August 19, 2010   Would you buy a used car from these men?  Would you finance your car with their new faster than greased lightening online, untraceable electronic SUCRE currency? Of course you would and you will.

Your new car dealers:
               
                        
How about this sole actor, also an advocate of the Soros carbon betting scams….


                                     
Or this idiot?

            

How about this serious, law abiding fellow?  

              

To be sure, nicer photos of Evo do exist. But the fact remains- and everyone knows this- is that Evo Morales is a liar, a cheat, a fool and a communist. Evo has not helped “the poor” in Bolivia- except those making his fake outfits to worship his fake pantheon of fake gods and goddesses which never existed.

But for some weird reason, a Colombia University-NY- person choses to quote another idiot Quiroga of Bolivia to tell us that with Evo’s new found lithium riches- making Bolivia one of the wealthiest nations on this planet, that Evo may soon be making and selling Bolivian cars….to save this planet, just as Evo saved his own people.

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A Fortune Underfoot
Can Bolivia develop its mineral wealth—and undermine Hugo Chávez?
BY Vanessa Neumann
The Weekly Standard
August 23, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 46

The stark white landscape of the Salar de Uyuni in the Potosí department of Bolivia is punctuated only by pink flamingos and salt pyramids being slowly shoveled and loaded onto llamas by the Quechuá Indians. It is an unlikely place to be at the forefront of the future of the world’s energy supply. Yet this remote salt flat high in the Andes is at the heart of a global battle which captures nearly every modern ideological struggle: north vs. south, east vs. west, socialism vs. capitalism, native vs. foreigner, rich vs. poor. What lies beneath the surface here could turn Bolivia (one of South America’s poorest countries) into the Saudi Arabia of the 21st century. In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that Bolivia is sitting on half the world’s lithium, and it is concentrated in the Salar de Uyuni.

Lithium is the oil of green technology. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are vastly superior to nickel-based batteries. Lighter than nickel, lithium can hold a much greater charge and for longer. It also has a much lower self-discharge rate—5 percent a month compared to 10-30 percent for nickel batteries. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are already powering everything from cameras, cell phones, and laptops to cars, and former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga told me that the applications are limited only by the imagination. “Right now it’s cars; someday it’ll be motorcycles; someday it could be boats, and one day small planes. I am sure that well before 2045, in Denmark, Norway, or someplace in California, houses or apartments will be able to have lithium batteries outside and that from midnight until two in the morning the electronic system will charge the battery so the house can function all day without drawing on the grid.” That day may be closer than he realizes: Earlier this year, a small plane flew for 24 straight hours powered only by solar panels and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

The Salar de Uyuni is the latest and greatest discovery in the “Lithium Triangle”: 16,000 square miles straddling northern Argentina, Chile, and southern Bolivia, where an estimated 75-90 percent of the world’s lithium deposits are located. So far, Chile’s Salar de Atacama has been the largest source and the best exploited—particularly by the Chinese, who imported 4,300 tons of it in 2008.

The importance of the Salar de Uyuni is not lost on Bolivia’s socialist firebrand president, Evo Morales, who said before a meeting in February 2009 with French billionaire industrialist and Sarkozy chum Vincent Bolloré: “Lithium is the hope not just for Bolivia but for all inhabitants of the planet.” Though Bolivia has yet to produce or export one pound of the stuff, delegations of Canadians, French, Chinese, South Koreans, Brazilians, Russians, and Japanese have been clogging La Paz’s international airport as they come to court Morales. Reducing dependency on Middle East oil will mean increasing dependency on imported lithium from South America, with all its political complexities.

For there is another group of people who understand the value of Bolivia’s lithium: the Quechuá Indians on whose ancestral lands it is found. Francisco Quisbert, the 64-year-old leader of Fructas, a union-like group of salt gatherers and quinoa farmers on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, has said: “We know that Bolivia can become the Saudi Arabia of lithium. We are poor, but we are not stupid peasants. The lithium may be Bolivia’s, but it is also our property.”

A Hugo Chávez protégé, Morales rode into office on a wave of nationalist sentiment by styling himself a defender of the native Indian against the foreign ravager. He kicked out Americans, has defended the farming of coca as a protected indigenous tradition, and likes to nationalize foreign-owned companies on May Day. A new constitution ratified in January 2009 was aimed at empowering Bolivia’s indigenous peoples and granted them vaguely worded ownership of all natural resources on their lands—a provision that is now throwing a wrench in the works of lithium-mining negotiations.

Despite the new constitution, Morales—who notably speaks neither of the indigenous languages, Aymara and Quechuá, but only the colonialist language, Spanish—is insistent that “the state must have control of 60 percent of the earnings” from lithium. But in late March, Morales was forced to repeal a decree that established a state resources company to handle the extraction of the Salar de Uyuni’s lithium. The community of Potosí rejected the government decision to create a La Paz-based company, and Concipo (the civic committee of Potosí) threatened a region-wide strike if the department did not receive a more direct role in the business. Concipo wants a 50-50 joint venture between the department and the national government to develop the deposits—not exactly the split that Morales or his foreign suitors had in mind.

Morales treads a dangerous line between his moneyed foreigners and his poor indigenous supporters. But Bolivia cannot exploit its lithium without foreign investment and expertise, and its main competitors have the jump on it. Chile and Argentina (the other two legs of the Lithium Triangle) already account for more than half the world’s 27,400 metric tons of annual lithium production. Since lithium comes mainly from high-altitude deserts, Australia and China are also major producers—though China’s reserves are mainly in the western provinces of Qinghai and Tibet, where infrastructure is rudimentary at best. In the United States, Nevada’s Western Lithium Corporation is developing deposits in King’s Valley in hopes of being a major domestic supplier to the U.S. automotive industry. And now also Mexico, where the Cierro Prieto geothermal brines in Baja California are ramping up their production capacity to meet the rising demand for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for the new electric cars being launched this summer.

Then of course there’s Afghanistan and its much-touted $1 trillion in mineral reserves. According to the report released by the Pentagon and published by the New York Times, mining could finally bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. Besides copper, gold, and iron, Afghanistan’s Ghazni province allegedly has lithium reserves to rival Bolivia’s and make it “the Saudi Arabia of lithium,” according to the leaked Pentagon memo.

But not everyone is convinced. William Lamarque, a cofounder of Balor Capital, an adviser on risk management to the mining industry, says: “This is Pentagon spin to garner support for the war effort in Afghanistan. There’s no mining culture there.” Not only does Afghanistan lack the physical and institutional infrastructure to sustain large-scale industrial mining, minerals tend to be found in predictable and proven tracts, and there is little evidence of this yet in Afghanistan. Lamarque is not convinced the deposits are really as large as the Pentagon claims. “They’re based on aeromag surveys, airplane flyovers with equipment that records the magnetism of what lies beneath the surface. But to really know what’s there,” he says, “you have to go around drilling holes in the ground. It’s a very old-fashioned process and geologists are like explorers: a guy roaming the landscape alone with his pick.” Security in Afghanistan, moreover, is a concern. “You can’t protect an armored patrol in Afghanistan, never mind a poor fellow with a pick.”

Even if you could mine successfully there, getting the minerals out would be another obstacle. Afghanistan is a landlocked country. The most accessible deepwater ports are the Chinese-built port in Gwadar, Pakistan, and Chabahar, Iran. Both options likely to be unpalatable to Westerners, though not to the Chinese, whose state policy of political neutrality in their pursuit of natural resources makes it easier for them to do business in the region. “The only viable option, then, is to fly the minerals out. While that’s cost-effective for gold, platinum, and palladium, it isn’t for iron, coal, copper, or raw lithium: too much bulk, not enough value-added. Afghan mining could be important and profitable, but we’re a generation away,” says Lamarque. So he would rather mine in Bolivia? “Oh, God, yes! Bolivia, a thousand times Bolivia.”

Bolivia’s greatest hope for the rapid development of its lithium reserves lies with the automotive industry. Carmakers are switching their hybrids from nickel-based batteries to lithium-ion batteries, which are essential in fully electric cars, such as the new batch of Beijing taxis made by BYD, a Chinese company that is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and an emerging manufacturer of inexpensive electric cars. The average car battery consumes 30 times the lithium of a laptop computer battery, and Bolivia would be an attractive place to manufacture them. (The country stands to make $30-40 billion from the export of high value-added lithium-ion batteries, but only $5 billion if it merely exports the raw materials, says Quiroga.) While many foreign companies—including BYD—simply want to mine and export Bolivia’s lithium, as has been done with the country’s silver and copper, the Bolivians know money is pouring into the lithium-ion battery industry.

In 2008, Warren Buffett bought a 10-percent stake in BYD through his MidAmerican Holdings, and MidAmerican’s chairman David Sokol thinks BYD’s technology is “a potential game-changer if we’re serious about reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.” Based in Shenzen in southern China, BYD already employs over 12,000 engineers in producing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. LG and Samsung are also getting into the business. The market for lithium is booming. Although tonnage prices have dropped from $5,000 per ton to $4,500 per ton as a result of shrinking demand during the recession, the demand from electric carmakers is expected to push prices back to $5,000 per ton and more in 2011.

The Bolivians hope that companies might manufacture lithium-ion batteries in the country, and eventually even electric cars. For the Morales administration, the most tempting offer so far has come from Bolloré. On April 29, 2010, Thierry Maraud, Bolloré’s financial director, announced a proposed deal with the La Paz government. Clearly designed to curry favor with the Quechuá, it is entitled “A Franco-Bolivian Project for the Well-Living of Bolivians in Harmony with Pachamama.” (Pachamama is the Andean Mother Earth.) The Bolloré proposal is for full industrialization of the Salar de Uyuni—mining not just lithium but potassium, borax, and a variety of other minerals as well—and would include the manufacture of both batteries and electric cars.

Yet while Bolloré’s ethnically sensitive proposal is tempting to the various Bolivian parties, it is not the most efficient way for the country to join the world lithium market. While no one has disclosed the amount of additional investment required to take production from lithium carbonate to metallic lithium to new-generation batteries, it looks certain to take at least six to seven years to start producing cars. Quiroga, for one, thinks the Morales administration is wasting the country’s time and would do much better to go straight to the Chinese or South Koreans and persuade a company like BYD or LG to establish a joint venture in Bolivia for the processing of lithium carbonate and the manufacture of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Building electric cars in Bolivia could be a later step.

Quiroga has a very clear vision for his country. He was involved in the negotiations with Intel to build a microchip assembly plant in Bolivia in the late 1990s and knows that the dry Andean climate is perfectly suited to microtechnology production. He would like to see a variety of lithium-based battery production in Bolivia—for cars in Oruro, south of La Paz; for laptops and cell phones in Potosí and Sucre; and for buses and motorcycles in Bolívar and Cochabamba. “We know that batteries will continue climbing the production chain. Taiwan started making hard drives and now makes computers, but we have to start with lithium batteries.” He says he was the first to publicly mention lithium battery production—in a public forum last September. The Morales government, which had previously been silent on the topic of lithium, then stepped in and insisted they must assemble cars as well. It’s a position Quiroga finds “very defensive,” though he does see electric car manufacturing in Bolivia’s future. “I would like to make a free trade zone in eastern Bolivia, close to Brazil, where you can assemble cars with Brazilian bodies and Bolivian batteries and flood the Brazilian and Argentine markets with cars made in South America.”

So far the Morales government’s modus operandi has been to sign accords or memoranda of understanding with everyone who comes along. In April 2010, the Canadian mining consortium New World Resource was invited to join the advisory committee to shape the new law to exploit the Salar de Uyuni. South Korea has no fewer than 13 companies and state-run research institutes advising on the most suitable infrastructure for Bolivia’s lithium industry. The Russians, as is their custom in Latin America, offered weapons in exchange for access. They hosted a Bolivian delegation in Moscow in late April to talk about securing Russia’s participation in exploiting Bolivia’s lithium—as well as its zinc, gold, and magnesium—in exchange for which Putin and Morales agreed on Bolivia’s borrowing more than $100 million on credit for the purchase of Russian military equipment.

Yet little has been done on the ground to build up the necessary infrastructure in Potosí. “The truth is that Bolivia has been talking for years about a pilot desalination plant,” laments Quiroga. “In four years of the Morales government, I think they have invested the grandiose sum of $300,000, not 1 percent of the new presidential plane that’s just been bought.”

Some political observers see a darker motivation for Morales’s stalling on lithium: the Machiavellian hand of Hugo Chávez, whose entire political strategy is based on oil. “What worries me about Bolivia’s current government,” says Quiroga, “is that it works closely and absolutely with and completely follows all the dictates of Hugo Chávez. .  .  . A car that runs [on lithium batteries]—a Nissan Leaf, a GM Volt—is a car that is not burning oil.” PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, is rumored to own up to 80 percent of all the drilling rights in Bolivia. Chávez treats Morales paternalistically and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in buying up Bolivia’s debts, effectively turning it into a Venezuelan dependency.

Regardless of whether you prefer simple incompetence or geopolitical conspiracy as an explanation for the Morales administration’s sluggishness, the truth is that to exploit its vast lithium reserves Bolivia needs heavy infrastructure development. Although the Salar de Uyuni is accessible by roads and a train line, much more is needed if international companies are to invest in lithium production and battery manufacture. Nevertheless, sprucing these up and expanding the local airport so the product can either be flown out for just-in-time manufacturing or taken overland to Chile or Peru, is a mere trifle compared with what it would take to make Afghanistan a viable source for world manufacturers. Bolivia simply holds much more promise for investors in green energy.

Quiroga has a refreshingly passionate utopian vision for his beloved country. “What does Bolivia have? .  .  . We have three semi-clean fuels [gas, biofuel, geothermal] and the three clean technologies of the future [hydroelectric, solar, wind] and we have half the lithium. What a great opportunity to turn Bolivia into Latin America’s green heart. It is my mission to turn Bolivia into the green heart, generating clean energy with rechargeable lithium batteries made here.” Though how it would affect the lives of the Quechuá and their laden llamas remains unclear.

Vanessa Neumann is editor-at-large of Diplomat magazine and an associate of the University Seminar on Latin America at Columbia University.
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We note the key line above, “PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, is rumored to own up to 80 percent of all the drilling rights in Bolivia. Chávez treats Morales paternalistically and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in buying up Bolivia’s debts, effectively turning it into a Venezuelan dependency.”

Why does Chavez own 80% of all drilling rights in Bolivia?  And what of the fact that in Bolivia now, there is no private sector- only Evo and hugo and Rafaelita.

Why is Morales a Chavez-Castro-Iranian proxy just as Correa remains?

And what of Bolivians, most of whom pay no taxes, pay nothing for water, sewerage, oil, gas or electricity, let alone mail service, land titling, property rights and of course have nothing but an idiot for a president and a horrible brand new US AID-USA communist ALBA constitution in their pocket? But hey- they can and do grow and run drugs. And pretend to worship fake, fat goddesses and wear new outfits complete with fake feathers from China.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

August 18, 2010  We hope this heading offends many and wakes up all those who need to wake up and grow up. Carlos Vera, himself a Cuban communist, is a self inflated idiot who will never reform Ecuador and will certainly not kick out your Cuban-Iranian playmates. What he will do is serve as a distraction to the enormously corrupt Rafael Correa regime. Carlos Vera is no savior rising from your mean streets to save Ecuadoreans from the patently corrupt Corea, who is of course not now and never has been an “economist.” You know this too. Ecuador is bankrupt and no one knows where the money is nor what the Correa team will do about it but you know, as we know, that Correa’s team will never restore anything sane, solid or functional. How is his vacation with his Belgian brother in law working out? Any happy family banking plans courtesy of Carlos Slim’s slimy bribery pay offs? Anyone?

Carlos Vera se abandera de la revocatoria

 17/08/2010       

En el proyecto del ex presentador de televisión y ahora activista político, Carlos Vera, no hay marcha atrás. Ayer solicitó formalmente ante el Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) los formularios que se necesitan para recolectar las firmas ciudadanas e iniciar el proceso revocatorio del mandato del presidente Rafael Correa.

Una vez que Vera dejó su espacio noticioso en Ecuavisa, en el 2009, decidió convertirse en un político crítico al Gobierno. En octubre hizo pública su intención de promover este esquema de consulta popular para cesar las funciones del Presidente.

Los pasos para suspender el mandato del Presidente de la República

•                         La solicitud de revocatoria del mandato podrá presentarse una vez cumplido el primero y antes del último año del período para el que fue electa la autoridad .

•                         Ese pedido, en el caso del Presidente, deberá contar con el respaldo mínimo del 15% de personas inscritas en el registro electoral (1,6 millones de firmas).

•                         Luego de comprobar las firmas, el CNE tendrá un plazo de 15 días para convocar al referéndum revocatorio, el cual deberá efectuarse en los siguientes 70 días.

•                         Para la aprobación de la revocatoria se requerirá la mayoría absoluta de sufragantes. La autoridad será remplazada por el vicepresidente, según la Constitución.

Ayer por la mañana, en Guayaquil, Vera recibió a la prensa. Desde su oficina en el edificio Celebrity, en Urdesa, leyó los argumentos jurídicos que, a su juicio, sustentan el proceso revocatorio del mandato. En una de sus manos tenía una Constitución.

Estaba vestido con un traje oscuro, formal, y una corbata roja, como en los días en los que dirigía ‘Contacto Directo’. En la oficina del Celebrity estuvo acompañado por César Coronel, dirigente estudiantil, Carlos Miguel González y sus asistentes.

Hacia la tarde, Vera viajó a Quito para presentar en el CNE la solicitud de entrega de los formularios. El secretario de ese organismo, Eduardo Armendáriz recibió su pedido.

Si el CNE da vía libre a su petición, Vera tendrá que reunir al menos el 15% de firmas del padrón electoral nacional. Es decir es 1 600 000 adhesiones.

Para tal efecto recorrerá, por tres meses, las provincias de Pichincha, Guayas, Azuay y Manabí, acompañado de una brigada de 400 personas. Según Vera, este proceso demandará una inversión de USD 600 000.

La recolección de firmas, paso necesario para iniciar un proceso revocatorio, no es el único objetivo de Vera. El ex presentador de televisión quiere crear el movimiento Evolución Democrática, cuyas principales figuras son un misterios. Aunque Vera no adelantó nombres dijo que ha conversado con el alcalde de Guayaquil, Jaime Nebot, líderes indígenas y sectores sociales.

A pesar de que el presidente Correa concluyó el primer año de su segundo mandato, con niveles de aceptación que superan el 50% según las encuestas más conservadoras, Vera y los demás patrocinadores de este proceso revocatorio dicen que es el momento de tomar esta decisión.

A su juicio, más de la mitad de los ecuatorianos se siente descontento por los niveles de inseguridad, desempleo, falta de libertades y alto costo de la vida. Esas son las causales que sustentas su pedido de convocatoria.

Sin embargo, varios sectores políticos, tanto de oposición como cercanos al Gobierno, han reaccionado con escepticismo y poco entusiasmo.

 En Guayas hay dos pedidos

En la delegación provincial del Guayas del Consejo Nacional de Electoral (CNE) reposan dos pedidos de documentación para impulsar la revocatoria del mandato de los alcaldes de Durán, Dalton Narváez (PSC); y de Yaguachi, Daniel Avecillas (País).

Ninguno fue aceptado porque los presentaron antes del 1 de agosto pasado. Esta fecha fue fijada por el CNE para empezar la recepción de las solicitudes de revocatoria de alcaldes, concejales, prefectos, viceprefectos, asambleístas y miembros de juntas parroquiales rurales.

El trámite de Yaguachi lo lidera el Frente Ciudadano Democrático. El pasado 16 de julio entregó una carta al CNE en Guayas, con 13 firmas de respaldo. Ahí solicita que se le confiera el registro de los ciudadanos que sufragaron en ese cantón en las elecciones del 14 de junio del 2009. Este Diario buscó la versión del Alcalde, pero su relacionista público dijo que estaba en reunión y no podía atender.

En Durán la revocatoria la promueve Ángela Páez, ex candidata a la Alcaldía por el Partido Socialista y ex concejala. El pasado 20 de julio pidió los modelos para la recolección de firmas. Narváez dice que ella “que es una perdedora” que le ha hecho daño a Durán”. Además, que busca desestabilizar al Municipio con una revocatoria sin sustento.
Enrique Pita, delegado provincial del CNE en Guayas, cree que la figura de la revocatoria del mandato podría ser mal utilizada con intereses políticos. Agrega que también solicitaron los planes de trabajo de los alcaldes de Naranjito y Yaguachi. Entendería que es parte de la intención de evaluar la gestión.

Redacción Guayaquil
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We suggest you study this moving reminder from one who knows: a former Ukrainian who has tragically lived through the same dirty tricks, same corruption, same life-ruining communism as Correa and Chavez have so easily sold their nations:

The Professional Left vs. the Amateur Right
Pajamas Media
A class of radicals who live off charitable donations and devote their lives to spreading ideology has expanded its reach all the way to the White House. Read it here .

August 14, 2010 A few days ago, a newspaper in the USA wrote factually that Correa’s government in Quito was linked with the specious lawsuit against Chevron Texaco. In moments, Correa’s Chavista ambassador in Washington who controls many public relations and lobbying contracts whipped out a denial based on no facts. Indeed, all one has to do is watch the so called movie CRUDE to see actual footage of Correa flying off to Lago Agrio to aid and abet the so called plaintiffs against Chevron. And that is just for starters. But Gallegos likes to lie a lot in the American and Ecuadorean media because no one ever calls him on his non facts. But the newspaper retorted with strong words for Gallegos and this phony lawsuit. Enough said. Read it yourself:

To be sure, Luis Gallegos is a paid liar. He thinks that makes his career distinguished. We would remind Gallegos that when the case was asked by the government of Ecuador to be relocated to Ecuador, not only were the courts not controlled by the Correa regime but the lawsuit itself was entirely different. The original case that was moved, on the legal basis of forum non conveniens applied with the first law suit. The law suit currently being heard is very different and the legal principle of forum non conveniens no longer applies….the two cases are different although counsel Donziger, Ponce and a few others remain the same. Indeed, Texaco had not yet had a chance to do the completed work which it did do voluntarily to clean up almost 100 pits. The case today should be voided by any sensible judge.

The Obama administration has done all it can behind the scenes to aid and abet the fake lawsuit to scam Chevron and the public. The U.S. Democrats have unlawfully spent U.S. taxpayer monies to send Congressional delegations to propagandize with the fake lawsuit progeny, touring Sucumbios with Speaker of the House Pelosi’s blessings and mabuse of money. The U.S. embassy in Quito has always jumped to assist the dishonest lawyers against Chevron even though Chevron is an American company which no one at State Department cares enough about to be honest or forthright about what is going on here.
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EDITORIAL: Ecuador's Chevron shakedown
Environmental case designed to grab billions
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

7:03 p.m., Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ecuadorean Ambassador Luis Gallegos says in a letter on this page that "the government of Ecuador has no stake in the outcome of the private environmental litigation." The facts show otherwise. On multiple occasions, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has weighed in against Chevron, making clear that his government has prejudged the case that claims the country suffered grave ecological damage from energy drilling performed by Texaco before the company became part of Chevron.

To cite one of many examples of fairness, Mr. Correa announced on Jan. 19, 2008, that the Amazon Defense Front, advocate of record for the plaintiffs in the case, "has all the support of the national government. ... They know they can count on the support given by the national government." In a weekly presidential broadcast on Aug. 9, 2008, Mr. Correa blasted Chevron and its defense, saying, "Washington Pesantez, the public prosecutor, has wisely opened investigations to sanction these people, because it is a lie. Nothing had been solved; no contamination had been remediated."

The Ecuadorean government has also opened criminal investigations against a pair of lawyers who worked with Chevron and against former government officials who gave Chevron-Texaco a clean bill of health more than a decade ago. This sent a chilling message to anybody contemplating cooperation with the oil company. The judge appointed to the case was caught on video discussing what sounded remarkably like a bribe. The government-appointed independent expert had a contract with the government-owned firm Petroecuador, meaning judgment against a major competitor like Chevron could bring a substantial payday.

The biggest jackpot of all is reserved for Ecuador itself. "From what we know, the amount of the claim is for 27 billion dollars, twice the state's budget in a year," Washington Pesantez said at a Sept. 4, 2009, press conference. "Although I don't have the exact figures, 10 percent would go to the plaintiffs if Chevron is found guilty; 90 percent would be delivered to the state for remediation or bio-remediation activities."

That's quite a "stake" in the lawsuit. If the Ecuadorean state is going to stack the deck against an American company and its shareholders, the U.S. government ought to fight back with its diplomatic muscle.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Government not involved in Chevron suit

The Washington Times
7:04 p.m., Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I was surprised by your editorial "Drilling Chevron in Ecuador" (Comment & Analysis, Monday) calling on the U.S. government to come to the defense of one of the world's biggest oil companies. Chevron certainly has the resources to defend itself without the support of American taxpayers.

Your readers need to understand that neither the U.S. government nor the government of my country, Ecuador, is a participant in this private lawsuit. It was brought by attorneys in the United States and Ecuador on behalf of indigenous tribes that allege their lands were polluted from oil drilling by Texaco, a company Chevron has since absorbed. The suit began in U.S. federal courts and moved to the Ecuadorean courts because Chevronasked the U.S. courts to send the case there.

As a U.S. federal court judge observed only last week, Chevron "like* the Ecuadorean courts when they were in the pocket of the oil companies but now is apparently having second thoughts given the current populist regime."

Simply put, the government of Ecuador has no stake in the outcome of the private environmental litigation, although Chevron seems determined to try to pull us into the case as a legal tactic.

LUIS GALLEGOS
Ambassador, Republic of Ecuador
Washington

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EDITORIAL: Drilling Chevron in Ecuador
U.S. oil giant victimized by polluted lawsuit
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

7:02 p.m., Friday, August 6, 2010

Chevron Corp. dropped a bombshell last week in defending against a gold-digging lawsuit from Ecuador. The U.S. government should stand up for the California-based company and its millions of American stakeholders.

On Aug. 3, Chevron filed in federal court some transcripts of video footage appearing to show collusion between the American lawyers pushing the suit and a purportedly independent environmental expert assigned to the case by the Ecuadorean court. This consultant, Richard Cabrera, conjured up damages to the Ecuadorean ecosystem broad enough to turn a $1.5 billion suit into a $27 billion monster.

When the Ecuadorean court appointed Mr. Cabrera in May 2007, he signed an oath to perform his duties "faithfully ... with complete impartiality and independence vis-a-vis the parties." Mr. Cabrera, however, already was in bed with the plaintiffs. Video taken two weeks before his appointment shows him meeting with plaintiffs' attorneys and others. A member of the group explained their plans to involve "our entire technical team ... of experts, scientists, attorneys, political scientists, so that all will contribute to the report - in other words, you see ... the work isn't going to be the expert's" (i.e., Mr. Cabrera's).

Pressed on that point, the speaker restates: "What the expert is going to do is [unintelligible] and sign the report and review it. But all of us [unintelligible] have to contribute to that report ... together." One of the plaintiffs' environmental analysts adds, to much laughter, "But not Chevron."

Another outtake shows the two analysts alerting lead plaintiff attorney Steven Donziger that they "don't have" solid evidence on "the extent of the contamination." Mr. Donziger responds: "This is Ecuador, OK. You can say whatever you want, and at the end of the day, there's a thousand people around the courthouse, you're going to get what you want. ... If we take our existing evidence ... and wanted to extrapolate based on nothing other than our, um, theory ... we can do it. And we can get money for it."

This evidence of what Chevron calls "pervasive corruption and fraud" comes on top of other embarrassments for the plaintiffs and the left-wing Ecuadorean government. Last August, the Ecuadorean judge assigned to the case was filmed discussing what sounded like a bribery scheme. In February, Dow Jones reported that Mr. Cabrera was the main shareholder of an environmental remediation company registered to do the lucrative work that could ensue from the lawsuit. In April, the main U.S.-based expert for the plaintiffs, Charles Calmbacher, swore under oath that the plaintiffs' lawyers had submitted fraudulent reports under his name.

All of this involves sites the Ecuadorean government certified - in 1998 - had been cleaned up. The suit is a transparent shakedown by a foreign government that the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and the International Bar Association all have labeled as unreliable or corrupt. The victim isn't Ecuador; it's the U.S. oil firm, its 206,000 shareholders and all the retirees whose pension funds invest in Chevron. It's time for the Obama administration to step in by suspending Ecuador's trade preferences and taking other diplomatic action to isolate its crooked government.

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Ambassador Gallegos is an eyesore and a sore liar. No one respects him except those he pays…and he is spending a lot to lie all the time.

-Pedro Camargo for Ecrisis

August 8, 2010 Before Rafael Correa jets off to Belgium, home of EURO Reds and his wife’s family for about 10 days or….whatever, we are compelled to bring Correa’s latest fake betting tools to your attention. Correa wants you to believe he actually cares about conservation when he has done nothing but give life to pagan worshipping of fake, fat goddesses known only to the perennially stupid and drug abusers called Pachamama.

Correa does now take unknown billions of U.S. dollars- some say $3 and some say $5 billion from the United Nations, which when coupled with additional U.S. tax payer gifts to Correa’s scam, we are probably in the neighborhood of around $5 billion for Correa’s wallet, which he calls the globe’s unending stupidity to hand him money to not drill for oil in a park reserve. Correa of course knows how amazingly stupid the U.S. taxpayers remain for funding 2/3 of he UN and gifting him with even more direct cash. Correa has not once- ever- been honest or accountable in one single thing. Correa does deliver fake governmental reports on all manner of items ranging from the environment to false charges against the Isaias family, Chevron Texaco, DynCorp, Occidental and on and on. Not once ever has the government of Rafael Correa done or practiced one thing that is honest, accountable or transparent. And you want him to keep taking and taking to keep himself in power? And Mrs. Clinton should be embarrassed for backing, with unaccountable US dollars, this fraud. As a matter of fact, where is the US Inspector General on this crime?

Correa cannot even be honest about the FARC, Hezbollah, Iran or even Raul Reyes. Correa is not honest about himself or his politics. And he deserves $5 billion or so? To be sure, Correa will use this money for some off the books carbon betting frauds, also called cap and trade just to make sure that the Obama fools and the Soros idiots keep plowing money his way. Carbon offset bets are, as every European now knows, running at 95% fraud….and it is probably 100%. Knowing of course that everything Correa does is a fraud, we know that he will be happily defrauding the USA, the UN and every environmentalist swooning at his greatness to ….steal other people’s money while pretending he cares about the Yasuni. With Carlos Larrea as “technical advisor” you can be sure that fraud is underway. You think a Yasuni Guarantee Certificate is anything but a scam?

The world's first really green oil deal
Ecuador's £3.6bn scheme to save its rainforest from exploitation could point the way to sparing other threatened landscapes

By Esmé McAvoy

Sunday, 8 August 2010      The world's first genuinely green energy deal is about to be sealed. In a plan which could be a blueprint for saving large tracts of the planet from exploitation, a greater value is being put on a pristine wilderness than on the oil that lies beneath.

While the world's industrialised countries are building complex carbon markets to enable them to carry on polluting, Ecuador has come up with a much simpler idea for mitigating climate change: leave the oil underground. It is promising to lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves indefinitely, providing rich nations pay out at least half the market value of the oil – some $3.6bn – as compensation.

The trail-blazing proposal was first floated in 2007, but it took a step towards reality last week when the UN Development Programme signed an agreement with the Ecuadorean government to be the independent administrator for the project's trust fund. The accord makes Ecuador the only country in the world offering to leave lucrative oil reserves untapped in an attempt to slow climate change.

Crucially, the oil in question – some 846 billion barrels of crude – lies beneath the Yasuni National Park, one of the most bio-diverse swathes of rainforest on the planet. Located in the heart of the Ecuadorean Amazon, one hectare contains more tree species than the whole of the US and Canada combined. It is also home to 105 amphibian species – the UK has six – more than 500 birds, 200 mammals and countless insects and plants. Declared a world biosphere reserve by Unesco in 1989, the park is also the ancestral land of two of the world's last remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane.

The plan, backed by Greenpeace, the WWF and even the oil-producing Opec countries – applies to a 675sq mile area of Yasuni known as the ITT block after the three oil-fields that lie beneath it. Locking up the oil would not only protect the rainforest and the indigenous tribes, but it would also stop at least 407 million metric tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere, according to Carlos Larrea, the initiative's technical adviser. "That's more than the total annual emissions of France or Brazil," he said.

In return, Ecuador is asking for $3.6bn – roughly half the expected revenue if the oil was extracted and sold at current prices – to be invested in renewable energy developments to help the country further cut its carbon emissions.

If it works, the scheme could be rolled out to countries such as Colombia, Peru and the Philippines which face similarly stark choices between protecting globally significant ecosystems and oil. "Ecuador began exporting oil in 1972, and oil now accounts for over 60 per cent of exports," Mr Larrea said. "Locking away 20 per cent of our oil reserves is a bold decision but we can't do it without international support."

Yet, after three years, securing anything more concrete than praise has proved elusive. At the end of last year, President Rafael Correa embarked on an international tour, including the UK, France, Sweden and Canada, to drum up support for the proposal before December's climate change summit in Copenhagen. But none has offered a firm cash commitment.

The Yasuni-ITT committee was originally poised to sign the agreement at the summit, but Mr Correa, unhappy with the terms, baulked at the 11th hour. His actions, and subsequent statements, led to several resignations from the Yasuni-ITT board. But a new board was assembled, with some original members, and the contentious points in the agreement have been ironed out.

Despite the setbacks, Germany remains a supporter and is likely to contribute around $50m, although no figures are confirmed. Signing up an independent body such as the UN to oversee the trust fund was a key German criterion, along with the support of at least one other country. With the trust fund in place, Mr Larrea is confident the final obstacle will be removed. "Spain and Belgium have expressed support, as have a number of other European countries. We're very optimistic."

Contributions to the fund would be spread over at least 10 years and countries would be issued with Yasuni Guarantee Certificates (CGYs in Spanish) to the value of the non-emitted CO2 their contribution has secured. Should any future Ecuadorean government break the commitment and drill for oil, the certificates entitle their holders to their money back with interest.

From next month, individuals and private companies will also be able to donate via the Yasuni-ITT website. "We hope individuals and environmentally aware companies all over the world will be excited by what we're doing and want to contribute as a gesture of solidarity," Mr Larrea said. "Supporters will be symbolically 'buying' their barrel of oil with the guarantee it will stay underground." Such international "crowd funding" would create an intimidating network of public opposition should any future government try to break the pact.

The $3.6bn will be invested in renewable energy to reduce the country's oil dependency and cut carbon emissions. These investments are expected to generate annual returns of about 7 per cent, which will go into a second pot to fund environmental and social development projects, such as reforestation, social programmes for indigenous groups and eco-tourism. Projects will be decided by a steering committee of representatives from the Ecuadorean government, the donor countries and a nominated public representative.

Reducing illegal logging is the top priority, according to Mr Larrea. Ecuador has one of the highest rates of deforestation in South America, despite protected areas covering over a quarter of the country. Matt Finer of the environmental organisation Save America's Forests has called the Ecuadorean Amazon "a complicated and confusing array of overlapping protected areas, indigenous reserves and crude oil concessions", testament to the way conservation has regularly been sidelined by oil interests. Legal loopholes have permitted oil concessions within national park boundaries and even where areas are protected, they are woefully understaffed.

Ecuador's northern Amazon bears the scars of decades of reckless oil extraction. One of the biggest environmental lawsuits has been raging for 17 years between the oil giant Chevron and 30,000 Ecuadoreans whose land and water are contaminated by oil spills and toxic open waste pits. If found liable, Chevron faces damages of more than $27bn.

However, groundbreaking changes to the constitution in 2008 mean Ecuador is the only country in the world to recognise the rights of nature and ecosystems to survive and flourish, permitting any Ecuadorean citizen to sue on nature's behalf if these rights are infringed.

Understandably, the Ecuadorean government isn't prepared to wait for ever for international co-operation: "If by December 2011, Ecuador doesn't receive at least $100m, the government has the right to call off the proposal," said Bisrat Aklilu, the executive co-coordinator of the UN's multi-donor trust fund office that will administer the Yasuni fund. "The government will repay contributors the face value of their contribution and then make up their own minds about whether to drill."

For some, the plan amounts to little more than blackmail, with Mr Correa holding the Amazon to ransom; if Ecuador can get funding for Yasuni, what's to stop other countries cashing in? Saudi Arabia made possibly the most audacious bid for financial support yet this week, claiming compensation for the expected loss of oil revenue should climate change agreements result in a drop in production.

Against a backdrop of public outrage at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the argument for "post-oil" economies seems stronger than ever. Maria Espinosa, Ecuador's Heritage Minister, agrees. "Ten years from now projects like this will be the rule, not the exception," she said last week.

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ECrisis wants you to study Castro’s state media here. Correa and Chavez are running fake money called the SUCRE- an invisible, illicit and unaccountable scam to pretend that they are doing something legal when they are not. The USA cannot be backed in to running its trade with Ecuador in such a wild eyed fake scheme. Further, although Correa says he wants the dollar gone, it is getting close to the time for the USA to yank Correa’s money making schemes to launder the dollar for fees from Iranian and FARC money managers.
 
Trade with SUCRE Will Rise to $400 Million

viernes, 06 de agosto de 2010

06 de agosto de 2010, 08:47Caracas, Aug 6 (Prensa Latina) Non-traditional imports and exports between countries that ratified the United System of Regional Compensation as an exchange currency will reach $400 million by 2010, officials said.

  The president of the Regional Currency Council, Eudomar Tovar, said the use of this currency, the SUCRE, will increase trade between Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela as countries that joined the SUCRE zone.

To date, trade using the SUCRE has occurred between Venezuela and Cuba and Ecuador but Tovar said preparations are in progress for the first transactions between Caracas and La Paz and Quito and Havana.

This system offers a platform to deepen relations within the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America, which had trade of $6.5 billion dollars before the SUCRE was approved.

As the Venezuelan Central Bank explained, in the initial phase of this trade system, the Sucre is a virtual unit of currency used by the central banks of member countries for financial transactions.
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We suggest a more effective next step: unless and until Correa steps up and mans up with some honest accountability and stops all his frauds, the USA must end the US taxpayer give away called the ATPDEA to Correa for duty free shakedowns.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

August 8, 2010  Recently, U.S. Congressman  Mack (R-FLA) correctly wrote an inconvenient truism that Chavez should be deemed a state sponsor of terror.  Mack states, “…I say I will not stop working until Venezuela is officially listed as state sponsor of terrorism. My efforts to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism are rooted in both my concern for the security of the region and my desire to see Venezuelans enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States. I will continue to work until I see freedom infused into the fabric of Venezuelan society.

It is also my hope that you will begin to come to terms with the on-the-ground human suffering that Mr. Chavez has caused to so many men, women and children in Venezuela. Once these realities are faced and addressed, I am convinced that the peace and unity in the hemisphere you speak of will truly become possible.”

ECrisis has long stood to insist that no Venezuelan stops working until Venezuelans enjoy the freedoms some might seek. To date, no Venezuelan and no Ecuadorean in Washington, DC has stopped mimicking  Correa and Chavez’s lies, as General Motors and General Electric continue [using U.S. tax dollars] to lobby the US government to bar any factual statements  about Chavez [and his pet liars such as Evo Morales and Rafael Correa] as a state sponsor of terror.

 How long will the U.S. taxpayer put up with its own government abusing U.S. laws to co fund and enable liars, pervs and perps such as Morales, Correa and Chavez? We see U.S. opinion polls. We see Latin opinion polls. No one likes what the U.S. government is doing as it lies a lot about Chavez and Correa and no one in Ecuador or Venezuela like their own fake presidents except they have a crying need to reject their own government’s bribes. Something has got to give and it will not be common sense.

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Press Office               Aug 02 2010
Mack to Chavez: Choose Freedom Over Tyranny

In letter to Chavez, Mack says he will continue efforts to have Venezuela named a state sponsor of terrorism
WASHINGTON – In light of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez’s recent move to send troops to the Venezuelan-Colombian border, and his continued support for terrorist organizations like the FARC, Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14), the Ranking Republican of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, sent the following letter to Chavez today stating that he will continue to pursue an official state sponsor of terrorism designation for Venezuela.

Mack introduced a resolution last year (H.Res.872) calling on the Obama Administration to name Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism.

A copy of Mack’s letter to Chavez is below:

Dear President Chavez:

As the Ranking Member of the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee in the U.S. Congress, and as a strong advocate for freedom, I want to make it very clear how strongly I oppose your words and deeds, both against the people of Venezuela and your neighbors in the hemisphere.

Your regime has demonstrated a clear support for terrorism, most recently in the special session of the Organization of the American States (OAS). Your ties to and support of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is strong. Your reactionary response to the OAS by cutting off diplomatic and economic relations with Colombia, followed by sending Venezuelan troops to the Venezuela-Colombia border, is an outrageous provocation and is unacceptable.

Your support of terrorist organizations, your constant assault on free speech and free press in Venezuela, and your efforts to silence your political opposition is an attempt to quash freedom and liberty of all in our hemisphere.

As long as you continue to choose tyranny over freedom, I will work tirelessly to officially designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, and I will continue to develop support across bipartisan lines in Congress to do so.

Sincerely,

CONNIE MACK
Member of Congress
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Press Office     
Aug 03 2010
Mack: Name Venezuela a State Sponsor of Terrorism
Sends letter to President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Congressional Leadership urging swift action to stop thugocrat Hugo Chavez
WASHINGTON – Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14), the Ranking Republican of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, sent a letter to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid today, urging them to name Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism without delay.

Last week, Hugo Chavez sent troops to the Venezuela-Colombia border in response to a special session of the Organization of American States (OAS), which had recently heard evidence linking Chavez to terrorist organizations like the FARC and ELN.

Mack introduced a resolution last year (H.Res.872) calling on the Obama Administration to name Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism.

A copy of Mack’s letter to President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid is below:

Dear Mr. President, Madam Secretary, Madam Speaker, and Senator Reid:

I write to you today to urge you to immediately finalize the steps required to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. Hugo Chavez has politically, materially and diplomatically supported international terrorist groups, threatening the freedom, security and prosperity of the United States and our allies. We must stop all interaction with the tyrannical regime of Mr. Hugo Chavez.

As a beacon of freedom, the United States must stand firm against those who harbor terrorists, threaten our allies, and rebuke the freedoms we are committed to protect. Hugo Chavez’s solidarity with internationally recognized terrorist groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), endangers stability in the region and prompts national security concerns for our nation.

Securing the Western Hemisphere begins with condemning those who undermine freedom. Chavez’s efforts to derail our allies and support terrorist activity fly in the face of democratic values. As protectors of freedom, it is our responsibility to keep our nation safe by opposing those who challenge it.

It is time for us to stand behind freedom by placing Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. I request your urgent action addressing this matter of national security, and look forward to your prompt reply.

Sincerely,

CONNIE MACK
Member of Congress

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Home / Press Office / Press Releases       Press Office
Aug 05 2010
 
Mack: Venezuela is as Democratic as Iran and Cuba
In response to Venezuelan Ambassador, Mack points out Chavez’s ties to terrorism, lack of freedoms in Venezuela
WASHINGTON – Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14), the Ranking Republican of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, sent the following letter to Venezuelan Ambassador to the U.S. Bernando Alvarez Herrera today in response to his letter claiming a “strident freedom of the press” in his country, as well as stating there are no ties between Hugo Chavez and the internationally-recognized terrorist organization the FARC.

Mack introduced a resolution last year (H.Res.872) calling on the Obama Administration to name Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism.

A copy of the Ambassador’s letter to Mack, as well as Mack’s response, is below:

2 August 2010

Dear Representative Mack:

I recently read your letter to President Hugo Chavez. I was impressed by your poor understanding of the region and Venezuela in particular, one that would lead you to sign a letter against a democratically elected president – whose government has gone through 14 elections – and irresponsibly accuse him of supporting terrorism and quashing freedom of speech while threatening him with designating Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism.

You seem to be terribly misinformed. President Chavez does not support any of the Colombian insurgent groups – neither the Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC in Spanish), nor the National Liberation Army (ELS in Spanish). In fact, he has tirelessly looked for a political solution to the Colombian conflict and, under the government of President Uribe, promoted the unilateral liberation of hostages held by the guerrillas. President Chavez has also made repeated calls for them to lay down their arms.

Moreover, the timing of your letter seems awkward, coming at a moment when the whole region is looking for ways to foster peace and integration, and even voices within Colombia are being heard calling for dialogue. Last week the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR in Spanish) held an extraordinary summit to address the concerns of Venezuela over the latest accusations of the government of President Uribe. A presidential summit will be held soon with the same purpose. And on the very day that you sent your letter, a summit of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR in Spanish) took place.

If you want to try to understand the latest controversy we had with the government of President Uribe, I would recommend you start by considering what Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, said in a recent interview on CNN: “Uribe says he doesn’t know why Venezuela doesn’t detain the guerrillas, but the truth is that Colombia can’t control them either.” Additionally, you should learn that Colombia has been suffering a 60 year-long civil war that has become a multilayered conflict impossible to resolve through military means alone.

While you work tirelessly to designate a democratic and peaceful country as a state sponsor of terrorism, President Chavez and his government will keep working for peace and integration in the region.

Respectfully,

Bernando Alvarez Herrera
Ambassador

PS. As for the accusations about the supposed assaults on freedom of speech in Venezuela, I respectfully invite you to read, listen and watch the Venezuelan media in Internet, so you can at least appreciate the strident freedom of press and speech in my country.

Mack’s response:

August 5, 2010

Dear Ambassador Herrera:

I appreciate your personal reply to my letter sent to Mr. Chavez earlier this week. I am, however, saddened to read that you operate under the same misconceptions that have guided Mr. Chavez and the country of Venezuela down such a dangerous path. It is deeply concerning to learn of your own oblivion to the violations that are being committed in Venezuela.

What struck me in reading your letter was either a complete disregard for, or a lack of understanding of, basic freedoms. Your statement that Hugo Chavez has held 14 elections has no direct bearing on if he is a democratic leader or not. In applying the same logic in which you defend Hugo Chavez’s legitimacy, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cuba’s Fidel Castro would be considered as paving the way for democracy. Democracy is not guaranteed simply by holding elections; democracy is an elaborate institution based on a multitude of freedoms. The right to freely express moral convictions and the right to freely participate in the political process are obligatory.

Also, you claim that Mr. Chavez is working for peace and integration, yet you ignore his efforts to divide the region through reinforcing authoritarian alliances. There is no better example of this than his coordination within multilateral organizations to isolate Colombia while providing a safe haven to the FARC. How can you substantiate your claim that Mr. Chavez supports peace when he has been directly linked to terrorist organizations?

There is no question of Mr. Chavez’s ties to terrorism. Everyone watched as Venezuela was linked to the FARC through evidence uncovered on laptops confiscated in a raid on the insurgency group in 2008. Evidence was also presented by a Spanish judge citing collaboration between Venezuela, the FARC and ETA. And most recently, photos, videos, coordinates and satellite maps have verified over 80 camps in Venezuela where Colombian rebels operate.

Additionally, the international community was shocked to see a former Venezuelan state governor arrested for saying that Venezuela has become a haven for drug traffickers, and the principal owner of Venezuela’s last remaining opposition television station arrested for saying that the nation lacked freedom of expression. The continued harassment of Globovision’s owners has exasperated those who stand on the side of freedom.

Do you really think the rest of the world is unable to see that Mr. Chavez is supporting terrorism and quashing free speech?

Let me explain to you that it is not a threat when I say I will not stop working until Venezuela is officially listed as state sponsor of terrorism. My efforts to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism are rooted in both my concern for the security of the region and my desire to see Venezuelans enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States. I will continue to work until I see freedom infused into the fabric of Venezuelan society.

It is also my hope that you will begin to come to terms with the on-the-ground human suffering that Mr. Chavez has caused to so many men, women and children in Venezuela. Once these realities are faced and addressed, I am convinced that the peace and unity in the hemisphere you speak of will truly become possible.

Sincerely,

CONNIE MACK
Member of Congress

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We at ECrisis understand that the U.S. Department of State pretends that Congressman Mack is a joke. We have heard it all before. We think Mack is on to something here. We also think that the U.S. Department of State long ago forgot just who they are working for and who pays their rent. For his part, Mack appears to know just who he works for: his constituents which the US government of Obama and Soros pretend is an aberration, not the American people. We are guessing that the majority of Americans agree with Mack and are, contrary to what every single U.S. embassy in Latin America goes around stupidly saying, are not fools but have given this much thought. Most Americans think it is an evil growth across the Andes coming from Chavez, Correa and Morales and we see that this majority is growing in awareness, contrary to the lies, obfuscations and informational black outs illegally perpetrated by Mrs. Clinton and her beloved Soros carbon betting scamsters, currently selling out all U.S. laws, treaties and common sense. We are quite aware that President Obama and his sorry losers called the hate-filled Soros contractors are incredibly unpopular, opaque and unhelpful. All U.S. embassies that run their sorry-ass [sloppy, unaccountable, anti-USA and anti liberty] programs should understand that no one likes them- only the Cuban-ALBA communists like them because….they successfully game and abuse all U.S. entities and officials today as if partnered in some brave new world of lemmings, criminals and nations gone wilding.  If Americans do not uphold their own laws, who will? And if you think that Congressman Mack is lying, you have a right to so say. If you agree with him, you can also say so. But to banish, as the US government is doing, fact based Reports on the ALBA unity efforts is….a crime. If you like criminals and their cover ups, you will love the current unaccountability, opacity and denial of life’s essentials.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

August 3, 2010  Do you have a working list of how many fake “official” Reports by the Rafael Correa government of criminals, manipulators and liars exist? Do you know how much money Ecuador is spending to turn out fake, fact-free Reports to hide their theft and criminal extortion rackets?  And more importantly, do you  have a clue what the U.S. Department of State is spending US tax dollars on so that George Soros can continue to embrace Correa’s cartel of scamsters, fraudsters and illegal drug runners? The USA runs huge amounts of money to pretend that Correa is saint like when indeed he is a criminal overseeing criminal enterprises. Today the excuse for this abuse of USA monies is to engender Correa’s enthusiasm for fake environmental betting scams called Soros’s own Cap and Trade carbon betting pools, also called Correa’s illicit Pay Me NOT to Drill in the Oriente zone dishonesty.

Meanwhile, Pesantez [who should be in jail with his wife-who-killed-pedestrian-and-ran-away] and his liars have churned out yet another governmental lie. This one is a whopper, as all the morally and physically bankrupt Correa’s Reports remain. Correa charges others with crimes to hide his own crimes. Correa’s team deliver fraudulent Reports on those they seek to defraud, extort and seize.

One can ponder if the arbitral courts are getting closer to final judgments on the Occidental-Ecuador charade. But Correa wants you- and the courts- to actually believe that his lies are your lies, too. And Correa wants to take more money from OCCIDENTAL, because he is broke, and claims he is honest in his lying REPORT when he is not.

Do you know how many law suits Correa is involved with? Do you know why? And do you know how expensive Correa’s lies have become to the taxpayers of Ecuador? And now we also ask how much the USA is spending in Ecuador to aid and abet Correa’s cover ups so that the USA can pretend- dishonestly- that the FARC and Castro/Hezbollah’s man on the job, Rafael Correa is worthy of president Obama’s support?

The fact is this: OCCI ran a decent pipeline operation in the few years they did so. OCCI committed no crime. Occidental is right to defend itself. Correa’s synthetic, fact free Report on the Pipeline is a fraud.

Negocios
 

La Fiscalía acusa a funcionarios del OCP
 

martes 03/08/2010  el Comercio

La Fiscalía General del Estado solicitó a la Corte Nacional de Justicia que señale día y hora para realizar la audiencia de formulación de cargos e iniciar la Instrucción Fiscal contra ex autoridades petroleras y funcionarios del Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP).

Ello, luego de encontrarse indicios “para presumir la existencia de un delito de peculado” en la contratación y ejecución del OCP en el 2001, de acuerdo con un comunicado emitido ayer por la Fiscalía.

A la audiencia serán citados el ex ministro de Energía y Minas, Pablo Terán, y el representante legal de la firma OCP, Hernán Lara Perdomo.

La investigación del caso se inició en el año 2003. Sin embargo esta fue desestimada por la Fiscal, Cecilia Armas, en el 2005. Bajo la administración de Washington Pesántez, en abril del 2008, se reabrió la indagación previa, a fin de determinar el presunto cometimiento de un delito de acción pública.

Pesántez también pidió el mes pasado a la Contraloría un nuevo examen especial de la contratación y operación

Adicionalmente, el ministro de Recursos No Renovables, Wilson Pástor, indicó que una firma internacional está realizando un análisis financiero y jurídico sobre el contrato del OCP para determinar si hubo o no perjuicio contra el Estado en la suscripción de la obra. Indicó que se tendrá un resultado de esta auditoría a finales de año.

El Gobierno ha sostenido que los inversionistas del OCP inflaron sus costos para pagar menos impuestos. Cuestionó un aumento supuestamente injustificado de la obra que inicialmente debía transportar 310 000 barriles diarios y terminó con una capacidad de 450 000 barriles de petróleo por día.
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We at ECrisis pray that the United States of America will stop enabling Correa’s criminality. We also pray that Ecuadoreans will stop taking Correa’s bribes, extortions and demands that one and all play along with his rampant criminality.

As it remains, Correa’s kangaroo assembly, which replaced a working Congress 2 xx at gunpoint, is pressing ahead to remove all vestiges of the Bi Lateral Investment Treaty or BIT. No doubt seeking to vacate this Treaty and magically- as all Ecuadoreans do today- pretend that being dishonest and vapid in life carries no consequences, Correa wants all BIT arbitral settlements removed as he continues his criminal activities. The USA continues to soothe and bless this crime spree by Correa in order to maintain the lie that Correa’s carbon betting fraud is fabulous. Worse yet- the Germans and others from the European Union are meeting with Assembly members to try to help them stand up to Correa. The EU diplomats- because they have absolutely no facts about Correa’s total criminality, pretend that the assemblistas, currently operating under similar behaviors as the Cuban so called congress, will be sane, informed and legitimate.

This is one of those moments where the collusion of the USA meets its mythmaker: criminal rackets. We suggest: shut them down.

As with every single central government so called Report of Correa’s, the pipeline Report is full of non facts and is itself a fraud by the central government, lying to its own citizens. In this case Correa seeks to defraud and steal some more from Occidental and of course terminate all BIT agreements- past, present and future which is the reason why the asambleista puppets are moving- on his orders- to  criminality do what no legitimate governments do. Why would the USA think this is so wonderful? Is it because Obama and his Soros man Dan Restrepo of the White House’s NSC enjoy lawlessness or are they going to continue pretending that Correa is honorable against all facts while extorting USA companies and persons?

Earth to Ecuador and Obama: there is not one shred of evidence from Ecuador these days that is honest nor can one US governmental official honestly defend their indefensible lies that Correa’s team of extortionists is not engaged in massive fraud….against Americans and the world writ small and large.

Just stop lying to us all and do your job. Innocent lives and whole careers are at stake here.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

July 25, 2010 In keeping with the vast majority of Ecuadoreans who insist that they be known world wide as useful idiots for the Iranian proxy state of Ecuador, someone should have reminded LA HORA newspaper…..and president Correa’s own liars- that it is one thing to have and enjoy immigrants in a nation. It is entirely a different matter to open the flood gates to lying, useless vermin who claim that the world grants inalienable rights when not one Ecuadorean today holds a single inalienable right since the entire nation voted in to law its Cuban-ALBA constitution which proclaims- for all to see- that all powers and all rights are controlled by the state. Read towards the end of that awful so called constitution which is really a manifesto and you find- shock! That all powers are controlled by one person in Carondelet Palace. There are no inalienable rights in Ecuador. Indeed all rights come this way of and by the state. And you know what that means: sucking up to the politburo, lying a lot that things are terrific and pretending that you really really like living like a Cuban prisoner.

But our erstwhile writer wants us to think that being an inhabitant of Ecuador is identical to being an inhabitant of the USA. Of course this is a lie.

Then again, not one Ecuadorean takes the time or the trouble to comprehend what the USA is all about nor even to work toward building a better USA. Ecuadoreans come to the USA to scam its past years of hard work and pretend that the foundation of the USA- charity for all- is irrelevant because each has been raised from birth to know that charity is only for suckers, from their own time and place that laughs at human kindness and manipulates their own sanctity. We say: all Ecuadoreans need to stay home and enjoy Correa’s prison until each learns how to grow up, fly right and act with some adult responsibility in the line of integrity. Compassion [utterly voided by all Ecuadoreans] and the values of Western Civilization, now banned by the Chavez-Morales-Correa constitutions.

Of course the USA’s Ambassador Brownfield, Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and president Obama are liars to say that Arizona’s laws are discriminatory and that the entire USA must be a door mat for every criminal that Ecuador sends to the USA…tens and tens of thousands now, for hefty fees made by Correa’s own criminal processing facilities, which he calls open doors to criminals to be run- for hefty fees- right on up to the USA for more murder, money laundering and dirty deals. It is not a welcome export not matter what the liberal leftist named Brownfields liked to tell the Colombians on July 4, 2010. Besides, we all saw what a grand job his cat-toting bride Christie did with Lucio Gutierrez and Ivonne during her lengthy cocktail party tenure in Quito, now moving on to insure that hard line Muslim practices will destroy Malaysia, also called Shari’a Law.

So- no. Stay in Ecuador until you grow up and terminate your own addictions to manipulative being because no one else wants your peculiar perversions also called dishonesty, theft, murder, kidnapping,  and selfish narcissism.

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La Hora (Quito, Ecuador) 7/1/10\

“Arizonas” – op/col by Simon Espinosa Jalil, titled as shown

Ecuador, in keeping with its new arrogant and sovereign attitude, has been one of the most fervent critics of the anti-immigration policies of the rich countries, starting from the restrictions in Spain all the way to the criminalization in Arizona. Not only that, but the government, in an attitude matching its official posture, decided to open the borders to all visitors who might want to come to our beautiful land. The logic is that, if we defend the rights of emigrants, we must be willing to accept the aliens who might wish to enter our country, no matter where they come from or what their traits might be.

The problem, as we all already know, is that said posture was very commendable as long as the country was a land of emigrants, but it has become a headache due to the unexpected transformation of our humble Ecuador into a magnet for the destitute and for adventurers from the whole world. Now we find ourselves in the ironic situation of missing hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen who live outside the country, while we look down on and fear the aliens who have begun to take their place.

It is, no doubt, a very interesting experience, because it’s one thing to defend orally the unalienable rights of immigrants in the First World, but it’s another to do so while they are within our borders. Now we have to face the same thing that is faced by countries which are the recipients of illegal immigrants, and that should make us understand that the rejection of the new arrivals is a universal feeling that cannot be condemned in passing with populist proclamations and condemnations.

Many Ecuadoreans who most likely have relatives in Spain or in the United States, for example, would heartily applaud the massive deportation of Cubans, Nigerians or Chinese (although, curiously, no one has complained about the hundreds of gringos who are settling in Cotacahi or Vilcabamba….) The logical thing would be to propose a sensible migratory policy, far removed from proclamations and idealistic principles, and one that takes our contradictory situation into account.

http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/980445

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You want a sensible migratory policy? Start first with common sense in your own life and insure that someone actually finds value in your person and in your being and not the now standard dishonesty, childishness and perverted Ecuadorean persona, which should be non grata everywhere because… because Ecuadoreans can do better and stand for something….but to date, they will not. Did one person correct LA HORA? No- no one did. Again we say this: the writer at LA HORA has his facts twisted, his dishonest cynicism at full sail and his utter disgrace is an unwelcome beacon to all…except dishonest Marxist Ecuadoreans who have never, ever taken responsibility for anything. Ecuador under Correa makes money by running fake papers for global criminals. No one actually moves to Ecuador because the nation is broke and there is no reason to be there except as a retiree or as a criminal. And oh by the way, before lecturing the USA about its immigration laws, reinstall democracy inside Ecuador, currently shamelessly gone. Then again, that would require and end to all the lying and manipulating and restoring some integrity, si?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

July 24, 2010   Communist Cuba is good for some things: lying and manipulating a lot. This should make every liar and manipulator in Ecuador feel very happy.

Instead of all those pesky problems of actually having to grow up and be honest, the Cuban ALBA state now governing all Ecuadoreans like pet turtles makes your life so easy now because the national government will happily do your lying for you. Why be honest now? You have lived your life on the cheap, manipulating everyone around you. Be happy! You got what you are and what you wanted: dishonest, dysfunctional government.  Here is a laughable report from Correa on direct foreign investment. To be sure, China will take payment at reduced prices of Ecuadorean oil well in to the foreseeable future, like a price hedge, for its so called dam building. Correa’s fake investment income is actually a loss-loss for Ecuadoreans in this completely unaccountable and dishonest “Good Living” budget where only lies serve to sell Correa’s propaganda.

Like everything coming from the Cuban-communist ALBA Correa, nothing is honest except his commitment to lying and manipulating.

This would be laughable except… Ecuador is bankrupt, selling out its future, lying about it and failing fast.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis
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Ecuador Reports Growth in First Semester

viernes, 23 de julio de 2010

23 de julio de 2010, 10:56Quito, Jul 23 (Prensa Latina) The Ecuadorian government is working to achieve the goals of the "National Good Living Plan" and has seen major growth in the first half of 2010, said Katiuska King, economic policy minister.

  In terms of public investment, while the January-June period tends to be slower, 2010 has seen a significant increase over 2008 and 2009, King said.

Public investment for the first half of 2008 was $597 million, which was increased to $2.085 billion in 2009, and then in 2010, it went up to $2.635 million, she said, for a total increase of $550 million dollars or 26.4 percent growth.

Despite what some critics of the government say, private investment continues in Ecuador, and some productive sectors have found opportunities to grow, earn profits and contribute to national development, the minister said.

China is going to finance the Coca Codo Sinclair Project, Canadians are investing in the Quito airport, and oil companies have publicly declared that they are going to invest, she noted.

Real recovery is evident in production, King said. The GNP for the first quarter of 2010 supports this tendency of growth, observed since the fourth quarter of 2009, with an increase of 0.60 percent.

July 23, 2010   Here below is the WALL STREET JOURNAL summarizing a very important event yesterday at the OAS wherein Colombia delivered hours of facts- not opinion nor politics- on the FARC, currently sponsored by the state/nation of Venezuela.

The OAS, under follower of Chilean Allende communist leader Jose Miguel Insulza, himself a Soros man, refused to do anything viz a viz the Colombian request to analyze the facts and corroborate the mountains of  incriminating evidence presented. Insulza stated that because Chavez did not want an independent fact based review, he/the OAS would not permit this/would not act to substantiate any facts. You may wonder what the OAS uses so much US taxpayer monies to achieve and why the massive salary packages for OAS functionaries? The USA also has a hefty “delegation” to the OAS with an ambassador thereto. Almost 2 dozen Americans are vastly overpaid paid to work in the US delegation to the OAS for reasons and work products unknown to any.  Colombia now says they will present claims for these crimes at the UN court at the Hague, average waiting list for cases still 7 to 10 years, if then.
 
As it was- and we listened late yesterday to the entire Special Session broadcast, promised as a live broadcast but was mysteriously blacked out during the LIVE event, and noted Bolivia and Nicaragua in lock step with Chavez’s demands that the FARC are not a problem ever and the evidence which claims the FARC as a terror group is a lie. Canada made a strong stance against the FARC support. Mexico, like the USA, was slightly / somewhat helpful. Oddly, Costa Rica was very strong against the FARC. Peru took to reading from the actual OAS charter for Human Rights, to which all OAS members have affixed their support but do now trounce, manipulate and ignore for their own selfish ends, currently supporting terrorist cartels.

At the OAS event, Venezuela thanked its pals for trying to terminate the factual presentation. As rotating head of the Permanent Council, Ecuador’s OAS ambassador did his best to re enact what Ecuadoreans do inside Ecuador today and to stop the OAS event and also tried to postpone and then restrict attendance, bar free speech and open media from covering the matter. When exposed, he quit. Ecuador’s Foreign Affairs minister Patino claimed Ecuador’s ambassador to the OAS [who always acted on the Correa team’s instructions], caught red handed trying to break OAS norms to assist Chavez and the FARC, was a misunderstanding.  You may want to start counting the times that Correa’s government, when caught doing dirty things, whines that they are misunderstood and someone else is at fault for their inane dishonesties.

We consider what is important is the level of fraud and deception applied by the ALBA states to lie a lot about Hezbollah, the FARC and Iran’s actors across the Americas. Yesterday’s OAS denial of need and rejection of even a review of the facts was a low point for that, in general, now stultifyingly  incompetent morass of fact-free political activists, called OAS ambassadors.

The JOURNAL writes of the FARC which,” …are no idle threat to Colombia. The FARC ranks as one of the most bloodthirsty of terrorist outfits, with specialties in kidnapping and drug trafficking and ties to terrorist groups world-wide. A too-common view of Comrade Chávez is that he is more of a colorful buffoon than a genuine menace. Yesterday's presentation should lay that myth to rest. “

Chavez and his gangs a genuine menace- a  threat?  Well of course Chavez and his cartel thugs are a threat. That the OAS denied a requested  “human rights protection” which the OAS touts as their cause celebre, for sane, law abiding citizens as championed by Colombia in lieu of promoting- aka enabling and protecting  the Cuban communist ALBA cartels reveals the shamefully unacceptable state of the OAS leadership and the individual governments which comprise the OAS today, with common sense out of reach of these so called OAS ambassadors who spoke on instructions from their own governments. Moreover, the tragedy is that the OAS reveals itself as having deteriorated in four years under current leadership grids to a roll out of  supports for manipulating, incompetence delivering, dishonest  enabling of crime cartels, now running amuck. This should come as no relief, bringing no comfort to any seeking justice. What does the OAS think its value remains?

Colombia presented some of  the aerial photographs, details of the horrifying crimes against innocents, and training camp details for over 2 hours….fact after fact.

And by the way- the “haciendas” for FARC R & R were mostly previously private Venezuelan homes, stolen by Chavez for treating his FARC & Hezbollah & Cuban military friends in luxury. Who pays for all this? Where does the money come from? Does Chavez do this to keep his cartels re-supplying him with some of their cash? Serious facts are still needed.

And the dishonest myth that Chavez’s support for the cartels is not aligned with his mercenaries and his Venezuelan military? Clearly in Chavez’s highly bifurcated mind they are fully linked as Chavez ordered his military in high dudgeon yesterday during Colombia’s fact based presentation.
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The Wall Street Journal
 
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
JULY 23, 2010

Summer Camp for Terrorists
Hugo Chávez's R&R in Venezuela.

Whenever we think back to summer camp, memories of cookouts and songs around the piano spring to mind. If Colombian officials are to be believed, somebody in Venezuela seems to have had the same idea.

Yesterday, the Colombian government presented evidence that the narcoterrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have what amounts to "summer camps" on the Venezuelan side of their common border. In a presentation to the Organization of American States, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos charged that Venezuelan officials "tolerate the presence of these groups" and "don't carry out actions against them."

On predictable cue, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez reacted by breaking off diplomatic relations with Bogotá, ordering a "maximum alert" and suggesting it was all part of an American plot. Yet this wouldn't be the first time Caracas has been credibly suspected of helping terrorists. In March, a Spanish judge indicted a Venezuelan government official for serving as a go-between for the FARC and the Basque terrorist group ETA in a coordinated effort to assassinate former Colombian President Andres Pastrana.
Yesterday, Mr. Hoyos named farms and haciendas inside Venezuela where some 1,500 rebels "can relax, put on weight and plan attacks." The Ambassador also promised that he was ready to provide satellite images, "precise coordinates, [and] overwhelming data." Much of the intelligence seems to have come from FARC deserters who testified about the group's Venezuelan presence.

The camps are no idle threat to Colombia. The FARC ranks as one of the most bloodthirsty of terrorist outfits, with specialties in kidnapping and drug trafficking and ties to terrorist groups world-wide. A too-common view of Comrade Chávez is that he is more of a colorful buffoon than a genuine menace. Yesterday's presentation should lay that myth to rest.
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We at ECrisis suggest you listen at OAS.org to the whole thing. Make up your own mind regarding perfidy, fecklessness and refusal to stand on principle.

And then ask yourself, as Colombia has done: would you trust the OAS to do one sane law abiding thing when your life is on the line?  Would the OAS stand with you to end the rapes, the kidnappings, extortion plots, and abject murders? Does the OAS make you feel safer yet?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

July 20, 2010    We at ECrisis wish no ill to any. But when it comes to the deeply discredited Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and his highly publicized  “help”  and “support” for Ecuadoreans, we hope that at last, hero worship of acclaimed environmental scam artists ends at last in Ecuador for all times. No one who actually watches CNN News has not observed the rudderless Kennedy on TV in a seemingly never ending string of cringe-making moments. Kennedy almost seems as if he is on drugs, whether prescriptive or not.

Although Joe ` I love Chavez for his money’ Kennedy’s brother Bobby’s law firm is currently suing a recycling facility for “bad odors,” we are quite aware that while Rafael Correa is doing all he can to bankrupt Alvaro Noboa, he would welcome Bobby and his dead-body chasing crew of environmental class action lawyers in a second, as he has welcomed parallel scamsters such as fraudster Steven Donziger and the son of Alejandro Ponce to attack Chevron Texaco on no grounds whatsoever…except greed while lying to us all that they exist only to “help the poor.”  And still we ask the defining question of Bobby: did he once ever defend his pal, his chum Noboa from the perils of Correa? Did he lift one finger in protecting his chum, even as godfather  titles fly around. Or is Bobby, mirroring every Ecuadorean today, afraid to stand with his friends when their needs are most dire, revealing just how utterly deprived and selfish these environmental champions remain? While we have no respect for Noboa because he selects idiots and narcissists for his friends, Kennedy being a prime example, we cannot but wonder when in time persons grasp the utter futility of adoring, revering and worshipping false celebrities such as Bobby Kennedy who return no favors and run away when the going gets tough, revealing that they were never friends to begin with.

Ecuador is not alone with fraud cases based on fake science based on selfish greed. No indeed. The USA has seen the unleashing of environmental class action suits to defraud the public based on the British Petrooleum-Barack Obama approved, USA regulation and common sense avoiding oil drilling experience in the Gulf of Mexico under a U.S. federal leasehold. Although Obama is doing all he can to avoid revealing his involvement with BP’s cost and safety cutting contracts, his personal involvement- like Correa’s in support for class action lawyers cannot be ignored. In both cases, history will not be good to either man.

Here is an update on Noboa’s fair weather, shallow and very selfish chum, Kennedy [currently chasing class action customers against BP]:

Miller Time: How To Decimate a Kennedy

Posted 07/20/2010 Human Events

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an environmental lawyer who blames President Bush for the BP oil spill, filed for divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, the mother of his four youngest children. Days after the divorce filing, Mary was arrested and charged with DWI. She will be in court on Thursday July 22 on the charges. Also, leading up to the split, police responded to several domestic incidents at the Kennedys’ home in tony Bedford, New York.

Kennedy, a longtime environmental activist, has been vocal in blaming the BP oil spill on “Big Oil” (capitalization, his) and the Bush administration. Five days before police were called to his house for a domestic incident, Kennedy wrote a column in Huffington Post entitled “Sex, Lies and Oil Spills.” Kennedy praised the “impressive response” of the Obama administration to BP’s spill.  He wrote that the “real culprit in this villainy is a negligent industry, the festering ethics of the Bush Administration and poor oversight by an agency corrupted by eight years of grotesque subservience to Big Oil.”

Kennedy claims to be speaking from a position of activist, however he is apparently trying to profit from the businesses affected be the oil spill. While filing for divorce and family drama, his personal website appears to have an advertisement for his law firm Kennedy & Madonna. “I have assembled a team of the top law firms in the country whose combined experience, knowledge and proven success are available to assist you if you have been impacted by the BP oil spill,” Kennedy posted on the site.

When called for comment, Kennedy’s law firm partner Kevin Madonna tells HUMAN EVENTS that “we are not charging anybody for work” related to the oil spill and “at this point, everything is pro bono”. 

As far as Kennedy’s appearance of profiting by posting what seems to be an advertisement on his environmental activist website, Madonna told HUMAN EVETNS: “I know what you are trying to get at and it’s really disingenuous.” Asked if the Kennedy & Madonna law firm was signing clients on a contingency basis, to be paid if the victims were awarded restitution funds, Madonna responded “no one is taking money from the victims.”  He conceded, however, that “of course people have to be paid for their work.”

Meanwhile on May 10, the Bedford Police went to the Kennedy home in response to a 911 call from Mary Kennedy. At the scene, Mary told the officers that her husband Robert was "verbally abusive to herself and her children." According to the police report, however, officers describe Mary as "visibly intoxicated" and having "great difficulty collecting her thoughts and articulating her reasons for calling." The Bedford Police determined that no one in the household was in danger. No charges were filed.

The Kennedy family home where the police have responded at least twice this year to 911 calls is also the subject of a book and website called “The Kennedy Green House.”  Mary Richardson Kennedy‘s book on “greening up” her home was published in April and described as “the story of the family’s journey to health, wellness, and a better lifestyle.”

Kennedy Green House is the family’s residence in Bedford. It remains unclear who will keep the house in the pending divorce. Mary’s attorney Kerry Lawrence told HUMAN EVENTS that she is still living in the house, but “would not comment on their matrimonial issues.”

Two days after the domestic incident at Kennedy’s house, Robert filed for divorce. The couple has been married for 16 years. Mary Richardson was six months pregnant when she married Robert Kennedy in a civil ceremony on a boat in the Hudson River. A month earlier, Robert went to the Dominican Republic to get a quickie divorce from Emily Black, the mother of his two oldest children.

The day after Robert filed for divorce, Bedford police responded to a 911 hang-up call from the Kennedy residence. At the house, the police witnessed a “verbal argument between the husband and wife.  Robert told police that Mary was intoxicated and "acting irrational."  The police checked on the safety of the household residents, including the couple’s four children, and allowed Robert to leave the home. Afterwards, the police determined the incident warranted “documentation” and filed a “State Domestic Incident Report.”

Two days later on May 15, Mary Kennedy was arrested for DWI outsider her children’s school. When police observed Kennedy drive her Volvo station wagon over a curb at 9pm outside the St. Patrick's School, they pulled her over. The police administered field sobriety tests, which resulted in sufficient grounds for charging her with DWI.

Mary Richardson Kennedy was driven to the police department and processed, which included submitting to a mug shot (see photo). Kennedy agreed to submit to a breathalyzer test, using the “data master” equipment. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.11 percent, according to police records, and she was charged with misdemeanor DWI. (Felony DWI in New York State is based on priors and other factors).  Kennedy was driven home by someone who is “not a family member” (i.e. not her husband, Robert).

At the courthouse on May 28, Mary Richardson Kennedy pled not guilty on the charge of driving while intoxicated. Justice Kevin Quaranta told Kennedy that “this is going to be treated like any other case,” according to the Journal News.  Quaranta ordered Kennedy to surrender her driver’s license and undergo evaluation to determine if she needs treatment for alcohol abuse. Her attorney Kevin Lawrence would not comment on whether or not she will go to alcohol rehab for treatment.

Kennedy is due back at Bedford Town Court on Thursday July 22 for a conference on the DWI charge. Asked if Kennedy would maintain her not guilty plea, Lawrence tells HUMAN EVENTS that he “can’t really comment on what might or might not happen this week.” 

When called for comment on Mary Richardson Kennedy’s case, Lieutenant Jeffery Dickan of the Bedford Police Department affirmed that the “data master” breathalyzer equipment used is modern equipment.

“I’ve never arrested anyone who is ‘guilty’,” joked Lieutenant Dickan. “They’re always announced until they take their plea.”

Dickan said that the Bedford area has long been the residence of the famous and powerful, but he’s “not impressed” by them. “I’ve been doing this for over 27 years. I’m just doing my job,” says the police officer.

Robert Kennedy, son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has long held political aspirations. He was reportedly considered for Director of the Environmental Protection Agency in President Obama’s administration.

In 2007, he told  New York Magazine  that with Eliot Spitzer in the governor’s mansion and Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton holding the U.S. Senate seats, he felt “pretty much boxed out in New York.”  In 2005, Kennedy considered a run for New York attorney general, but decided his family life was his priority.

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And here we have tales of lawyers listening to paid speaker Kennedy in Atlanta about how to do better class action suits:

06/25/2010 02:48:00 PM EST         

Raw Anger Spills At Conference On BP Gulf Disaster
Posted by

Gregg Lawson       

Change Author:

ATLANTA - Some raw anger at BP spilled out today at HB Litigation Conferences' Oil in the Gulf: Litigation & Insurance Coverage Conference here.

Environmental activist and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of Kennedy & Madonna LLP in Hurley, N.Y., the keynote speaker, said he visited a Gulf beach in Mobile, Ala., on Wednesday.

"They literally took 9,000 miles of the Gulf States out of the public control and privatized it for their own profit. . .," Kennedy said. "This really is a criminal act."

Kennedy said oil contains toxic chemicals such as benzene and toluene and heavy metals such s lead, arsenic and mercury that can harm swimmers and enter the seafood people eat. He said BP should be prosecuted.

"If a foreign enemy did what they've done to the United States of America, we'd consider it a criminal act," said Kennedy, who urged the United States to kick its $1 billion-a-day dependence on foreign oil by pursuing green energy.

Later, Brent Coon of Brent Coon & Associates in Beaumont, Texas, was more blunt.

"They're a . . . greedy company and they'll always be a . . . greedy company until we put them in jail," said Coon, who was lead attorney for plaintiffs after the March 2005 explosion at BP'S Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people and injured more than 170 more workers.

Coon said that, as an outdoorsman, he was angry about the plight of the environment. But he also said he was angered by "the fact that people get killed working for BP unnecessarily.

Coon ticked off a long list of violations discovered by OSHA investigations on land and Mining and Mineral Services investigations at sea, and the resulting fines. He showed internal BP memos, e-mails, surveys and deposition testimony he said supported his position.

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Oil in the Gulf: Litigation & Insurance Coverage
Date: June 24-25, 2010
Location: The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Audio, video recordings and handbooks are available for our conferences! Individually priced and packaged, each captures the information and insights delivered by our faculty. Hear from experts, gain new perspectives, and learn proven techniques. For more information, click here, call 484-324-2755, or email allison.emery@litigationconferences.com to reserve your copy today!

Attendees receive a 50% discount on the Video Package, Audio Package or Handbook on CD!

Agenda and Speakers
Click HERE to view the agenda and faculty!
 
Keynote Address by
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Conference Topics: Theories of liability, D&O liability, relevant precedent; coverage claims; business interruption; economic loss; unique state law issues; personal injury lawsuits, economic loss claims and property damage litigation; environmental impairment; calculating damages; case management and consolidation; community impact and government involvement; reinsurance implications; policy exclusions . . .

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• First 10 in-house counsel at defendant companies and insurance carriers, or risk managers: FREE!* • Additional registrants from the same law firm or company (attendee 2-4): $645 per registrant • Government employees or paralegals: $465 per registrant • Sitting Judges or Special Masters: FREE!*

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Increase your exposure, maintain contacts, obtain new leads by sponsoring an event or exhibiting at this conference. Contact Jeanne Billings at Jeanne.Billings@litigationconferences.com or 484-580-8241 for details.

___

And then comes the NEW YORK TIMES on this cottage industry of crisis-chasers even as some rumor that Obama’s US Congress have gifted class action trial lawyers with tax exemptions:

June 16, 2010,

It’s Raining Lawyers in the Gulf
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF
Turn on a radio or television in Louisiana these days, and out comes a gusher of news and commentary on BP’s unstoppable oil leak in the gulf. Even commercial breaks are no escape from the oil onslaught.

In New Orleans, for instance, the Lakers-Celtics N.B.A. finals game last week repeatedly featured a law firm’s ad urging viewers to visit bigspill.com or to call 1-800-BIG-SPILL if they had been harmed by the slick. Similar pitches flood the radio waves.

Some lawyers are taking a lower-budget approach. For the past month, Spencer Aronfeld, a Miami lawyer, has posted a half-dozen YouTube videos chronicling his travels through the gulf to view the oil’s devastation – and presumably to sign up a few clients.

In the first video in the series, shot in the New Orleans airport, Mr. Aronfeld describes a “very emotional experience” he had while flying over the oil spill from Miami.

“We’ve rented a car, we’re going to drive down the coast, we’re going to roll up our sleeves, take our briefcases out, and find out how we can help people who depend on this environment, and to hold those people responsible who have caused this horrible, horrible disaster,” he says. In another, viewable above, he visits a Vietnamese shrimper thwarted by the spill who is hoping for alternative employment.

That lawyers are homing in on what is shaping up into one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation’s history should surprise no one. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake, and with the much-vilified oil giant BP as a defendant, lawyers sense a major opportunity. One commentator quoted in The Globe and Mail newspaper recently described the BP blowout as “the trial lawyers’ Full Employment Act.”

Wringing damages from BP, however, will not be a quick or straightforward process. As our colleague John Schwartz wrote last week in The Times, the hundreds of class-action lawsuits being filed against BP will doubtlessly be consolidated into just a handful of cases. Then a venue for the trial or trials will be chosen. These actions alone are likely to take months; trials and appeals might easily consume a decade or more. After the Exxon Valdez disaster, plaintiffs waited 15 years for a final resolution, with some going to their graves without ever seeing a dime.

Plaintiffs may take some solace in the fact that they can choose from a bountiful selection of litigators. Some firms already in the fray are big names, like the Cochran Firm, founded by O.J. Simpson’s former defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran (now deceased), as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental law firm Kennedy & Madonna, based in New York. Others filing suits include veterans of successful mass-tort actions against major corporate interests.

For the world at large, this legal circus remains mostly a sideshow to the larger drama of efforts to protect the coast and cap the well. But when BP finally stops the gusher – August looks good, some say, but it could take until autumn – the legal battle will take center stage. Expect a long, sticky fight.
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Even as no one can defend the harm caused by the aberrant BP and Obama oil drill deal, it is also indefensible to cause harm to other companies which apply full safety practices, For Ecuador, the BP oil disaster and what Ecuador claims is an oil disaster caused by Chevron in the Oriente are two entirely different matters and both are managed quite differently. The two matters are as different as day is from night. However, what is striking is the outpouring of slimey class action trial lawyers chasing the big bucks while pretending to “help the little people.” Their manipulative help which only helps themselves is not help: it is gaming people’s needs while actually helping nothing. How is that special Kennedy friendship- so revered- working out to help Noboa from Correa’s state thefts? Oh wait- we forgot….Trudie and the UN delivered a few huge plastic water catching barrels in Sucumbios.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis