February 6, 2007     In his fist month in power, Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa shows his true colors: red, as in communist party red. Correa’s paid thugs and golpistas already storm troop around the capitol city, Quito causing mayhem and disrupting commercial and citizen traffic. These government backed thugs stormed the offices of the acting attorney general Cecilia Armas on February 6, 2007.

After nearly killing her with head blows, these thugs were deterred only slightly by her office workers. The National Police, currently operating illegally under Correa’s thumb, ignored again their constitutional obligation to protect and defend all arms of the nation, and noted blithely that they cannot protect and defend anyone or anything without prior approval from the president’s team, which clearly is blocking normative security to any who are not noticeably aligned with the Correa and Chavez movements in Ecuador. These violent golpistas will not face justice as long as Correa is president because they work for him and are outside the law, thus proving once again the dictatorial nature of the Chavez-backed thugs.

It seems redundant to remind Rafael Correa that his outlaws and paid golpistas are noticeably aberrant in their internecine activities to storm troop around Ecuador and destroy law and order, leaving citizens indefensible. Justice under Correa is meaningless and is no longer color blind. Police protection is only afforded to those who are aligned with the government- the red shirted Chavez-backed government operatives who are breaking the laws with gay abandon. See Carlos Alberto Montaner's terrific analysis (below) on the new neofascists of Latin America: Chavez, Morales and Correa.

If denial of police security to whole chunks of Ecuadoreans who seek stable democracy is not bad enough, Bloomberg News, 2-5-07, reports that Ecuadoreans saw about ¼ of all bank deposits flee from Ecuador in the last month due to fear of Correa’s fiscal policies which have frightened all local and global investors. About one billion dollars fled due directly to Correa’s governmental actions.

Correa is too expensive for a small nation whose margins for error are not great to begin with. He has cost the national economy billions in just a few short weeks. Correa’s team of incompetents is suited only to rabble rousing and protesting with violence- an affair of state which is not only illicit but is breaking their banks.

In other news, Correa’s government intends to take Uribe’s Plan Colombia to court in a reckless law suit to aid and abet the FARC, recently sending formal letters of condolence to Correa over the loss of their friend, the now departed Minister of Defense and FARC friend.  Correa’s team seems to be upset that President Uribe did not reveal his plans to restart aerial spraying in Colombia and did not grant Ecuador the right to issue warnings to their friends and supporters in the FARC.

Alvaro Uribe, who is a committed leader in stemming Colombia’s lawlessness based on decades of a burgeoning narco terrorist insurgency, is under no obligation to grant advance warning to these deadly international criminals called the FARC. Colombia’s stability and financial success has soared to enviable positions under Uribe’s firm hand, making Colombia a truly admirable success story. Rafael Correa would help in removing Colombia’s recent successes.

He will have plenty of assistance to do this from the pro-drugs lobby and anti-Plan Colombia activists. Rumors grow in the USA that State Department will transfer U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Brownfield to Bogota to assuage the Soros groups who are active daily with the all powerful U.S. Senator Chris Dodd under the lame excuse that Brownfield alone will be approved for Senate confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to Colombia because he is acceptable to the do-drugs crowd of Soros-backed pro drugs activists, sometimes called NGOs. Add to this the new rumor that Uribe is pressured to hire Bill Clinton, himself already extremely close to his patron saint and money man George Soros and his pro drugs crowd, to “lobby” the U.S. Congress for Plan Colombia support under the false premise that the Democrats in the U.S. Congress will only listen to one of their own- one of the Soros mouth organs- and you grasp the real time concept that Uribe is unfairly targeted by the pro-FARC actors while Hugo Chavez- and Rafael Correa who adore the FARC- applaud.

The intended consequence of the anti-Plan Colombia crowd is to bring up the rear out of Quito coordinating and  using the pro-FARC team of Rafael Correa, to destabilize and harass Alvaro Uribe’s legitimate growth plan for Colombia.  It is not a stretch to presume fairly that the pro drugs lobby, sometimes called George Soros-fueled NGOs, is in bed with the FARC and have conspired with the entire administration of Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, also called thugs, pornographers and leaders of Ecuador’s  various communist party front groups, to wreck havoc on Alvaro Uribe’s plan for a cleaner, more stable Colombia. It appears that the U.S. Department of State thinks this is a good idea too and foolishly grants gay abandon to the Soros-backed friends of narco terror to control their brain cells and funds by using scare tactics that the almighty Democrats running the U.S. Congress will only help fight against democracy, law and order and help the FARC regain their prominence as a human rights advocate.

It is no wonder that Rafael Correa enjoys acting with impunity under the gay abandonment of principles based on the company he keeps. With no adult supervision, this adolescent Princeling of the Far Left anti-U.S. hate groups, is irresponsibly leading Ecuador off a cliff and is costing their own economy billions already due to his addiction to his cult-like masters of hate-filled rudderless communism at all costs.

We remind that every loss for normal citizens in Ecuador and every act of destabilization is expensive. There is money to be made in Ecuador’s dominoes as it cascades in to a ruined nation. That money is made by offshore speculative financial actors, sometimes called hedge fund and derivatives agents, whose arbitrage is based in bets against stability and against or for commodities prices. As Ecuador suffers a brain drain, an economic drain and a blatant drain in international standing even as none trust or defend Rafael Correa’s illicit activities, soon enough the arbitrage teams will move on, like locusts, leaving fields of dreams- whole communities- stripped and debauched.

Foreign policy and national identities are never served well or stabilized by unknown, murky offshore speculators. The World Bank, the IMF and the Inter American Development Bank cannot impact the effects of bond market machinations and geo-political turbulence. What they can do- and must do- is demand fiscal responsibility above all else. As with Venezuela’s PDVSA, Correa’s PetroEcuador warrants a full forensic audit. No state held entity should ever operate as an open wallet for any regime.

But Rafael Correa’s recently submitted Annual Budget shows that he intends to do just that: convert PetroEcuador, a la Chavez, to his own personal open wallet. Correa’s Annual Budget refused to disclose huge chunks of the state oil company, especially the highly expensive graft, massive salaries and pay offs under the opaque PetroEcuador.

Correa has refused to submit to the Congress of Ecuador all so called contracts with Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Ahmadinejad in what is clearly an unconstitutional refusal to perform his obligations to deliver fiscal  transparency.

Instead of performing legally, Correa has installed his own goon squads to attack any who seek to merely ask questions and operate with some integrity. While we grasp the concept that former Carterite and recently departed U.S. Ambassador to the OAS John Maisto and his close colleague Charles Shapiro sincerely believed that by foisting the likes of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton on to hapless governments such as Evo Morales, using US AID LAC funds through numerous vehicles such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) would keep the USA in the game so to speak, we note that this foolish game has failed in every sense of the word with no cost benefit analysis ( their recent “lobbying activities have failed) and their false fears that the almighty pro-Soros Chris Dodd and Harry Reid cut hurt liberty and law and order advocates has proven to be a fools’ errand, born of their own political persuasion that it is just all right to hate President Bush and perform U/S/ tax dollar give-aways to any who manage to tell us that by hating Bush, their solutions are the more achievable.

This paid plan to save us all by sending Bill Clinton’s multi armed lobbying teams, like Rafael Correa’s plans, is too expensive. TO work with Bill Clinton is to work with his team which is no longer separate and distinct from his own labyrinthean interconnection to his Faustian maker, George Soros. As any with the scantest due diligence knows, Soros hates President Bush, hates Israel and actually hates structural democracy and while hating U.S. efforts to combat narcoterrorism, has set about to ply billions to his personal brand of the politics of hatred. George Soros also makes money from geo political manifestations, sometimes called arbitrage. Besides, Bill Clinton’s bride and Soros handmaiden  is currently the Democratic Party of the USA’s juggernaut- a massively funded political machine which none dare criticize for fear of retaliation.

The Clintons prefer to inform the globe that as a husband and wife duo they are separate and distinct when all lines converge in their joint accounts. The collusion of this triangulated and dysfunctional couple of political and economic machinations of geo-politics must be transparently untangled and until it is, there is no transparency available for their joint activities on the assumption that Bill Clinton will aid and abet any in the road back to the White House for the presumptive juggernaut of the Democratic Party, moving like a Sherman tank across global realities.

The problem has always been the Clintons themselves who like their patron saint George Soros, have their goals set on agendas which no longer resonate globally. The Clinton are beholden to their party manager whose name is Soros who has set about to install his own brand of politics- the politics of hatred at a time when leaders like Alvaro Uribe succeed because their world view is not based on hatred or perversions but  rather on progress.

This discussion is important only because Ecuador’s Correa has launched a “law suit” against Uribe’s Plan Colombia today.

The Financial Times of 2-6-07 rushed to cover Ecuador’s reaction to  Bush’s Annual Budget proposal, reporting, “ María Fernanda Espinosa, the foreign minister, said: `There are principles of joint responsibility and fairness, and under those principles the US must respond to the efforts Ecuador has made.’ She said the Bush administration should recognise `the enormous efforts made by a poor country like Ecuador to combat narcotraffic. Now we need the US to commit itself to supporting those efforts.’"

No doubt confusing her past career as a pornographic writer with her new task as secretary of state, Ms. Fernanda cheerfully lies in the FT piece. First of all, Ecuador is not a poor country. Ecuador is an extremely wealthy place which could, if it chose to act responsibly, replicate Switzerland or Chile. But Correa’s team- Ms. Fernanda included- have chosen already to terminate what little financial and economic futures Ecuadoreans may hold, further pushing Ecuador suicidally off a cliff. Secondly- it is crudely irresponsible of Ms. Fernanda, herself a pro drugs advocate, to say that Ecuador has made “enormous” efforts to combat drugs.

While Ecuador itself is not a producing nation, it is a drug and white slavery and illegal pharmaceutical transshipment center. No amount of efforts made recently by Ecuador’s gal about town to lay down the propaganda that Ecuador is not a harbor for money launderers and drugs transshipments can avoid these facts. Ecuador has done almost zero to combat its transshipment activities while its own banking laws against money laundering are a joke, remaining a welcome mat to the FARC whose own gaited communities outside Quito are not unlike Swiss ski resorts for the Russian mafia.

The simple truth is this: criminal enterprises across Ecuador profiteer from illicit pharmaceutical, narcotics and human slave trade. Statistically, Ecuador has made no meaningful effort to combat any of this, preferring instead to support, protect and defend the FARC and contraband shippers. Ecuador has made money- lots of money- from the U.S. air strip at Manta. Regional citizens insist that the Manta Base, as funded by the USA, not close. They know that huge amounts of jobs will be removed because Correa prefers to support the FARC instead of law and order.

Into this hot bed of KGB-style disinformation regarding proposed U.S. funding cuts for Ecuador’s non performance at combating narcoterrorism (and no known audits for exactly what happened to U.S. funds) wades U.S. ambassador Jewell to advise and sooth Ecuador’s media that U.S. cuts to Ecuador are not a reflection on the FARC-backing Correa regime but of course, are due to “political realities.” To ambassador Jewell, herself a personal acolyte of the Senator Chris Dodd and the George Soros pro-drug teams, these political realities sound confusing. We know that at best the Dodd-Soros (and Clinton) groups applaud cuts for the U.S. DEA and abhor Plan Colombia. So too remains Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa’s politburo.

The new president of Ecuador’s Congress, Carlos Larreátegui himself one of the region’s most surprising defenders of liberty, was quoted in the 2-7-07 El Diario as noting that Correa’s moves to install a Chavez –style regime on Ecuador is not a coincidence but rather a well planned take over. Larreatugui is not alone. In fact, the only ones who seem to be slow to realize these facts seem to be those whose questionable agenda is contrary to building liberties for Ecuador.

The assemblage of Rafael Correa in Ecuador frankly deserves not one penny of U.S. assistance until it comes clean, not only with its Annual Budget but its plans to remove constitutional democracy and install authoritarian-communism, as they have stated. Unless and until Correa’s team provides protection for all Ecuadoreans and stops refusing to protect and defend those whom they deem as disposable, there is nothing to be gained by pouring good money after bad in this now lawless zone, no matter how much wishful thinking U.S. ambassador Jewell delivers that if only Ecuador transform to the Chavez satellite of narcostates, all would be wonderful. Narcostates and communist dictators are not wonderful. U.S. Senator Harry Reid, himself never trained in international affairs nor current on geo political realities, proclaimed he had a spiritual awakening in the Andes over his lengthy New Year’s vacation.

Transforming democratic republics in to narcostates under communist dictators may be spiritual for some but is profoundly objectionable in every sense. In fact, Ecuador is loosing U.S. funds because they have failed to functionally commit to fighting narco transshipments and have failed to be honest about the disappearance of U.S. monies both in the civil/NGO arena and in the policing efforts. Today there is no meaningful law and order in Ecuador.

Contrary to what Hugo Chavez, the myriad Soros-backed pro drugs, anti U.S. and anti-democracy NGO actors (often coordinated or co-funded by US AID in Quito, or at other times by Hugo Chavez but always intertwined), and U.S. ambassador Jewell tell the public, Rafael Correa is a Chavista is every sense of the word. Correa himself states this daily and his entire entourage states this. The Congress of Ecuador is finally awakening to this reality and is itself stating the facts this week that yes, Correa intends to convert Ecuador to a Chavez satellite state.  It seems the only ones who do not grasp this concept remain…..the U.S. ambassador, the Soros and US AID backed NGOs who want to retain their highly paid consulting and staff jobs and U.S. Senators Dodd and Reid. We predict that soon enough the realities of the Chavez and Correa violence against democracy will awaken them from their well funded spiritual awakenings in to another sort of awakening.

Ecuadoreans, it seems, cannot afford Dodd and Reid’s special brand of spirituality by communistic take overs of the Hugo Chavez sort. Rafael Correa, like a dishonest and selfish child bride of unknown capabilities, married his nation with Hugo Chavez’s regional aspirations. The true cost of this alliance, like Correa’s criminal global outlook and his total power plan also called his new constitution, are now well known. Like Hugo Chavez, there is no compromise with these adolescent cult like leaders for oil profiteering. This in name only marriage of adolescent Correaistas with Venezuelan and Iranian Hezbollah-style Chavistas, their pro FARC criminal cults and anti-democracy goals cannot be saved. With no capacity for diplomatic compromise with the Chavez-Correa cult mindset, these government thugs are not responsibly honest or mature enough to be candidates for rehabilitation. There is no saving grace underway to rectify this bad alliance for disaster. An annulment is in order before more violence, more distress, and loss of life leads to a bitter divorce from reality or sustainable futures. Ecuadoreans cannot have both.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

-----------------

Neofascism intent on destroying democracy

Carlos Alberto Montaner        http://www.firmaspress.com/

The observation was made by Spanish essayist Fernando Díaz Villanueva: ''Latin America is reinventing fascism.'' It's true. His comment was made after mobs were sent into Ecuador's Parliament by President Rafael Correa a few days after he was inaugurated. The police did not protect the legislative building, and the deputies had to flee in a hurry.

The newly in stalled leader wants a new constitution and a new Parliament so he can dictate at will the measures that, according to him, would swiftly put an end to injustice and poverty in that South American country. Correa, who lacks the support of legislators, has the backing of 80 percent of the population, while Parliament is the nation's most discredited institution.

In fact, it is not at all infrequent that societies despise the Parliament members they themselves elected. A parliamentarian is the quintessential politician, and no profession on Earth has a worse reputation. Juan Perón of Argentina used to say, and with reason, that ''when one enters politics, one throws his honor to the dogs.'' How true.

In England -- a country that invented the modern parliament, imposed limits on the unrestricted authority of the monarch and fostered the revolution of freedom -- only 25 percent of the population has a good opinion of its legislators. That negative perception is summarized better than any poll by a saying that's popular among Britons: ``Legislators and diapers need to be changed frequently for the same reason.''

In the early 20th century, the Western world was shaken by the War of 1914. As a consequence of that terrible disaster -- triggered by an unbelievable chain of miscalculations, in which several tens of millions of people died and three empires collapsed, the Russian, Turkish and German -- Western societies witnessed the emergence of the fascist phenomenon.

Some charismatic leaders -- primarily Benito Mussolini, the most colorful of all, and later Adolf Hitler -- were supposed to put an end to the disorder created by the liberal democracies and the market economy. Those were the main enemies, the factors accused of provoking The Great War.

Later, those leaders added communism to the list, without forgetting that both political forces came from the same socialist trunk and anti-Semitism, a centuries-old aberration that picked up strength like a killer hurricane until it became the most horrifying and unjustifiable Holocaust mankind has recorded.

Obviously, the circumstances in Latin America do not resemble those in Europe after 1918, but they do have something in common: frustration in the face of the persistent poverty among a substantial part of society, disorder and state inefficiency, the lack of opportunities and generalized corruption.

Who are the culprits in this situation? According to the neopopulists or neofascists intent in propelling ''21st century socialism'' -- Correa, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Fidel Castro -- the responsibility falls on the liberal state and the republican design, with its separation of powers and market economy.

They want to demolish it (they did that in Cuba, 48 years ago) to build a strong state upon the ruins, led by a vigorous caudillo who will dictate the laws, control the judges, direct the economy, make order out of chaos with an iron fist and make us happy at the point of a baton. In a word, fascism.

It is a pity that these fascist-style neopopulists don't realize that the 30 most prosperous nations on Earth are in fact ruled by law, that they are based on the existence of separate powers and limited by the law, that their economic systems are guided by respect for private property and the market, whereas the 30 poorest and most unhappy nations are satrapies governed by enlightened caudillos full of good intentions, willing to impose prosperity and justice at the point of a sword.

Lamentably, the neofascists are oblivious of the catastrophes that their destructive predecessors provoked. They will repeat history.

February 6, 2007

---------------

América Latina o la hora del neofascismo

Carlos Alberto Montaner

La observación la hizo el ensayista español Fernando Díaz Villanueva: ''América Latina está reinventando el fascismo''. Es cierto. Su afirmación venía a cuento de las turbas arrojadas contra el parlamento ecuatoriano por el presidente Rafael Correa a los pocos días de haber tomado posesión. La policía no protegió el edificio legislativo y los diputados tuvieron que huir precipitadamente. El recién estrenado mandatario quiere una nueva constitución y un nuevo parlamento para poder dictar a su antojo las medidas que, según él, terminarían rápidamente con la injusticia y la pobreza en ese país sudamericano. Correa, que carece de respaldo entre los legisladores, tiene el apoyo del ochenta por ciento de la población, mientras el parlamento es la institución más desacreditada de la nación.

En realidad, no es nada infrecuente que las sociedades desprecien a los miembros que eligen al parlamento. El parlamentario es la quintaesencia del político y no hay una profesión con peor reputación sobre la tierra. Perón decía, y con razón, que ''cuando uno entra en política, lo que hace es lanzarles su honor a los perros''. Es verdad. En Inglaterra, que inventó el parlamentarismo moderno, puso límites a la autoridad irrestricta del monarca y propició la revolución de la libertad, sólo el 25% de la población posee una buena opinión de sus legisladores. Esa percepción negativa la resume mejor que cualquier encuesta una frase muy popular entre los británicos: ``a los legisladores y a los pañales de los niños hay que cambiarlos con frecuencia por las mismas razones''.

A principios del siglo XX el mundo occidental fue sacudido por la guerra de 1914. Como consecuencia de ese terrible desastre --desatado por una increíble cadena de errores de cálculo--, en el que perecieron varias decenas de millones de personas y se hundieron tres imperios --el ruso, el turco y el austrohúngaro-- las sociedades occidentales vieron emerger el fenómeno fascista. Unos líderes carismáticos, fundamentalmente Benito Mussolini --el más vistoso de ellos--, y luego Adolfo Hitler, supuestamente pondrían fin al desorden traído por las democracias liberales y la economía de mercado. Esos eran los principales enemigos, los acusados de haber provocado la Gran Guerra, a los que más tarde agregaron, lateralmente, el comunismo, pero sin olvidar que ambas fuerzas políticas provenían del mismo tronco socialista, más el antisemitismo, centenaria aberración que fue cobrando fuerza como un huracán asesino hasta convertirse en el genocidio más espantoso e injustificable que recuerda la humanidad.

Obviamente, las circunstancias latinoamericanas no se parecen a las del Occidente posterior a 1918, pero tienen algo en común: la frustración ante la pobreza pertinaz de una parte sustancial de la sociedad, el desorden y la ineficiencia del Estado, la falta de oportunidades y la corrupción generalizada. ¿Quiénes son los culpables de esta situación? Según los neopopulistas o neofascistas empeñados en impulsar el ''socialismo del siglo XXI'' --Chávez, Morales, Correa, Castro, decano de todos ellos--, la responsabilidad recae en el Estado liberal y en el diseño republicano, con su separación de poderes y su economía de mercado. Quieren demolerlo (en Cuba ya lo hicieron hace 48 años) para edificar sobre sus escombros un Estado fuerte, dirigido por un enérgico caudillo que dictará las leyes, controlará a los jueces, dirigirá la economía y con su mano de hierro pondrá orden en el caos y nos hará felices a palo y tentetieso: o sea, el fascismo.

Es una lástima que estos neopopulistas de corte fascista no se den cuenta de que las treinta naciones más prósperas de la tierra son, precisamente, estados de derecho fundamentados en la existencia de poderes separados y limitados por la ley, en los que el sistema económico se rige por el respeto a la propiedad privada y el mercado, mientras las treinta naciones más pobres y desdichadas, en cambio, son satrapías gobernadas por caudillos iluminados llenos de buenas intenciones, dispuestos a imponer la prosperidad y la justicia con el filo de la espada. Es lamentable que los neofascistas ignoren las catástrofes que provocaron sus destructivos antepasados. Repetirán la historia.

Febrero 4, 2007