Ibarra, the capitol of the Ecuadorian province of Imbabura in the north of the country is of great significance for the country-wide revolutionary movement. Many of the impressive images and actions, such as the mass demonstrations and militant actions e.g. on the 1st of May and for the 200 Years Karl Marx campaign, come from this very city. In the following, we document a translation published by New Epoch on a declaration issued by the Popular Women’s Movement from Ibarra, denouncing the violence against women and the incapability of the cops and the state in the face of it. Due to the deep roots of the women comrades among broad sections of the masses, even the bourgeois newspaper considered it necessary to report on the declaration of the comrades:
MOVIMIENTO FEMENINO POPULAR'S PRONOUNCEMENT IN THE FACE OF AN EXECRABLE CRIME COMMITED IN IBARRA-IMBABURA
A new act of violence has shocked the inhabitants of the city of Ibarra, Imbabura. On January 19, 2019, an individual stabbed his pregnant partner to death in the presence of police officers and passers-by on a downtown street. The absurdity of this fact is that the police proved, once again, inoperative, unable to respond and avoiding an event that ended in tragedy.
Beyond the fact that this type of violence has become a daily occurrence in the country, it must be considered that, contrary to what social media says, the fact that the murderer was of Venezuelan nationality is of no relevance. This generates a kind of xenophobia that does not coincide with objective reality.
A murderer kills for various reasons, not precisely because of his nationality, gender, ethnic group or other reason, he does so because he is a criminal, a liability of the old society. In addition, it is important to consider that the problem also happens because the police, in spite of having the necessary instruments to intervene, did not have the capacity to respond.
It is important to point out that the escalation of violence in which we are immersed is proportional to the level of pauperization, misery, unemployment that the country lives.
The patriarchal behaviors, predominantly are a reflection of a society, like ours, ambiguous, obscurantist, semi-feudal, where the subsistence of social relations is still marked by medieval conceptions, lack of education and corrupt political actors in the governmental, regional spheres, assembly, etc., which have the impudence to speak of morality, dignity, honesty.
We live in a society where women are instrumentalized in all spheres and not only that, exploited and violated for being women, but also for being wives, mothers, daughters, indigenous, black or mestizo and, above all, for being workers.
That, with the murder of Diana in Ibarra, this caducous society and the old state do not show circumstantial signs of regret. We have already experienced it a long time ago, the days will pass and we will return to the course of violence against women. It is not that we are pessimistic, we are just conscious that the problem is not the police, not the laws or the persecution of Venezuelans today, Colombians tomorrow, Peruvians, Nigerians, Chinese, etc. the days after, because we will end up persecuting each other, because the majority of crimes and systematic, permanent aggression against women are we the Ecuadorians ourselves. None of this will change when we manage to shake and destroy the foundations of this old society and raise one where the priority will be the majority of people, where we understand that half of the sky is held up by women and the other half by men, but not just any woman or any man, but we, the common people, the supportive people, those who make history.
It must be understood once and for all; the state and its repressive apparatuses are not there to guarantee the security of the masses, they are there to sustain a regime of exploitation that attacks the most elementary rights of the people. NO TO XENOPHOBIA! A MURDERER KILLS BECAUSE HE IS THE PRODUCT OF A DECADENT SOCIETY, NOT BECAUSE HE IS VENEZUELAN, COLOMBIAN OR AFRO-DESCENDANT.
THE MOVIMIENTO FEMENINO POPULAR (POPULAR WOMEN'S MOVEMENT) OF ECUADOR CONDEMNS THE VIOLENCE THE MASSES ARE BEING SUBJECTED TO AND ALSO DENOUNCES AND CONDEMNS THE INABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS REPRESSIVE APPARATUSES TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE PEOPLE.
PEOPLE OF ECUADOR, THE PEOPLE ARE ONLY DEFENDED BY THE PEOPLE. WE MUST ORGANIZE TO DEFEND OURSELVES AGAINST CRIME, BUT ALSO AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT AND THE STATE BECAUSE THEY DO NOT RESPOND TO THE INTERESTS OF THE MAJORITY.
WE CONDEMN THE GOVERNENMENT AND THE STATE FOR NOT APPLYING ACTIONS THAT STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE DAUGHTERS OF THE PEOPLE.
NO TO XENOPHOBIA!
NO TO FEMICIDE!
UNLEASH THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A POWERFUL FORCE FOR THE NEW DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION IN ECUADOR!
