March 9, 2021
On Friday afternoon, March 5, 2021, Patricio Pazmiño, General of the National Police on passive duty, resigned from the Ministry of Government. Pazmiño replaced deputy minister María Paula Romo, who was removed from the position last November 24. Pazmiño had been in office for only three months. As vice-minister, Pazmiño was in charge of the logistical coordination of the unbridled repression of October 2019, events that for their brutality represent State crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ten days after the prison crisis, which led to the murder of 79 PPL prisoners, the highest authority in charge of the internal security of the bourgeois state, presented his resignation to President Lenin Moreno. The worst government in the history of Ecuador, apart from the relentless and aggressive application of anti-popular and neoliberal measures, has stood out for having unscrupulous authorities.
The resignations of high-ranking State officials are happening as apparently independent events, but they are not. It is evident that the Moreno government’s hours are numbered, and a massive flight of its authorities will not wait. The bourgeoisie destroys, deinstitutionalizes and takes advantage of the State. The multiple outrages to the life and dignity of the people, fall into possible criminal responsibilities, and those responsible vanish. After the raffle of privatizations of the public sector, the structural defunding of the State’s portfolios and the speculation with life in the midst of the pandemic, there will be no one left to hold responsible for so much pain.
Nor is it a coincidence that the preferred destination for the Moreno government authorities is the U.S. From the beginning, the National Government has proven to be faithful and servile to the interests of the U.S. State Department. Among the achievements of the government in favor of U.S. national interests are the signing of an FTA between the two countries, the unconditional support for its imperial policy, with the recognition of the self-claimed Juan Guaidó in Venezuela and the dictator Jeanine Áñez in Bolivia, in addition to the reinstatement of military cooperation in geopolitical terms, with the “natural base” of Galapagos. The United States knows how to take care of its “friends”, as former President Trump affectionately expressed to Álvaro Uribe last October.
The neoliberal government par excellence continues to sink, without characters like Pazmiño and Zevallos losing the opportunity to wash their hands and consciences, fleeing at the most opportune moment. The people will not forget those who have been their executioners in these four years of implementation of the machinery of death called neoliberalism. Hopefully, someday, these nefarious figures will be brought to justice before they return to take refuge in their favorite homeland, the United States. The rats continue to abandon ship, one after another. The question remains as to whether the captain of the shipwreck, Lenin Moreno, will end up sinking with the ship, or whether he will also receive a life preserver from the U.S. State Department.
Chronicle of the escape
The CIA is in retreat. The agents who have imposed neoliberalism from shock to shock in the country, are on their way out. The first to leave office was the former Minister of Economic and Social Inclusion, Ivan Granda, who resigned on September 4. The next to leave the country for the United States was former Minister of Finance Richard Martinez, who was promoted to the position of Vice-President for countries at the IDB on November 13, 2020.
They were followed by the Minister of Terror, María Paula Romo. After being removed from office on November 24, 2020, in the impeachment trial carried out by the National Assembly, she vanished from the public sphere. No one knows the whereabouts of the former minister, one of the most relevant figures in the dismantling of the State, and best friend of the U.S. Embassy, along with her was her recent husband, Iván Granda.
Subsequently, the former Secretary-General of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic, the senior lackey, Juan Sebastián Roldán, caught up with them on the run, last February 19, 2021. His main function in the ill-fated government of Moreno, was highlighted by the rapprochement with the US State Department, the FTA agreement, the defense of the repression of October 2019, the budget cuts and the servility to the IMF and WB. With the impudence of a “dios le pague”, Roldan declared his mission accomplished, the embezzlement of the country, and left not to return.
Only a week later, in the midst of the world’s biggest corruption scandal in the handling of the vaccines against covid-19, the former Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, resigned. That same night, he fled the country for Miami. Leaving the country with the worst SARS-COV2 death figures, a collapsed health system, and the people in total abandonment. He, his mother, relatives and friends of the worst government in history were vaccinated.
Now the brand new Minister of Government and right hand of María Paula Romo, Patricio Pazmiño, joins the escape. Who will follow him in the escape caravan? Perhaps Mr. President, who has already alleged heart problems. Or it will be Jarrín and Michelena. Maybe it will be Pablo Celi, now that the prosecutor’s office is investigating him. It is not certain, what we do know is that after dismantling the State, after generating the most brutal crisis in the history of the country, after taking so many lives and futures, the CIA rats are on the move.
Source: Revista Crisis, translation Internationalist 360