Ecuador – FDLP-EC: Let’s Organize the People’s Outrage Against Noboa and Imperialism!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement published by Defense Front of the People’s Struggles (FDLP-EC) on October 24.

We are living in difficult times, perhaps more difficult than those we have faced in recent years. Daniel Noboa’s comprador bourgeois regime is spearheading the ruling classes’ offensive against the broad masses and deepening its pathological subordination to Yankee imperialism.

Three mountains oppress the people: imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism, and semi-feudalism. These three mountains prop each other up. We have pointed out that semi-feudalism is the central axis of this trilogy of exploitation and oppression, because it links imperialist domination with internal relations of exploitation. In this sense, while it is true that the principal contradiction in our country is between the masses and semi-feudalism, this can only be resolved through People’s War; never through parliamentary or electoral means, through sporadic uprisings with serious political limitations, or what they call “cold” accumulation of forces.

However, these are strategic tasks that must be carried out by the working class, the poor peasants, and the people. Meanwhile, there are other tasks of a circumstantial nature that cannot be ignored, much less when growing imperialist intervention in the country also demands a more in-depth examination of how the contradiction between the nation and imperialism unfolds. And when we refer to imperialism, fundamentally Yankee imperialism, we are not speaking of an enemy that acts solely from outside our borders: We have them coming out of our ears! It is present through agreements, concessions, business deals, and military cooperation operations, even within the repressive institutions of the State.

The growing Yankee penetration, with the entry of its armed forces into the country, compels us to examine whether this contradiction is circumstantially taking center stage – an aspect that requires a concrete analysis and popular measures that will enable us to confront the offensive of the big bourgeoisie and imperialism in response to the crisis facing the broad masses.

This must be understood. The offensive launched by Noboa’s criminal regime is not only a response to his excesses, missteps, and brutalities, that are typical of an incompetent, vicious, and mythomaniacal individual who today represents the big bourgeoisie. This must also be viewed within a broader context: the plans being carried out by Yankee imperialism in the region.

One of the distinctive features of this government is that it is very close to fascism. Although it lacks the nationalist character typical of fascists, it promotes the destruction of labor, peasant, and popular organizations. It seeks to subject society to an authoritarian State. It disregards the democratic gains enshrined in the Constitution. To the regime, everyone is a “communist” or a “terrorist”. It eliminates opposition organizations in all spheres, primarily in the electoral arena. It resorts to deceitful propaganda. It promotes a cult of personality around this imbecile and it employs violence in all its forms. The Noboa regime has attacked, brutalized, and murdered like no other.

The scope of this repressive campaign is not limited to the persecution of popular organizations, the brutal treatment of political prisoners, the bombardment of poor peasants and miners, the executions of artisanal fishermen, or the raids and intimidation campaigns against popular activists. The dispute between factions of the big bourgeoisie has led the government to employ these methods against its rivals, as is the case with some members of the Citizen Revolution.

At this point, it is important that we state our position on Correísmo. It is clear that this is not a left-wing organization – far from it: it is a social-democratic force linked to the bureaucratic bourgeoisie. Its confrontation with Noboa does not place it on the side of the people, much less on the side of the popular and anti-imperialist struggle. After all, when it was in power, it also served imperialism, regardless of whether it was American, Chinese, or Russian. It handed over land to large mining companies and worked on behalf of importers and international banks. Needless to say, it repressed, both in scale and method, those of us who opposed its political rhetoric, which was based on demagogic, almost revolutionary slogans.

But, without going any further than that, today its leaders are being targeted by the government, which has been persecuting them and subjecting them to inhumane and abject imprisonment. That does not put us on the same side, but it does place us face-to-face with an enemy that, at this point, does not care whom or how it strikes: it seeks only to clear its path to drag us under the heel of imperialism and implement a government plan that directly benefits the comprador bourgeoisie.

The imprisonment of Aquiles Álvarez in the Encuentro prison and the arrest of Luisa González, against whom pretrial detention was ordered as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, are events we must examine from two perspectives: the contradictions within the bourgeoisie and how the regime has devolved into a dictatorship, led by a conceited dwarf with delusions of being a grand dictator, who feels powerful because he is close to Trump’s nether regions and Netanyahu’s behind.

Condemning González’s arrest and imprisonment does not mean that we support the struggle of Correísmo, endorse its political program, or establish a tactical alliance with it. Not at all. It means that we oppose the new military and repressive doctrine that imperialism is implementing in our country through its puppet Noboa, and that we fight the regime’s carceral and murderous policies.

The methods the government employs against its rivals help gauge how far it is willing to go to preserve and advance its economic and political agenda. If it resorts to persecution and imprisonment against other bourgeois factions, such as the bureaucratic faction embodied in Correísmo, it goes without saying how much madness, violence, and cruelty it has been unleashing against our people, and just how far it is willing to go to neutralize those of us who are fighting the regime and striving to go even further: to resolve the fundamental issue: Power.

The fact that certain groups have not yet been targeted does not justify looking the other way and ignoring the repressive reach of the Noboa government. At this point, no one who opposes the regime is safe from persecution and imprisonment.

For these reasons, the Front for the Defense of the Struggles of the People of Ecuador rejects political persecution, arbitrary imprisonment, and the assassination of any opponent of the Noboa regime.

We will organize the popular mobilization. But let the opportunists make no mistake: we will not allow them to exploit the discontent and rebellion of the masses for their own electoral purposes. After all, we must bear in mind that imperialism, reaction, and the government are today unleashing their misery on the people precisely because the electoral opportunists paved the way for them.

Let us organize the people’s discontent and rage. Let’s turn them into a rebellious force that puts a stop to Noboa’s prison-like regime and does everything in its power to kick imperialism and Zionism in the ass and expel them from the country.

For these reasons, the FDLP-EC calls on popular, peasant, and labor organizations to join the great day of struggle to be held on November 7 against the regime, the State, imperialism, and the opportunists. May this day of struggle be the prelude to the commemoration of the 104th anniversary of the heroic November 15, 1922 and, riding that momentum, may we fight tirelessly until we oust this would-be fascist.

STOP THE PERSECUTION AND IMPRISONMENT OF THOSE OF US WHO OPPOSE THE CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT’S GREED!

LET US ORGANIZE POVERTY, MISERY, AND INDIGNATION INTO A STORM OF REBELLION THAT SHAKES THE STATE AND DEFEATS THE NOBOA GOVERNMENT!

LET’S PREPARE FOR THE GREAT MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE CRIMINAL, TERRORIST, AND TRAITOROUS REGIME!

LONG LIVE THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT!

LONG LIVE THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE!

ORGANIZE, COMBAT AND RESIST!