And what had to happen, happened, the bankruptcy of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) has arrived and pensions for retirees will stop being paid to them in three years. The liquidity it had was abused by monthly contributions from employers and employees. It was poorly invested, its management was left to those in power to make flowers out of their money, and the state stopped paying its contribution of 40% of employer contributions to pensions, created by President Arroyo del Río for social security as would compensate the actuarial deficit and be sustainable.

The government established a commission of economic experts that looked for a solution to the problem and, eureka!, found it: that employees work for an additional five years before they are entitled to a pension; and other thanks, such as the fact that self-employed, independent workers have to become members of the IESS, whether they want it or not, which represents an attack on freedom.

We heard how the commissioners said that they presented their recommendations and that it is the Government’s political decision whether to implement them or not. Predictably, the labor unions rejected them. If any current or future government tried to apply them, social violence would be unstoppable. A few weeks ago, the French government extended the time required for pension contributions by two years, and that country was engulfed in flames.

Ecuador, with such a tight fiscal economy, is not in the economic capacity to contribute to solving the IESS bankruptcy; neither now nor tomorrow. Even less will they be able to do this if, happily, by general decision, ITT’s oil is buried and the country voluntarily becomes even more impoverished. While the major economic powers, the major oil producers, continue to exploit and consume hydrocarbons, a large number of Ecuadorians quixoticly want to give it up. These funds could very well, if not strengthen the fiscal coffers, prevent the bankruptcy of the IESS pension fund, which will drag millions of Ecuadorians into misery.

After learning about the bankruptcy of IESS, its subsidiaries panicked. Self-employed, independent workers, who are forced to enter the IESS, feel the same fear. The vast majority chose not to, for whatever reason, among them, as it is known to take months to get a breakthrough in IESS medical services. And today, when the bankruptcy of Social Security is made public, they would have to be tied up to be taken to the slaughterhouse. The recommendations seem to be created in a cold laboratory without contact with reality, but at least they made the terrible reality known to the public. And since the state does not have the means to resolve the bankruptcy, I dare to suggest that the profits made from ITT are not buried and directed to social security.

Pensions are paid in cash; they don’t get white, green or blue bonuses in shops. (OR)