Blogging the democratic revolution
Rafael Correa, 43, an avowed leftist “economist” educated at the University of Illinois, has won the presidential election in Ecuador. He’s a good friend of Hugo Chavez and has campaigned on promises to de-dollarize Ecuador, default on the sovereign debt, and nationalize private oil companies, chasing out every last penny of foreign investment. He’s one of the biggest Idiots in the hemisphere. Some economist. The guy doesn’t even know arithmetic, let alone human nature. The only consolation is that he’s likely to be thrown out before his term is up, and he does not have a congress whose parties he…
You’ve heard of VCrisis for Venezuela, no? Now, there’s ECrisis, for Ecuador. A couple of Ecuador hands who believe in democratic revolution and free markets, have gotten together and come up with a beautiful new Web site for all developments regarding turbulent little Ecuador. It’s full of richly sourced stories and the most up to date developments. This new blog is a sorely needed addition to all the good Latin American blogs out there and I will link it here often. It’s a must-see here.
An Andean woman casts a ballot outside Quito today Source: Associated Press, via Houston Chronicle Ecuador’s beautiful women wait in line to vote Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News I am in shock. I was so depressed about the electoral prospects of Ecuador, where a Chavista prettyboy, Rafael Correa, was leading all polls, that I had trouble blogging. The guy was total Chavista and not only that, he was gross in a way only Ecuadorean politicians can be. You know, like El Loco. He actually went walking around taking his belt off, and cracking it against anything he could find, saying…
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…
By Pedro Camargo Special to Publius Pundit De facto, Hugo Chavez is adding Ecuador to his growing roster of Bolivarian nations. He is close now with the final steps in place. Ecuador is following the Chavez nation-destroying playbook by ending its international trade and its own democracy. How did Chavez do this? Easy. He followed the Fidel Castro playbook. Harkening back to Napoleon????????s assault on Moscow, Chavez, as the Russian monarchy in the early 19th century knew, applied their best weapon: time and patience. Patience and time. In this case, time and patience has been propelled by oil profits out…
We are getting a lot of keywords today looking for news of Ecuador. I will have a roundup ahead, I do think the conditions are there for democratic revolution because that government has just jumped the shark. Here is one news editorial to start and after I get back, I’ll have a proper roundup. Big stuff happening there.
You’d never know this from reading most of the mainstream media, but today in Ecuador, and I don’t mean in just coastal rightwing Guayaquil, but in the heart of the country, in central Quito, the capitol, tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans marched IN FAVOR OF free trade with the U.S. Source: Associated Press That’s right, while much of the mainstream media covered extensively the anti-free trade protests of a few indigenous special interest groups earlier in the week, which are now fizzling due to lack of public support, the real rally was building, the one the vast majority of Ecuador’s…
Venezuela was fighting like a lone jaguar in OPEC meetings today to urge the cartel to cut oil production so that prices would stay high. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez needs those high prices to bankroll his fake ‘revolution’ and finance his external meddlings abroad. His so-called revolution is an increasingly ravenous one, and an expensive beast that must be fed. But nothing was going Venezuela’s way. U.S. crude stocks soared higher than anyone expected. U.S. refining capacity use dropped to 70%, down from about 98%, signalling slackening of demand. And every single nation on earth was pumping as hard as…
Oil prices spiked down earlier this week after Hugo Chavez tried to drive them up by threatening $100 a barrel oil. But I bet they will go up on this news – an oil production pipeline shutdown in Ecuador, based on a real counterrevolution run by ignorant leftists intent on chasing out all foreign investment and jobs. These populists imagine that oil will just come out of the ground by itself once the foreign investors are out and the tax base (none of these bastarads pays taxes) dries up. They are likely to cause a lot of trouble for us…
You have to have real guts to scrap your country’s currency and just start using the U.S. dollar. It’s hard. You might not be a gringo but every time you buy or sell something, you have to look at U.S. heroes on the face of the money you are using. But the benefits of doing it — to you — are absolutely amazing. Never again can your government confiscate your savings account by devaluing the money in it. You will never again wake up and find your life savings worth nothing because the government wanted to please some inefficient banana…
Hundreds of students marched in the streets against corruption, with a cardboard model of a ????bagman????in a cage as well a model pig, both of which reprented corruption. The story in El Universo is here.
Protestors in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, seek a bigger piece of the oil pie. Trouble in Lago Agrio as the troops move in to protect the oil wells. Ecuadorean oil workers try to fix a vandalized pipeline in the Amazon jungle. SOURCE: Reuters Strife has engulfed Ecuador again, with thousands of protestors in two northeastern provinces shutting down oil wells that supply 15% of Ecuador’s GDP, 33% of Ecuador’s tax base, and 2.3% of the U.S.’s energy. The protestors didn’t just block the pipelines – someone (and I am not sure it was them) blew them up with dynamite and committed…
Ecuador is a basket case about to blow. It’s likely to get yet another a new president before U.S. Labor Day. And with its sudden oil production shutdown and troop dispatch, it’s also the leading news story moving world financial markets, hitting stocks and oil prices Friday. Just see the Top Ten leader here. No country is more important. And what is the turmoil about this time? A splitting apart government, with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in the middle of it. Alek Boyd has an excellent – and rare – political x-ray of the shenanigans going on there. It’s…
Here’s a small item that looks like real news – Nick Burns, the number three guy at State, insists that the Andean Free Trade Agreement (this is CAFTA, but for Andean states like Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) is advancing nicely. News sources have repeatedly said that the bloody and terrible Congressional battle to pass CAFTA probably made the Bush administration too demoralized to try to pass more free trade agreements for the foreseeable future. But I am not so sure about that. Maybe, as Burns’ statements suggest, the Bush administration is instead emboldened by CAFTA’s success. And it will grow…
To hear the OAS tell it, Lucio Gutierrez was this noble guy who just happened to be president of Ecuador and due to crazy people out there, got overthrown, and isn’t it a terrible thing when presidents, no matter what they act like, get thrown out? Instability, instability, oh is anything worse than instability? Well, yes, as a matter of fact there is. How about a thug president who doesn’t obey laws, stacks courts, and then invites in a crooked ex-president called El Loco, who vows to be the next Hugo Chavez? What about that? Hmmm? Alek Boyd has a…
Randy Paul has a short item on Miguel Inzulza of Chile winning the post as OAS Secretary General. He points out differences in media coverage on this somewhat mysterious issue. Why was it so controversial? Inzulza had been Hugo Chavez’s candidate, which is in itself a minus, because Chavez is the Foremost Troublemaker in our hemisphere. On the other hand, Inzulza is a Chilean, and with Chilean attitudes, apparently this was enough to convince Condi Rice to accept him as the U.S.’s candidate, too. If he’s good enough for Condi, I am going to bet he’s O.K., too. Now, with…
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, an author of The Complete Guide To The Perfect Latin American Idiot (it has a whole chapter on Castro worship) and now, Liberty for Latin America: How to undo 500 years of state oppression will be interviewed by Jim Lehrer of PBS. Alvaro Vargas Llosa is one of the world’s foremost experts on Latin America. Like Hernando de Soto, he’s a Peruvian, and he’s now at the Independent Institute, in Oakland. When people ask me where I learned about the place, I always point in his direction. He is one of the most brilliant and interesting intellectuals…
This editorial suggests that Ecuador’s problems – like its absence of institutions, combined with the availability of technology, and the reluctance of militaries to shoot – could mean other countries may topple too. Ecuador’s action is like the flailing around of the tail of a thrashing snake. It could strike other countries. Read it here. UPDATE: Agencia EFE reports it has started in Peru: Protestors have blocked off Macchu Picchu, a top tourist income source in Peru.
Of course, Gutierrez is a scumball for stacking the Supreme Court with his political bed partners and the mass protests against him were totally warranted. But apparently there was something wrong with the vote that kicked him out, and it has the OAS concerned. QUITO, April 21 (Xinhuanet) — The Organization of American States(OAS) Thursday gave the new government in Ecuador 24 hours to explain how the Congress concluded that President Lucio Gutierrez should be removed from office, the local press reported. The request came after Ecuador’s acting representative to the OAS, Jaime Barberis, told an emergency session of the…
Congress voted to remove President Lucio Gutierrez from power today, and swore in his vice president, Alfredo Palacio Gonzalez, a St. Louis cardiologist, as his successor. The legislature acted after 50,000 people filled the streets of Quito and fought troops and police in pitched battles. A Chilean photographer was killed and more than 180 were injured. (See the burning tires on the front page of the El Comercio Web site.) Congress was emboldened to make the move after the police chief of Quito suddenly resigned, saying he was unwilling to fire on demonstators. Gutierrez prompted the protests against his two-year…
Ecuador, arguably the most beautiful country in South America, has probably the stupidest government. Only dollarization has kept the government from making a complete hash of things, and high oil prices and a willingness to drill have enabled the Andean state to post a 5.4% rise in GDP in 2004. But dollarization by itself is not enough. The place desperately needs rule of law, and they aren’t even close. This country’s crisis is centered around the Supreme Court, which was stacked with President Lucio Gutierrez’s 31 political cronies a few months back. This stacking didn’t going down well in the…