Ecuador's Correa pledges radical changes

[Say_What]

Here we go again... same MSM shit, different day compliments of AP (Associated Propaganda).

<clips>

QUITO, Ecuador - Rafael Correa, a leftist economist and friend of Venezuela's anti-U.S. leader, promises swift radical political and economic changes after he is sworn in as president on Monday.

His plans have raised the hopes of Ecuador's poor but stirred worries that he may seek to govern arbitrarily.

Correa, 43, won Ecuador's November election runoff as a charismatic outsider who pledged to lead a "citizens' revolution" against a political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

He says his first act as president will be to call a national referendum on a special assembly to rewrite the constitution — something he says is vital to limiting the power of the traditional parties that he blames for the country's problems.

"Citizens are fed up. We need a profound political reform, including a new generation of leaders," Correa said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly before his victory.

The nationalistic, U.S.-educated Correa has called President Bush "tremendously dimwitted." He has rejected a free trade pact with America, saying it would hurt Ecuador's farmers. And he has said he will not extend the U.S. military's use of the Manta air base on the Pacific coast for drug surveillance flights when a treaty expires in 2009.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/ecuador_president


From left, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, Ecuador's President -elect Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales talk during a mass in Zumbahua, Ecuador, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007. Correa will take office as Ecuador's president Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

[acmavm]

1. No wonder Gates says we have to increase the military by 96,000. They

must have their eyes on putting these 'uppity' rulers south of the border in their places.

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

3. No doubt! Any right-wing Presidency wouldn't be balanced without some

horrendous Latin American blood letting. They've all indulged themselves, and _{George W.} hasn't had the chance outside Haiti. He's probably wild to get in there and slaughter some Latin Americans. He must make amends, and do some killing like his predecessor Republican Presidents.

They'll just wade in there, under false pretenses, no doubt, just like Iraq, and make up a "justification" later.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Now we're talking! "Correa has called President Bush "tremendously dimwitted.""

Like music to my ears!

I see AP has taken off after Corea, like a heat-seeking missile! Authoritarian, he is! My, my.

He just got there, and they've trashed him already. All because he has indicated he doesn't want to go along with _Bush's destructive "Free Trade" arrangement, and also be at the mercy of U.S. oil companies operating like pirates in his country.

So predictable AP would run to the head of the Stock Exchange in Ecuador for his view of Rafael Correa. I'm surprised they didn't just do what they want to do, and clear it all through Otto Reich, instead.

I'll bet Correa is ready for them. I hope the word has travelled throughout Latin America, and they are creating a very solid union among themselves. It's about time. They've lost too many citizens through U.S. right-wing violent bullying in their own countries, against their own people.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Priceless photo! Thanks so much, Say_What!

Caption: "Our Lady of Guadalupe and Her Three Knights."

-----

("Somethin' is happening here/
and you don't know what it i-i-is.../
DO you, Mr. Jones?")

(--Bob Dylan)

[Say_What]

5. Economic Policy Changes With New Latin American Leaders

Breaking the shackles of US domination...

From an article written in late December:

...Rafael Correa, Ecuador's newly elected president, is a case in point. Last week Correa sent the country's bond markets tumbling by announcing that he would seek to restructure Ecuador's foreign debt. He is looking toward a 75 percent debt reduction, and will use the savings on debt service to increase social spending.

Correa, who got his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana, understands very well that foreign capital can, in some circumstances, contribute to development.

But when a country is borrowing simply to pay off debt, then it may make more sense to clear some debt off the books and start over – just as an individual does when he or she declares bankruptcy in the United States.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=773&Itemid=45

[Judi Lynn]

6. Interesting short article: Big oil gets bad news in Ecuador

Big oil gets bad news in Ecuador
By Nadia Martinez
November 30, 2006

The Bush administration's streak of bad news in Latin America keeps on going.
(snip)

More than half of Ecuador's population lives below the poverty line.

During his presidential campaign, Correa was openly critical of the corporate friendly free-market policies espoused by Washington in Latin America for the last two decades. He has promised to make other important changes in the country's economic system, especially in the oil sector.

Correa's attempt to exercise greater control over his country's profitable oil business is popular, as are similar efforts in other nations. Citizens in one country after another are rejecting the business as usual model in favor of a change in course.

From Mexico to Argentina, voters are giving right-wing candidates a run for their money, and more often than not, opting for the leader who can best offer them a break from Washington's bitter economic pills.

The Bush administration continues to push for open markets for U.S. companies, less government involvement in the provision of public services and other fiscally conservative policies that limit the ability of Latin American governments to fulfill the basic needs of their citizens.

For U.S. relations with Latin America to work, Congress will have to revamp our policies to accommodate the efforts of nascent governments that are following the mandates of their people.

One easy way to start is by encouraging American oil companies doing business in Ecuador to negotiate fairly with the new Correa administration so that average citizens there can begin to feel the benefits of their country's riches immediately.
(snip)

http://www.progressive.org/media_mpmartinez113006

[Peace Patriot]

9. "...fiscally conservative policies..." = radical fascist profiteering.

"Conservative" it ain't.

Trillions of dollars in debt to the World Bank/IMF, with the rich ripping off the cream and leaving the poor to pay the debt, and trillions of dollars in deficit spending for unjust, illegal war, and to pad the pockets of the super-rich with multiple tax cuts, are NOT conservative policies.

We have got to reclaim this word.

Chavez, Morales and Correa are CONSERVATIVES! Peaceful, equitable social order. Fair taxation. Responsible spending. Investment in education, medical care, small farmers and small entrepreneurs, developing co-ops, encouraging grass roots participation, developing infrastructure--building for the future. What could be more "conservative" than thinking of the future? What could be less "conservative" than the super-rich and global predator corporations ripping off everybody and destroying social cohesion (not to mention the planet)--like the pirates and brigands they are?

[Peace Patriot]

7. Hilarious AP article, as they twist into pretzels trying to make Correa look

"authoritarian." Then they reluctantly throw in--at the end of paragraph 9: "He supports allowing all elected officials to be recalled."

Chavez supported a similar measure in Venezuela--that elected officials should be -recallable, by a vote of the people. Then he won the Bush/NED/USAID (our taxpayers' money)-sponsored recall election with 58% of the vote, and followed that by reelection with 62% of the vote this year--in two of the most closely monitored elections on earth. I wish we had a recall provision here. (--and transparent elections.)

In slandering Correa, they could have, and didn't, use, his campaign shtick--that his name means "belt," and he whipped off his belt at campaign appearances, and lashed it at fascists and neo-liberals. Rafael, Lion-Tamer!

Some "authoritarian," making fun of himself like that.

-----

Did you ever see such light in human faces, as in the photo above? I'm really taken with that photo.

[Say_What]

8. Morales just proposed a similar law..

Warning: Another Associated Propaganda article, although this one doesn't go into the regularly spewed *friend of Chavez and Castro*, and *trying to gain more power* bullshit.

<clips>

Bolivian president proposes recall bill

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - President Evo Morales proposed on Friday a new law to allow recall votes against elected officials, a move that would give protesters demanding the resignation of an opposition-aligned state governor a way to remove him from office.

But the bill would face a tough passage in Bolivia's conservative-controlled Senate, where lawmakers will likely see the leftist president's proposal as a threat to opposition state governors who have become his most prominent critics.

The proposal came at the end of a week of clashes in the city of Cochabamba, 125 miles southeast of the capital La Paz, where protesters are calling for state governor Manfred Reyes Villa to resign.

The clashes between supporters and opponents of Reyes left two dead and more than 130 wounded on Thursday. But Friday was relatively quiet in the valley city.

Morales introduced his proposal with only passing mention of the situation in Cochabamba, saying the law would allow for the recall of officials from mayors up through the presidency for corruption, human rights violations, or simply failing to fulfill campaign promises.

But he made it clear the bill's goal would be to avoid violence such as the clashes in Cochabamba in the future.

"If the people knew that they could remove an official with their vote, we would avoid this type of confrontation," Morales said. "We will improve the way we solve the confrontation between (an elected official's) legitimacy and legality. We will look for ways to, for example, end the mandate of corrupt mayors, governors who abuse their power or presidents who massacre their own people."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_protests

[Peace Patriot]

10. Thanks for the info! It would help solve the problem in the provinces

(--fascist elite trying to split off the provinces, to control oil, gas, etc.).

Anybody know if Mexico has a recall provision? It would have helped in Oaxaca (--so I assume there isn't one, but maybe I'm wrong). Also could be used re Calderon and the national election theft.

[Massacure]

11. Is Correa the Latin American leader with the economic degree from Harvard?

I thought I remember reading one of the recently elected leaders attained a degree in economics from Harvard but I don't remember who it was.

[Say_What]

12. Yep, that's him... n/t