'Neoliberalism
failed miserably in Ecuador and Latin America'
The next
time a neoliberal mouthpiece will start repeating the overused and
obsolete Thatcherian fairytale of 'There Is No Alternative' (TINA),
just point Correa's Ecuador.
The small
country of Latin America achieved a small miracle under the 10-year
governance of Rafael Correa, applying Socialist policies, contrary to
the dominant neoliberal doctrine of destruction. Correa did the exact
opposite of what the priests of the free market declare, presenting
at the end of his term a real success story, against the fake
'success stories' of the neoliberal establishment that consist of
plenty of poverty, inequality, unemployment, environmental
destruction.
The Correa
administration also stood up to the US empire by kicking out the IMF,
closing a major US military base on Ecuador's coast and giving
political asylum to WikiLeaks founder and key whistleblower, Julian
Assange.
Yet,
probably the most important move
by the Correa administration, was "the suspension of
repayment of a large portion of the debt demanded of Ecuador in the
form of government bonds held principally by banks in the United
States. That unilateral suspension of payment led to a major victory.
Ecuador obliged the creditors to accept a 70% reduction of the debts
concerned. And that enabled a strong increase in social spending
beginning in 2009-2010."
According to Co-Director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and economist,
Mark Weisbrot: “The reforms and
macroeconomic policy changes over the past decade, some of which were
quite innovative, seem to have allowed for significant economic and
social progress ― despite two major external economic shocks that
triggered recessions in Ecuador,”
A new CEPR report focusing on
socio-economic changes in Ecuador during the era of Correa
administration found that:
- Annual per capita GDP growth during the past decade (2006–2016) was 1.5 percent, as compared to 0.6 percent over the prior 26 years.
- The poverty rate declined by 38 percent, and extreme poverty by 47 percent ― a reduction many times larger than that of the previous decade. This resulted from economic growth and employment, and from government programs that helped the poor, such as the cash transfer program Bono de Desarollo Humano, which more than doubled in size as a percent of GDP.
- Inequality fell substantially, as measured by the Gini coefficient (from 0.55 to 0.47), or by the ratio of the top 10 percent to the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution (from 36 to 25, as of 2012).
- The government doubled social spending, as a percentage of GDP, from 4.3 percent in 2006 to 8.6 percent in 2016. This included large increases in spending on education, health, and urban development and housing.
- There were significant gains in education enrollment at various levels, as spending on higher education increased from 0.7 to 2.1 percent of GDP. This is the highest level of government spending on higher education in Latin America, and higher than the average of the OECD countries.
- Government expenditure on health services doubled as a percentage of GDP from 2006 to 2016.
- Public investment increased from 4 percent of GDP in 2006 to 14.8 percent in 2013, before falling to about 10 percent of GDP in 2016.
As the
successor of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, is very close to
mark
a big victory against the
Right Wing opponent, Guillermo Lasso, Correa gave one of his last
interviews before leaving office, to Telesur and Abby Martin.
Correa
stated that the biggest achievement during his term was the fact that
Ecuadorians recovered their pride and self-esteem:
When I
took office, the country was in shambles, because of the crisis of
1999. Because of the tragedy of the immigration, almost one million
Equadorians left the country, ripping families apart, ripping our
society apart. It was a country on the verge of despair. Every
day, the press portrayed Ecuadorians as corrupt, lazy and inept,
saying only neighboring countries like Colombia and Peru had good
highways. We have recovered our pride and our self-esteem as
Ecuadorians. And for us, that is intangible. It can't be measured by
economic or monetary indicators, etc. For us, that is the greatest
achievement.
It
is also impressive the fact that the neoliberal propaganda carried
out by the mainstream media is identical to every case around the
world. The mainstream media of the oligarchs (both in Germany, Greece
and elsewhere), were propagating the same nonsense about the Greeks
who are lazy, don't work, in order to make the citizens feel guilty
about the crisis that erupted in Greece. In reality, the parasitic
bankers who were saved through slaughtering wages and pensions of
Greeks are largely responsible for the crisis. Ecuador had the
courage to write-off debt, contrary to Greece which struggles to
survive from an enormous debt, inflated by the Troika (IMF, ECB,
Commission) policies.
In
another question on what he would wish he had more time to implement,
Correa responded quickly, without second thought: More progress in
the struggle against child malnutrition.
He
said also that Neoliberalism failed miserably in Ecuador
and Latin America. They want to blame us for the earthquake. They
want to blame the earthquake on 21st century Socialism, but the
policies that have failed miserably are their policies, not ours.
At
the end, Correa gave an idea on what further steps should Ecuador
take towards a progressive path for the benefit of Ecuadorians:
We have
made great progress in improving income and salaries and fairer
taxation, but now we have to redistribute the wealth, the
accumulation, the means of production, with laws like, for example,
an inheritance tax. But our oligarchies will fight that tooth and
nail, using their media outlets, broadcasting what Gramsci called
hegemonic culture. Convincing the poor that what is good for the rich
is good for them. Deceiving the great majority.
So it is a great challenge in the short and medium range for Ecuador
to continue on the path of social justice.
Correa's
Ecuador is a good example of what can be achieved by even a small
country under a capable president who is truly dedicated to serve the
people, not the oligarchy.
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