Ecuador closed the 20th century with an unprecedented economic crisis that lasted until a few years ago, and that in part was avoided by state reforms undertaken by Correa’s bureaucratic regime.
In the period between 1982 and 1999, the GDP fell 7.3% when measure in sucres, and 30.1% when measured in dollars; it went from 19.7 billion to 13.7 billions of dollars. The GDP per capita was reduced by 32%; it collapsed from 1,619 to 1,109 dollars.
The country experienced one of the fastest impoverishing rates in the history of Latin America: between 1995 and 2000, the number of poor people increased from 3.9 to 9.1 million; in percentages, from 34% to 71%; the extreme poverty rate doubled, from 2.1 to 4.5 million, the relative leap was from 12% to 31%. Under these conditions, there was an accelerated deterioration of the living standards. The average income per person reached 43% of the Latin American average.
This was accompanied by a higher concentration of wealth. So, while in 1990 the poorest 20% of people received 4.6% if the total incomes, in 2000 they received only 2.5%; during the same period, the richest 20% of the population increased the amount of money they received from 52% of total incomes to more than 61%.
This bankruptcy was shown and revealed to the world in the form of abrupt emigration of countrymen to the US and Europe.
Nearly 3 million Ecuadorians emigrated to the US and Europe, dimembering homes and abandoning their small and medium-sized properties, which generated an arbrupt process of depopulation of the countryside. Many of these properties were acquired at the price of a "stolen hen" by speculators. This made the greater concentration of land by speculators and big landlords possible.
3 million Ecuadorians who, incredible as it may seem, contributed more than 3 billion a year in remittances for more than 16 years, until the second half of Correa’s regime (2016); the second most important income of foreign currency to the State, second only to oil exports.
That is, the old state not only forcefully sent compatriots to exile, but also parasitized and lived on their remittances for years to satisfy their requirements that ultimately ended up favoring the bureaucratic bourgeoisie who had the ability to continue to produce economically and politically from the state apparatus. In any case, it also benefited the comprator bourgeoisie (the bankers) who were in charge of "legalizing" dollars and euros generated by the emigrants by opening bank branches in Spain and other European countries.
Today, nearly one million Venezuelans have entered Ecuador. Of those, 250,000 have remained to nurture the ranks of unemployment, underemployment, and employment, making the levels of employability in Ecuador more critical.
So, when we see the origins of the emigration of Venezuelans to the rest of the world, we are thinking that the numbers previously exposed about the crisis of bureaucratic capitalism in Ecuador, are the figures that now afflict the masses in Venezuela, and that, in one way or another, they are the samples of bankruptcy that are experienced and caused by bureaucratic capitalism in that country and in others that are characterized in the same way: semi-feudal and semicolonial.
In Venezuela, with a hyperinflation of more than 700%, the economy shrank by 30% from 2013 to 2018; their currency’s buying power was reduced to nothing; 5% of the population has emigrated. 25% of Venezuelan children suffer from chronic malnutrition; prices shot up over 2000%; there was an 11% drop in GDP. The price of a basic basket rose 400%.
Of course, it would be a grave error to say that this crisis was solely caused by Maduro’s mismanagement of the government; it is part of bureaucratic capitalism’s cycle because, whether with Maduro or the comprator right wing in the government, this situation would have happened anyway. Why? Because their economy, which is similar to ours - semi-feudal and semicolonial - is dependent on extractivism and monoproduction; it is incapable of developing a labor force because imperialism does not allow it because it is very comfortable for the bourgeoisie in Venezuela to extract more income from imports and from the mobility of financing capital. But that’s not all. The regime of production relations is semi-feudal and does not allow itself to be “conditioned” to Russian and Chinese capital influence, which, in conflict with Yankee imperialism, destabilizes the anemic productive structure; because it depends on monoproduction (hydrocarbons), the fall of the price of petroleum caused the state budget to collapse and the deficit to become unmanageable. And after all of this, you have to add the criminal imperialist embargo that meant to punish chavismo for getting closer to other imperialist powers.
The inter-bourgeois contradiction is also responsible for adding its own damages. The economic/commercial speculation, sabotage and monopolization that the comprador bourgeoisie exercised also influenced the crisis to become more dramatic for the masses.
Regarding the Venezuelans’ immigration to Ecuador, we have to add the presence of hundreds of thousands of citizens from Colombia, Peru, and Haiti who live in Ecuador as well, where they gain more when sending their earned dollars back home. That is to say, we not only have to withstand the weight of the bureaucratic capitalism crisis in Ecuador, but, in one way or another, the masses have to carry the weight of the bureaucratic capitalism crisis of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Haiti.
We, the Ecuadorian community, know the complexity in emigrating in order to half-way improve the lives of our family while carrying the burden of the bureaucratic capitalism crisis. In this way, we show solidarity with the Venezuelan community who are victims of criminal embargo and Yankee imperialism aggression that spares no means nor measures to neutralize Maduro’s regime. It is evident that the US will not tolerate in the slightest any political manifestation that is not compatible with with its interests; but we also fight the reformist Maduro regime that has been incapable of responding to the expectations of the great majorities to yield to the strengthening of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie that has found its main exponent in the Armed Forces. Hence its relative stability.
The proletariat and Ecuador stand in solidarity with the poor masses in Venezuela, with the struggles, with their firm anti-imperialist position; but note that we will make sure that these thousands of Venezuelans who are now amongst us do not climb the ranks of the reactionary forces of our country, on the contrary, we will make sure that they stand on the side of the people, of the class.
The difficult experiences that the poor masses in Venezuela have had to endure have caused them to stigmatize revolution and socialism characterized by the revolutions that followers of socialism of the XXI century have carried out; the citizen revolution and the Bolivian revolution bring about a discourse of demotivation that is counter revolutionary and favors imperialist and dominante class aspirations.
The government itself is very ambiguous: while on one hand they condemn the Maduro regime for the emigration of citizens, on the other hand they hide the role that the US has played in this meager process while also standing in solidarity with the immigrants, but demanding their passport when they enter; later they raise the conditions required to enter and those faithful to Moreno’s foolishness implement a measure of “solidarity” and “welcome,” but we give them the opportunity to take a free bus that will drop them off at Peru’s border so that they can continue their journey.
This murderous regime continues to show so much stupidity and misery. Fatuous in its own unique way.
The Venezuelan problem must be resolved by the Venezuelans with correct class direction, not only against Yankee imperialism, but also against bureaucratic capitalism and the dictatorship of big landlords and big bourgeoisie that have been recreated by Maduro’s corporate and bureaucratic regime.
Venezuelans must resolve their problems, but being part of the international proletariat, it is the responsibility of the international proletariat to give the Venezuelans all their ideological and political support so that the Venezuelans can follow it with correct class leadership. The international proletariat also has the responsibility to help combat the ruling classes and imperialism in order to lay down the path towards the Revolution of a New Democracy uninterruptedly transiting into socialism.
However, given the conditions in which imperialism would dare invade Venezuela, the international proletariat and oppressed communities around the world are responsible for combining forces in order fight Yankee imperialism on every level, but not as an act intended to defend chavismo and Maduro, but as an act of support, class solidarity, and struggle in favor of the majority in Venezuela who will carry the responsibility of launching a direct and violent fight for national liberation against imperialism and its creole figureheads.
THE BOURGEOISIE AND HUGE LANDLORDS WILL CARRY THE BURDEN OF CAPITALISM’S BUREAUCRATIC CRISIS!
UNMASK THE TRUE CHARACTER OF MADURO’S BOURGEOIS, CORPORATIST, AND REFORMIST REGIME!
THE MIGRATION OF VENEZUELANS IS A PRODUCT OF CAPITALISM’S BUREAUCRATIC CRISIS IN VENEZUELA AND THE CRIMINAL IMPERIALIST EMBARGO!
THE SOLUTION FOR THE MASSES IN VENEZUELA DOES NOT LIE IN MIGRATING, BUT IN STRUGGLING!
We recieved this translation from the article from Frente de defesa de luchas del pueblo.
