Radical left divided in response to crisis
Jean Dupont
On 18 February the Congress elected Fabian Alarcón as Ecuador's new president, after Abdalá Bucaram was forced from power by an unprecedented social mobilisation (see last month's International Viewpoint). Heinz Moeller, leader of the Social Christian Party (PSC) was elected to preside Congress itself.
This parliamentary solution to mass unrest was supported by the Social Christians, the Christian Democrats, the social democratic Democratic Left, Fabian Alarcón's own Alfarista Radical Front, the Liberal Party, and five of the six radical left deputies of the "rainbow" coalition Pachakutik.
Rosendo Rojas Reyes, Pachakutik Member of Parliament for Azuay, and a leader of Socialist Democracy, the 4"h International group which helped found the rainbow movement, voted against Moeller's appointment.
"The popular will expressed itself very clearly." Rojas explains. "People wanted fundamental changes. The People of Ecuador wanted to get rid of Bucaram, but they didn't just want to change the names of the top people. People rose up against corrupt politicians' games, against manipulation and graft, against the old-style politics, which has always marginalised the majority of people.
"People protested against neo-liberalism, and for deep, radical democracy In short, popular will has rejected the old Ecuador. The Social Christian Party and Dr Moeller were and still are part of the old politics. When the PSC was in government, we saw its true face: repression and disappearances. How can we help them back into power?"
The other left deputies justified their vote as being part of a series of measures around which there was a national or progressive consensus, "in the spirit" of the popular mobilisation. Rojas disagreed. "The popular mandate didn't require that we vote for the social Christians. Voting for Moeller means the defeat of the hopes which were liberated in the demonstrations of February. It is a defeat within the victory of the anti-Bucaram movement."
Since coming to power, Moeller and Property-Rights Conflicts on Nicaraguan AgrarianReform Beneficiaries," World Development, July 1996, Pp. 1179-1191. 20 Nicaragua's equivalent to a Prime Minister. 21 See Pierre Laramee's interviews with Victor Hugo Tinoco (Izquierda Democratica) and Dora Maria Tellez (MRS) in NACLA-Report on the Americas, March/April 1995, and Gary Prevost, "Political Infighting at Sandinista Special Congress," NACLA Report on the Americas, July-August, 1994. 22 Sheldon Rampton, "Contradictory Realities: The Nicaraguan Elections of 1996.* 23 Lemoine, "Des elections Decisives..." 24 Rampton, "Contradictory Realities: The Nicaraguan the Social Christians have themselves undermined the proposed measures, by vetoing the appointment of junior "new deal" team members who were unacceptable to the establishment. These included Teodoro Coello, rector of Azuay University, proposed by that state's Popular Assembly as Contralor General, a kind of fiscal ombudsman, and Manuel Chiriboga, proposed as Agriculture Minister by the country's peasant and indigenous organisations.
Rojas' position does not mean a split Fourth Internationalists still consider Pachakutik to be a great step forward for the mass movement, for democraticminded citizens, who, at last, were able to speak with their own voice and of their own hopes. We will continue working to strengthen the movement.
"What happened was a political disagreement within the parliamentary block. It has happened before, and may happen again. After all, Pachakutik is a pluralist and democratic movement. It still represents the best of Ecuadorian society, and we will continue to defend it. And the best way to defend and strengthen the movement is to remain faithful to its principles.
"The bloc is not split, and neither is the movement. The different, contradictory points of view should not be hidden, but they are what they are: differences on the tactics of the moment. All of us in the movement should continue and reinforce the debate about where we go from here. In this way, we will continue to develop the image and profile of our forward looking, independent movement."
The failure of the parliamentary negotiations (from the point of view of the popular movement) has since led Pachakutik to re-state its link to the social movements, stressing that "we must not fall into the trap of parliamentarisation."
The next national conference promises to be particularly animated. Different components of the alliance have interpreted these recent events in different ways. Strategic differences over next year's parliamentary elections, and other matters, are crystallising. *
Elections of 1996." 25 Mark Caster, "The Retur of Somocismo?..." 26 Mark Caster, "The Return of Somocismo? The Rise of
Arnoldo Alemán," NACLA Report on the Americas, vol.
XXX, no. 2.(Sept.-Oct. 1996), pp. 6-9. Lemoine, "Le
Nicaragua tente.... " Gary Prevost, "Nicaragua Surprise,"
Commoweal, v. 123 (May 3, 1996), p. 910,
Stephanie Rillaerts, *Une Reconstruction qui se fait
Attendre: menaces d'extreme droite sur le Nicaragua," Le
Monde Diplomatique, September 1994, discussed the possibility of an Alemán candidacy and victory, after the impressive triumph of Alemán forces on the Atlantic coast in 1994.