From Guayaquil- Jorge Estrella
Durán, 11/10/19
There is an saying that Colombians use when someone deceives them: “no me mames gallo”(don´t lie to me rooster). Moreno, the Boltaire has been “mamando gallo” with unusual cynicism these days in the face of the measures of the popular and indigenous organizations against the elimination of the fuel subsidy, which in reality goes beyond the euphemisms of the text of Decree 883.
In reality, this decree liberates the price of fuels and, from now on, their price will be decided by the fuel market and the criteria or levels of utility that the oil companies and their sellers desire.
Therefore, not only did the price of gasoline and diesel rise 130%, but their price will increase even more according to the demands of the market.
The president has told many lies and continues doing so: now he says that he will create a trust for the indigenous people with the profit obtained as result of these measures. Another monumental fairytale that we hope will be denounced by the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, as a lie from someone who has only cared about benefiting the rich while causing much pain to the poor.
But where is the lie in this announcement?
It is simple: the elimination of the subsidy does not generate any profits for the State, because the purchase of oil by-products is not useful for the State and, on the contrary, prevents the resources of the general state budget from being used for this purpose, and to be used, as established in the deal with the IMF, for the payment of the debt with that imperialist bank.
In other words, they will cover the deficit caused by the tax holiday (4,500 million dollars), the elimination of taxes on imported products, to cover the reduction of the tax on capital outflow, the amnesty on advanced income taxes that avoided tax fraud, etc. This imbalance in the general state budget has to be covered through public indebtedness and the whole package of measures that go from the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, cuts in social spending, health programs, education, child development, a reform of the state structure by cutting public organisms that serve the poor, the sale of state assets, lay-offs, job insecurity, etc. was prepared to meet this necessity.
The resources obtained from these measures will be used to pay the debt with the IMF and multilateral credit agencies for over 20.000 million dollars.
Therefore, there is no rational way to destine resources to a trust, this is nothing but another “mamada de gallo,” just like the other tales he has invented… he can deceive some people for a little longer, a few all the time, but he cannot deceive everyone all the time.