organization, and struggle are the objective response of a people who are not willing to live on their knees, much less be subjected to the violence organized by a fascist regime like Noboa’s, which seeks to trample on the masses while hiding behind foreign troops that operate and direct the repression in the country.
FREEDOM FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS!
LET ART AND MUSIC FLOW LIKE DAGGERS FROM THE PEN, THE GUITAR, AND THE REBELLIOUS VOICE!
NO TO THE PERSECUTION OF POPULAR ACTIVISTS!
ORGANIZE, COMBAT AND RESIST!
