Who Could have Imagined this Massacre?

by Nour Mahdjoub

Since its independence from the Republic of Colombia in 1831, Ecuador has suffered significant political instability. Ecuador experienced several periods of military dictatorship, during which the country developed considerably. In 1976, after four years of dictatorship ruled by Guillermo Rodríguez Lara, another authoritarian regime, led by a Supreme Council of Government, took over until 1979 and set out to ensure a democratic transition. This military regime was the last dictatorship in Ecuador. Under this regime, the Azucarera Tropical Americana (Aztra) factory massacre occurred on 18 October 1977. The factory, which produces sugar, is located in La Troncal in the province of Cañar, on the Pacific coast, 80 km from Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city.

This image is the cover of a booklet produced by the "Revolutionary Workers' Movement" in homage to the victims of a massacre that took place in the sugar factory on 18th October, 1977. The ambition of this text is to tell the truth of what really happened that dark day. The authors of the booklet argue that official narratives shared by the Ecuadorian government are full of lies and contradictions, meaning there is no single version of the truth. In the preface, the authors explain that this document is the result of the collection of more than ten testimonies, including that of a brother of a victim of the massacre and an employee of the provincial hospital. This is a collective testimony in which only those directly involved participated.

According to the testimonies collected, the following events led to the massacre of the 18th October. On 20th September that year, the council of factory workers presented a petition to the regional labour inspectorate to demand that the factory owner respect a collective agreement. This cooperative agreement stipulated that the employees' wages would be indexed to the price of sugar, and thus they were to be increased. The factory manager, Colonel Jesus Reyes Quintanilla, contested the (legitimate) demands of the workers and, on 14th October, the Labour Inspector officially declared that their demands were to be ignored.

On the same day, the workers’ council applied to the Labour Inspectorate for a strike, and, following the labour law in force, specified that the collective would strike on the day that suited them best. On 18th October, as required by law, the workers’ council notified the Labour Inspectorate that the strike would be held that same day. The Labour Inspectorate once again refused the legal request to strike and called the police to go into the factory. At noon, the company's guards closed the main gates of the factory. At 5pm, the strikers’ families visited them to bring them food, by which point there were over five thousand workers inside the building.

An hour later, four police trucks from the “Las Peñas” service, also known as the “Flying Squadron”, arrived. They gave a two-minute warning to leave the premises, to which the strikers replied that the strike was legal and just. No less than a minute after threatening them, the police launched the first gas canisters. The police officers soon used firearms and followed the orders of officials Lenin Cruz and Coronel Reyes Quintanilla. Several accounts contradict each other on what happened next. Some say that the workers then showed their machetes as a sign of resistance, and that the police then opened fire. Others say that the police threw strikers and their relatives into the boilers they had explicitly lit to kill them.

An estimated 26 people were killed that day during the peaceful strike carried out by workers who only demanded what their government had promised them. To this day, the Aztra Factory massacre remains a symbol of social struggle in Ecuador.

I chose this image because I understood the seriousness of the subject it dealt with without even before I opened it. The red colour that dominates the cover leaves no doubt as to the bloodshed that took place. The silhouettes with weapons at the top of the cover also hint at the nature of the subject covered in the booklet. The disjointed and shaken font used on the front cover suggests the dramatic nature of events to be discussed, asking: “Who could have imagined this ... Massacre”, indicating how horrifying and unexpected the events were. .