‘CONAIE supported neoliberalism and then protested against it’

RFI: Five months of the war in Ukraine are almost over. What evaluation do you make of that conflict?

Rafael Correa: First of all, I want to tell you that we will never agree to an offensive war. Obviously, an attacked country has to defend itself. We will never agree with violent solutions to conflicts. Every death is an irreparable loss. I also believe that it was a strategic error by Putin, because he surely thought that he could solve the war or end the war in a few days, a few weeks. They have been going on for several months and there is no sign of a solution to the conflict. So, in short, I do not agree with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

RFI: This conflict has again polarized the situation between Washington, Beijing, Moscow. Specifically, does it mean that multilateralism is weakened?

Rafael Correa: When has multilateralism been strengthened?

RFI: You promoted that multipolar proposal.

Rafael Correa: Yes, but with the fall of the Soviet Union we went from a bipolar world to a unipolar world. Now China is doing a bit of competition. Europe totally aligned itself with the United States.

He cannot imagine the foreign policy of the United States towards Latin America to try to exclude China. They impose treaties on us, they are making a law with respect to Ecuador to prohibit us from having relations with China. They still believe us to be a colony. Those are the signs that this government has given.

In any case, in good time to condemn the war and the invasion of Ukraine. But let all invasions be condemned. Let there be a single moral, not double standards. How many times has the United States invaded without permission from the UN Security Council? NATO has bombed countries and if nothing happens, they are vigilantes. They are always right, in the name of freedom, justice and democracy. The others are the evil ones.

I can tell you that the invasions that the United States has had in Latin America – sometimes against dictators, other times against a democratic government – the only common denominator is that it has always been based on its interests.

RFI: Let’s go to Latin America. The government of Ecuador began yesterday, together with CONAIE, a negotiation after 18 days of strike, six dead and more than 600 wounded. It is with the mediation of the Catholic Church that this beginning of possible conciliation has finally been achieved. What would be the solution to this umpteenth conflict that occurs between the indigenous movement and a president, in this case Mr. Guillermo Lasso, in Ecuador?

Rafael Correa: They wanted to do it to me, but we had a lot of popular support and they never managed to subdue the government. This government is so weak that they have subjugated it. But we must be sensible. Six dead? They calculate 11 dead, 600 wounded. Many lost their eyes, millions in loss, destruction of private, public property to achieve a 15-cent reduction in the price of fuel. Who brings back the dead? A 17-year-old boy, a student at the Mejía school, died. Who returns that son to his father? We have lost our sense of reality.

I am not saying that the demonstration is not legitimate in certain cases when it violates the right. But it is illegitimate when it comes to imposing my views, regardless of the outcome of the elections. And even more paradoxical, when CONAIE supported Lasso to be president against us. He supported neoliberalism and a year later he is protesting against neoliberalism. That must end.

Of course, there is also a legitimate part of the claim, but there are ways to claim. The left considers that conquests are achieved with struggle. It sounds nice, but it’s not true. How many conquests were achieved in 2007, in peace, in harmony with the vote. The best weapons in the 21st century are votes.

Lasso has to go as corrupt because he is involved in the Pandora Papers. He has to go because he is a total failure. The country was the second safest in Latin America and now it is one of the most insecure. You have to go as a liar: in the university 90,000 young people don’t have a place, they don’t have a job either and that leads to violence.

RFI: But what is the way out of this crisis situation?

Rafael Correa: The elections and we have the constitutional solutions. Our Constitution included early elections precisely to democratically, constitutionally and peacefully overcome this crisis.

Before my government, in ten years there were seven presidents since 1996. Until 2007, no government had finished its period. These conflicts, caused by democratic fraud, deceit and corruption, were resolved in an undemocratic, unconstitutional manner, based on force. To avoid this, we include in the new Constitution this parliamentary figure of early elections when there is political and social commotion.

But since these people prefer deaths, violence, destruction of the country, to putting their position with respect to the Ecuadorian people under consideration, they avoided that constitutional solution that Lasso himself requested. This is called “crusader death”, because if the president requests it, the Assembly is dissolved and the president himself makes his position available and the presidential and legislative elections are brought forward. If requested by the Assembly, the president is removed, but presidential and legislative elections are called. It is the democratic, peaceful, constitutional way out of this conflict.

RFI: The Ecuadorian Congress said no.

Rafael Correa: Lasso asked for it a few months ago. There he was a constitutional democrat. When we asked for it, they branded us as coup plotters and we achieved a majority, but not the 2/3 majority that is required. If Lasso really considered the country he would put his position at his disposal, but he prefers to cling to the presidential chair.

RFI: At the bottom of all this, isn’t there the problem of the dollarization of Ecuador, which was approved a few years ago? The government has no room for maneuver with the dollar, that depends on the United States. Lowering or raising the price of gasoline does not depend on you. Wasn’t there a problem of strategic vision?

Rafael Correa: Of course, I never agreed with dollarization, it’s a technical and geopolitical absurdity. But it is not the biggest problem. A strong reflection. The problem with fuel prices has nothing to do with the dollar, it was that they liberalized access to fuel. That is called neoliberalism. That was what CONAIE itself called for a vote a year ago. We need to be a little more consistent in that regard.