|
|
|
|
TITLE: US Senators Push War on Ecuador |
AUTHOR: Konstantin Kilibarda |
ORG: |
DATE: February 21, 2001 |
|
(with files from El Comercio)
US Republican Senator John McCain - who did so much to forward fascist interests in the Balkans and in the US Congress - is now in Ecuador pushing a regional effort to destroy the FARC. Visiting US forces in Ecuador's Manta base - illegally signed over to the Pentagon in 1999 by the now deposed Mahuad regime - McCain, along with four other Senators, is pledging US$ 40-million to the Noboa regime if it backs Congressional schemes to militarize the region. McCain is calling for "a much much stronger alliance" across the Andes in order to combat the "drug-threat." Human Rights groups in Ecuador have condemned the proposals, arguing that the Manta base and US involvement in the country will only drag Ecuador further into Colombia's own civil-war. The northern Ecuadorian provinces of Orrellana and Succumbios have already become victims of Colombian right-wing paramilitary violence along the border. Dozens have been killed and hundreds have been displaced in the area since early-February. Orrellana and Succumbios are two oil-rich provinces that border the Colombian department of Putomayo, where US-backed counter-insurgency efforts have been most concerted. The region is heavily exploited for its oil-reserves and is severely underdeveloped. Maximo Abad, the mayor of Lago Agrio (the capital of Succumbios), has declared a province wide strike in response to the deteriorating economic and security situation of the local population. In a statement for Quito's leading daily, El Comercio, Abad had the following to say about the recent actions in the Province: "The strike is motivated by the lack of government attention with respect to the populations urgent needs in terms of security, electric energy and a development plan for the provinces...We are tired of unfulfilled promises." The mayor, according to El Comercio, has declared that the strike would "last indefinitely" until the government meets these demands. Abad has also declared his opposition to Plan Colombia, urging the government to resist the "internationalization of the war in Colombia." According to Abad, US-backed violence in the region is a dangerous policy for Ecuador to follow, because "its effects are incalculable, because all that has transpired so far is only the beginning of what is to come in the future." The Noboa regime's main negotiator with the provinces, the Minister of Government, Juan Manrique, has rejected local demands that a government commission come to the region, listen to local groups, and work on a development plan for the region. Instead Manrique insists that the impoverished locals should come to Quito (Ecuador's capital) and petition the government there. While the government refuses to implement any substantial development plan in the region, the state oil-agency, PETROECUADOR, has just declared an additional US$ 12.8-million in spending on improvements for the Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE) pipeline. SOTE is the country's main pipeline, carrying approximately 380,000 barrels of Amazonian crude to the coastal cities for export to world markets on a daily basis. Local critics argue that the US-backed government in Quito is content with exploiting the region for its oil wealth while allowing Colombian paramilitaries and death-squads to intimidate activist municipalities that are now demanding concrete initiatives for regional development. END |