Capitalism turns Ecuador quake into a social disaster

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS

The earthquake that struck Ecuador April 16, with mounting deaths, injuries and devastation, is a social disaster magnified by capitalist exploitation and imperialist plunder.

The 7.8 magnitude quake on the country’s northwest coast destroyed cities, towns, fishing villages and resorts. As of April 23, nearly 650 people were confirmed dead, 130 missing, and 12,500 injured. Nearly 10,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged and more than 25,000 people are now staying in temporary shelters, according to the government. Others are sleeping outside.

Large amounts of stagnant water in the affected areas pose increasing health risks from mosquito-born diseases, such as dengue fever and Zika.

A week after the quake workers and farmers in many areas have received little government-organized aid. Supplies that arrive are often held in distribution centers and dispatched slowly.

In Manta, where soldiers erected fenced barricades, “some had waited in line for 10 hours the day before, only to come away empty handed,” reported the Washington Post April 21.

“I’ve lost my house and I’m living on the street. The same goes for these other women,” Sandra Alvia 37, told the paper. “We have no water, no power and nothing to eat. We’ve lost everything.”

In their drive for profit, construction companies with government complicity erected buildings with substandard materials prone to collapse in areas well known for regular seismic activity. Ecuador is located along the “Ring of Fire,” a string of volcanoes along the edges of the Pacific Ocean. On April 14-15 earthquakes in Japan, which is also part of this seismic zone, killed at least 41 people, and injured more than 900.

While a few countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have some form of early warning system for earthquakes, Ecuador and most other semicolonial countries don’t, since they’re expensive to deploy and maintain.

Responding to the disaster, the government of President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency and sent 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 national police to the devastated areas.

To reconstruct the quake-damaged areas, Correa proposes taxes that will hit working people the hardest. Sales taxes would increase from 12 to 14 percent for a year. Workers earning over $1,000 a month would have a day’s wages deducted; those making $5,000 a month would be docked five days’ pay. Individuals with more than $1 million in assets would be charged a one-time tax of 0.9 percent on their wealth.

Correa is considering selling off unspecified state assets, according to the Associated Press. He said it will take billions of dollars over years to rebuild the devastated areas of the country.

U.N. officials say $73 million is needed for immediate relief such as food, water, medicine and shelter. Washington has so far offered less than $1 million.

Cuba sends more doctors

The revolutionary government of Cuba immediately stepped up efforts to provide needed health care throughout the country. A team of more than 700 doctors and medical workers had been stationed in Ecuador over the past two years, providing working people with free medical care. Three of these doctors died in the earthquake when a building collapsed in the town of Pedernales.

The Cuban government sent an emergency contingent of volunteer doctors experienced in disasters and epidemics. On arrival April 18, they helped set up a makeshift hospital in Bahia de Caraquez, replacing one that had collapsed, and treated patients in the rural communities of Jama and Canoa, reported Prensa Latina.

Correa was elected president in 2007 on a program of increased government spending for education, health care and subsidies for housing and fuel. He called such reforms through the capitalist state “21st century socialism.”

The worldwide economic crisis of the capitalist system has had a deep impact in Ecuador. The price of oil, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Ecuador’s exports, has plummeted, cutting deeply into income the government has depended on to fund social programs. Other exports, including bananas, shrimp and flowers, have dropped. The country’s gross domestic product had already been predicted to contract 4.5 percent this year.

The country’s foreign debt has doubled to $27 billion since 2009, and the interest rate on government bonds soared to as high as 14 percent over the last year. This acts to siphon the wealth produced by the labor of workers and farmers in Ecuador into banks in the U.S. and other imperialist centers.

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