Tuesday, February 06, 2001 12:32 AM
Subject: Ecuador Police State: IMF/WB & Wall Street Connections


[The following post was culled from an NNTP newsgroup and
the original poster did not provide his real email (for
source followup), but the story is one of the best on
Ecuador because it points to the Wall Street firm of
Gramercy Advisors as the instigators of the the chaos that
has now engulfed the nation. Apparently they weren't willing
to extend the payments on the IMF/WB loans they held, the
people took to the streets, then the army was called in to
squelch the protests. -slave]

Subject: HEYYYY!!
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 11:40:10 -0500
Organization: Chocoholics Anonymousse
Newsgroups: alt.native

Listen up...

There are, at this very moment, over 13,000 Indians on the
verge of being erased from the face of this planet, sitting
in the campus of the University of Ecuador in Quito. That's
13,000+ Indian men, women, children & elders. The police &
army surrounding them have been sporadically firing
thousands of rounds of bullets & tear gas at them for the
past 8 days. To date (as I was told before telephone went
dead last night) over 30 have been killed & over 600
wounded. They have little food left & only what water
remains in the fountains to drink since the water supply was
shut off on Thursday. On Friday the govt of Ecuador, under
orders from Washington DC, declared an official State of
Emergency. It is now illegal for more than 3 people to meet
& converse together for any reason, & the army is fanning
out across the country & arresting every single Indian
leader, elder & voice & "disappearing them" for "security
reasons" without any need for due process.  Antonio Vargas,
elected leader & spokesman for CONAIE, was arrested last
week, secured his release via a writ of habeas corpus, but
was "disappeared" again when the state of emergency was
declared.

The situation is desperate & the govt of Ecuador & their
masters in Washington, capital of the greatest Whore State
in the world today, does not want the world to know what is
going on. The CONAIE website [http://www.conaie.org] was
hacked last night to remove all of the eleven (11) boletins
posted by CONAIE since 01 January 2001, describing the
current crisis & pleading with good hearts (especially those
of their North American relations) for attention & support.

As you may recall, the Indians of Ecuador marched in
January, 2000. They marched on Quito in columns that swelled
to well over one-&-a-half-MILLION Indians, to protest the
privatization of the fresh water supply of their country, &
the turning over of control of Ecuador's economy to the
Federal Reserve Bank of the USofA, conditions demanded by
the IMF & the World Bank for a loan to Ecuador.

The need for that loan was created when one single New York
City-based investment dealer named Marc Helie, a partner in
the Wall Street firm of Gramercy Advisors, who refused to
agree to a one month extension of the pay-out on the
Ecuadorean bonds that his firm held. He still openly brags
that he is, "the man who brought Ecuador to its knees,
single-handed". In the single news report describing his
"triumph" (The Globe&Mail - Report on Business 19 Jan 2000
pp b1-b8), Helie's firm is described as, ".. specializing in
making money from economies on the brink of disaster.." But
did Gramercy Advisors or this carpetbagger Helie get a
single voice of disapproval or condemnation from a single
American citizen, let alone from any Indian in the USA for
their destabilization of an entire country?

The Quecheu Indian Nations in Ecuador, who are a 'minority'
of 45%-65% of the country's population, marched. They were
then as they are now, UNARMED.  The students & labour unions
joined them, & when several army units joined their ranks
(90% of the Ecuadorean army are Indians) the government of
President Jamil Mahuad was toppled. After a few days, the
Vice-President, Gustavo Noboa, was named President & made
promises (signed accords 17 July, 2000) to the Indians that
the fresh water of Ecuador would never be  sold to the US &
Italian-based multi-national corporations that had "bought"
it, small farners would be forgiven their debts to the govt
& fuel prices would be frozen for 2 years...

So the Indians went back to their villages & farms.  The
army was given a huge pay-raise (US "aid"). With the Indians
in uniform bought off, all promises & signed accords were
immediately forgotten. Now water for the sheep & small plots
of maize in that DESERT climate costs 35-cents (USD) per
gallon, when the average Indian farmer/shepherd makes LESS
than $500 (USD) per year. And the sucre, the currency of
Ecuador that constituted all of whatever meagre funds &
savings the Indians held, is now worthless paper, replaced
by the US dollar which none but the ruling families of
Ladinos can afford, as dictated by the US Federal Reserve
Bank & the IMF. Last week's directions from the US govt also
resulted in the declaration that the labour unions in mines
& oil fields (all 100% USA-owned) were now illegal, & the
price of gasoline was raised by 200% (while exports of
Ecuador's huge oil reserves to the USA shot up from 65% of
national production to 100%). As an added blow, bus fares
were boosted by 75%. (That's devastating because 99% of the
Indian farmers bring their produce to regional markets by
bus.. Their soil is so poor that they can carry their yields
in a basket).

"Coincidentally", the USA has also completed construction of
their new naval base at Manta & is building ten (10) more
military bases in Ecuador (3 along the border with Colombia
& 7 'elsewhere') under the usual PR cover of "fighting the
war on drugs" (ie, to crush the "subversive" Indians) -
Can't let the po' folk (esp with skin-tones other than
white) mess up the spread of "US democra$$y" by insisting
they exist & have rights now, can we?

So CONAIE, with the 100% support & direction of the
thousands of Indian families they represent, organized
another march on Quito beginning the first week in January,
2001. The Ecuadorean army, with US military "advisors"
openly in full uniform whispering in the ears of the local
army commanders, is now going on a rampage of arrests with
no warrants, thousands have been "detained" with no
indiaction of whether they are dead or alive, & CONAIE &
labour union offices are being trashed & padlocked. And all
the self-styled "activists" on alt.native are too busy with
whale-shit & the usual crap about "blood-quantum" to notice
what is happening to their relations in Ecuador, to denounce
what is being done to the right of self-determination of
indigenous Nations in Ecuador, or the blood that is being
poured into the soil of Ecuador from the bodies of dead
Indian men, women, children & elders.. Rights & blood as
precious as, & part of, your own.

Given a small windfall that permits me the means to travel,
I leave for the region tonight. If my contacts are still
alive & can get me into Ecuador I'll try to send back
first-hand reports somehow.

Hasta luego.. y hasta la victoria siempre! jaom/énéthekwé

"..Otra vez siento bajo mis talones el costillar de
Rocinante; vuelvo al camino con mi adarga al brazoS"!

PS - Those 11 bulletins from CONAIE to the world & erased
>from their website last night, pleading for support, are en
route to my friend Frosty, along with 2-3 newpaper articles
about the situation inadvertently published contrary to the
USA-imposed press-blackout.. I hope Frosty will post them on
his e-list or whatever the heck it's called,  for you to
read & distribute.. if you give a damn about relations being
butchered in the "U$A's national intere$t", that is..

List info at: http://nativenewsonline.org/