Is it convenient to leave the management of state assets in private hands or for the state to retain management of its natural resources or public services? These antagonistic dichotomies are constantly debated in underdeveloped countries, according to current ideologies.

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Privatization has defenders among laissez-faire liberals, identified with the capitalist economy, who oppose any role of the state in general in the planning of economic and social life. On the other hand, ideological communists, the extreme left, Nazism and socialism of the 21st century are supporters of nationalization as a way of taking over the entire state, for corrupt purposes, as shown by the governments of Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, where they nationalized for personal gain.

Analyzing reality with a patriotic sense, neither one nor the other are definitive criteria. The ideal would be to determine the profitability and social benefit of the operations of public companies or natural resources. I do not agree to privatize strategic companies or those that generate profit or profit, but management companies can be hired to make them profitable with good practice. During the government of the architect Durán-Ballén, the shares of La Cement were sold, which brought a profit to the state. Ecuatoriana de Aviación has been sold. They privatized the agricultural silos built by Rodríguez Lara’s government, to no avail. Now there is no need to sell Banco Pacífico, which is well managed and very profitable, CNEL can be better managed so that it even lowers the price of energy for Ecuadorians and we don’t have to pay expensive electricity due to bureaucratic mismanagement. If they privatize CNEL, electricity will become more expensive so that they can have more profit.

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The biggest danger is illegal mining, money laundering from the drug trade, destruction of the ecosystem. Legal mining like Mirador concessioned to Ecuacorrientes SA, with Chinese capital, is the most infamous act of privatization that has happened in the country, because it completely hands over wealth to foreigners, without state intervention, which was formalized in 2012 by the former president Correa, to exploit copper for 25 years.

Many years ago, farmers lost their land, were harassed and cheated by concessionaire companies, supported by current and present extractivist governments. It is an open pit mine, that is, the entire surface is mined to the bottom where there is copper, the entire huge vein of copper and other minerals are taken to be mined in China. They leave Ecuador with pollution, acidification of water that will not be suitable for human consumption, destruction of the environment and biodiversity. Whatever the Chinese pay is not enough to repair the damage, they never leave any technology and no one knows what they take. How can the government be called left-wing if the form of concession is terrible privatization, because the state handed everything over to Ecuacorrientes, which takes copper, gold and silver, and leaves only a contaminated sinkhole. (OR)