LaRouche: Dollarization in Ecuador
Means Slavery

"I know the situation in Ecuador. Ecuador is now being destroyed. It's being destroyed by the United Nations, by the International Monetary Fund. It's being destroyed by the State Department of the United States, under Madeleine Albright, deliberately," said U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche. He was responding to a question from a delegate participating in a telephone dialogue on Jan. 23 between LaRouche and 52 Democratic Party delegate caucuses throughout the state of California.

"These conditions which have been imposed on Ecuador, which have been the trigger for the two coups, counter-coups, and so forth, going on in Ecuador right now, are the result of the United States government supporting the imposition of slavery, so-called dollarization, upon Ecuador... .

"This is genocide. We've created chaos. We now have a dangerous situation in Ecuador as a result of it, a situation which can spread the contagion, to worsen the situation in Colombia, aggravate the situation in Venezuela, spill over into Peru, spill into parts of Brazil, particularly the Amazon region, and spread in chain-reaction effect throughout the whole subcontinent."

The Democratic Presidential pre-candidate explained that Ecuador "is in the middle of an area--Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, to some degree Panama, Peru, next to Brazil, which is also in trouble; and Chile is also threatened.

"So the entire Americas are now being destroyed, as Ecuador right now, as we sit and speak, is being destroyed, by the will of the United States government, as expressed by its Secretary of State and others, and the International Monetary Fund. It's being destroyed....

"This dollarization of Ecuador, was calculated. It was intentional. It was an intent to destroy the nation. They were not merely out to impose conditions. The deliberate purpose, by people such as the Inter-American Dialogue involved, is to eliminate the existence of the nation-state of Ecuador. And if we don't stop them, they'll do it."

LaRouche went on to address what he considers his specific role in this situation:

"My actual concern now, in terms of where I am now, what powers I have, what influence I have, is to attempt to persuade the President of the United States to stop this nonsense. Do not try to impose slavery upon Ecuador, in the name of `democracy.'

"What kind of a thing is that? Because if you would lift these conditions, and simply say, `We are prepared to assist Ecuador in enabling them to suspend the present debt, which is probably unjust in many cases anyway, in order for the currency to be restored to a functioning condition, and to provide the protectionist conditions with U.S. protection, under which Ecuador can rebuild itself.'

"I think the problem of the recent coup and so forth, were all the result of what I've seen as an ongoing, deliberate direction of policy. And I have a frightened President Bill Clinton on my hands, who does not have the guts, even though I'm sure he knows better, and doesn't feel he has the position, to take this on....

"In not making that decision, the President of the United States is making a very serious mistake, worse than a mistake."

The LaRouche solution

In response to a question as to what he would do as President of the United States regarding the crisis in Ecuador and similar crises, LaRouche responded:

"I would pick up something I published in early August of 1982, something that got me into a good deal of trouble, but also got me some friends in Ecuador at the time, among other countries.

"It's called `Operation Juárez.' My policy for the Americas is essentially sumarized in that paper, in `Operation Juárez.'... I wrote that as a cooperative effort--it was all my writing and my responsibility--but as a cooperative effort with the government of Mexico, the President of Mexico [José] López Portillo, and other leaders of Ibero-America, during that period.

"And I think people, by looking at that, and looking at today's situation, will recognize exactly where I stand, and what that means implicitly, in terms of countries such as Ecuador.

"If I were President of the United States, I would act immediately; say, the United States, as under the policy of John Quincy Adams, under the policy of Blaine, under the policy of Franklin Roosevelt, the policy enunciated by John Kennedy--I would enunciate that policy."

LaRouche added: "The function of the United States, is to protect the independent states of the Americas from that kind of rapacity by international powers. And this is a case where the foreign policy of the United States, under a President who knows what his business is, would be to step in and say, `No, you don't do that to Ecuador.'

"And that would give the Ecuadoreans the room to begin putting their own affairs into good order."