MimiTVAMediaPro

Jaime Hurtado González (1937-1999) Politician, Activist, Social Justice champion,  Jaime Hurtado González was the first black man to run for president of the Republic of Ecuador.

Known as the the voice of the people González was a strong advocate of the disenfranchised groups of color within Ecuador. As an elected congressman in 1999 he was running for President with a strong chance of winning.  Sadly, Jaime Hurtado González was assassinated  near the country’s Supreme Court Building.

A member of  the organization of Popular Unity, Jaime Hurtado, was brutally gunned down with other activists, Pablo Tapia and Wellington Borja, in an act of state sanctioned terrorism by the reactionary forces led by the government presided over by Jamil Mahuad.

It was February 17th 1999, in broad daylight, a few meters away from the the Supreme Court building of  Ecuador and just a block away from the House of the Parliament;  an armed militia fired at the activists using 9mm weapons issued only to state security.

Despite the fact that the place where these men were assassinated was under constant surveillance by the police, and a few steps away stands the security service for the Supreme Court, nothing was done to capture the murderers who managed to get away through traffic.

Jaime Hurtado Gonzalez was a national Deputy and the chairman of the Parliamentary block of the DPM.  As a young man, he quickly rose up to become the leader of the struggle of the people, a relentless fighter for a new motherland ruled by working class people. He was assassinated along with his friend, Pablo Tapia, associate Deputy for the DPM and a cousin, Wellington Borja, also member of the DPM.  The crime was part of a plot on the part of the government to frighten anti-government protesters. In what seemed to be a series of crimes against the people of Ecuador, when that government took office; four peasants who claimed land in the town of Salite were assassinated; the government carried out mass arrests of student protesters; security forces broke into the headquarters of the DPM in the El Triunfo and arrested several leaders and members of that organization; plus protesting teachers are threatened to be fired.

Several community leaders of  progressive organizations and workers unions were threatened and then subsequently attacked by Government officials. The assassination was carried out at the same time when 120,000  teachers were on strike.  And not even the millions the Government spent in publicity plus their threats of massive lay-offs, were able to stop the teachers from striking.

The Prime Minister, Vladimiro Alvarez gave up the post of Minister of Education  unable to face the demands of the protesting teachers.  And for everybody, workers, peasants, teachers and students, housewives, rank and file christians, leftist democrats, Jaime Hurtado was an example of tireless struggle for the rights of the people.

Quoted from the organizations newspaper as part of Hurtado’s eulogy, “Our organizations are rooted in the people and our people do not get scared. They will not be able to scare us. On the contrary we raise today the banners of revolutionary change with more enthusiasm, and we are ready more than ever to face and defeat the enemies of the people. No matter how many crimes the Government commits, the ideals of Jaime, Pablo and Wellington will find support throughout the country, in the hearts of the peoples of Ecuador and flourish in the Popular Power, for which we will always struggle hand in hand with the oppressed.”