On Jan. 22, the military ousted the National Salvation Committee and installed Mahuad's vice president, Gustavo Noboa, as president. But whether the ruling class and its U.S. backers will be able to impose this plan over a mobilized population is far from certain. Economic misery fuels uprising Ecuador, a South American country of 12 million, is in the midst of a dire economic crisis. Production declined by 7 percent in 1998. Inflation is running at 60 percent annually.
Poverty is rampant.
The crisis falls especially hard on the Indigenous population. Ecuador's economic crisis is a symptom of the general capitalist crisis raging across wide regions of Latin America. Colombia is facing depression-level conditions. Under these policies, subsidies of food, electricity and gas must be cut. State services and industries must be privatized.