You might wonder about the mysteries of the stars or you might wonder about why Ecuador is so screwed up, and in either case you’d be touching on the immutable truths of the universe.

While we’re on Ecuador, something interesting has happened. After confiscating $6 billion in investment from Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, and scrapping its entire free trade pact with the U.S., effectively swapping market access to a $11 trillion economy for $1 billion in oil pumping equipment, Ecuador is moving back in the direction of good sense.

Ecuador has decided – at the last minute – not to sign off on a refinery deal with Venezuela, something that would surely put it in the Hugo Chavez orbit, in the same way as Bolivia now is. Take charity from Hugo Chavez and prepare to swap your dignity.

The refining deal had been trumped and trumped by the Venezuelan dictator, and all of a sudden, on the day it’s supposed to be signed, it’s not happening.

El Universal reports:

Spokespersons for Ecuadorian state oil firm Petroecuador said an agreement with Venezuelan state oil giant Pdvsa to refine Ecuadorian crude oil in Pdvsa domestic and foreign facilities would not be initialed on Friday as scheduled because of imprecisions found in the instrument.

No new date for initialization of the agreement was set, DPA reported.

Initialization of the agreement, under which Ecuador would save some USD 300-400 million on a yearly basis, according to official figures, was scheduled for June 21st, and it was adjourned for Friday because Venezuelan energy authorities postponed their visit to Quito.

However, on Friday, the sources said that there is no full technical survey assessing the exact economic benefits Ecuador is to obtain from the deal.

Further, Petroecuador CEO Fernando Gonz????lez resigned unexpectedly two days ago, and no substitute has been appointed so far.

Perhaps Ecuador was significantly influenced by Peru’s powerful antichavista election earlier this month. Perhaps Ecuador took one look at what was happening to Bolivia, and decided that nationalization ought to mean something better than Hugo Chavez’s oil minions pawing through the Ecuadorean oil merchandise.

Perhaps the rapaciousness of Ecuador’s politicians is responsible for this, and perhaps Chavez didn’t offer them enough money to satisfy. Or someone else offered them something bigger. But all the same, this pullout from the proffered Venezuelan sweetheart deal is probably is going to save Ecuador.

You can call it the Ecuadorean way.

Ecuador is kind of cool like this, no nation screws up to the extent that this one does, and no nation manages to snatch victory from the chomped up jaws of defeat as Ecuador does, either. I know of nothing else like this, Ecuador is unique.

Ecuador screwed up its monetary system so badly it had to dollarize – and guess what? Dollarization was better than anything Ecuador or any of its neighbors, has ever had before. Unique on the continent, Ecuador’s private sector is no longer vulnerable to government robbery of their bank accounts through the insidious means of currency devaluation.

Ecuador defaulted on its debt and went through several presidents in recent years, making itself an investment pariah state. Cleaning up the default – left Ecuador debt-free and the default itself ensured that Ecuador couldn’t get into any further indebted because no one would lend to them. It happened just as the dollar-denominated oil bonanza kicked off and Ecuador found itself an oil producer.

Third, Ecuador got Chavez to buy some of the defaulted Ecuadorean debt, and somehow, they managed to stiff him for millions. Every little blow at Chavez helps. Again, Ecuador won.

No nation is as able to magically really transform its own stupidity and chaos quite so well into positions of strength as Ecuador does.

I’m really glad they aren’t letting Venezuela’s politicized oil company to come in and take over their oil wells. The door’s open for them to do the right thing. So long as they listen to their private sector, they will stumble again despite themselves into victory.