Directed by Carlos Enríquez Borges, the one-hour, 40-minute film had such an impact on viewers that it had to be postponed to Saturday night when it premiered in the highlands on Sunday 19 February.
Se fue a volver is the first original documentary by Mexico City’s public media service, Capital 21, which, with the support of Nómada Films, narrates the political persecution against the leadership of the Citizens’ Revolution in Ecuador following their departure from government of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa , which led to his exile in various parts of the world, including Mexico.
The title is a quintessentially Ecuadorian expression that paradoxically means they’ll be back soon, the game wasn’t forever.
Through interviews, audiovisual recordings, animated chrestomatia and, above all, rigorous journalistic research and mnemonic exercises, the work reveals eight revealing testimonies.
They are an x-ray of Ecuador’s retreat from a socio-political process that promotes social justice, towards the return of neoliberal formulas in the economic sphere and in the legal sphere to juridize politics.
The reports in front of the camera are revealing: the former President of the National Assembly Gabriela Rivadeneira; former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño; the former private secretary of Rafael Correa Galo Mora; former Deputy Chairwoman of the Legislative Assembly Viviana Bonilla; former National Communications Minister Fernando Alvarado; former Member of Parliament Soledad Buendía, former Head of the Office of the President Edwin Jarrín and former President Rafael Correa himself.
All these stories, the film says, have confirmed treason and infidelity as a communicating vessel in archival footage through the words of ex-governor Lenin Moreno (2017-2021), in contrast to the consecration of his former comrades in the Citizens’ Revolution of the struggle for utopia, justice and the good of the majority. Divided into four chapters (The Betrayal, The Citizens’ Revolution, Exile and Mexico), the documentary chronicles Moreno’s actions, gestures and statements that led to agreements with the opposition oligarchy, the hegemonic media corporation and the leaders’ policies of persecution, imprisonment and ostracism Citizens’ revolution and even the expropriation of the party that brought him to power.
At the same time, he reviews the results of Correa’s 10-year tenure, marked by the conquest of undeniable social successes with independence and sovereignty.
In exile, each witness reveals the dramatic circumstances in which he was forced to leave his country in the context of harassment, legal prosecution and human rights abuses.
Mexico’s solidarity tradition of asylum for the politically persecuted and the humanism of this country in particular after the arrival of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in government stand out at the end of the documentary.
The premiere and rerun of this film and the inclusion of the room for geopolitical analysis Coordenada Sur in Abya Yala’s schedule in a prime Sunday schedule, as well as the recent programming of the documentary series Noviembre rojo by Verónica Córdoba, irrefutable denunciation of The The coup in November 2019 in Bolivia, as well as other spaces for reflection and debate reconfirm this television channel as a major promoter of critical thinking in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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