March 29, 2007  We have heard all the lies and propaganda about the glorious citizen's rebellion underway in Ecuador from the hands of Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez. It is an expensive campaign of falsehoods inasmuch as all those paid protesters and all the destruction of property and horrific attacks on human life against innocent and legitimately elected members of the Congress of Ecuador are costing lots of money. Rafael Correa has not once attempted to account for his expenditures, his paid violence and his paid golpistas. Not once. He has shown that he has lied and will continue to lie about his sole obligation to provide a transparent, factual annual budget for his government. In this too he has delivered up a fairy tale Budget to their Congress and has hidden the real facts about Ecuador's economy.
 
Rafael Correa's government has hired a very expensive lobbyist, among other propagandists in Washington, D.C. to present false claims before the U.S. Congress. These U.S. Congressional and governmental meetings were arranged with the assistance of the Ecuadorean Embassy in Washington with the help of the U.S. Department of State to promote a gaggle of the goofiest misinformation positions regarding the Andean region. This rash of misleading and disinformation lies is also called criminal behavior before the U.S. government- a fact long ignored by the Correa team whose capacity to lie is already  well known.
 
Correa's new mouth organ is a well known anti-U.S. activist named Paul Reichler. Reichler has been active preparing Ecuadoreans for this unique moment in history for some time. He was active with the Palacio regime and remains on the job- speaking in loco populis- before U.S. lawmakers with a consistent, steady stream of non-facts. Reichler's particular skill, according to basic internet information readily available, is his long standing support for Nicaragua's pro-communist, Castro-inspired Sandinistas who, under Daniel Ortega's multi-decade long struggle to insert Castro's communism in the Central American nations, is well known. What is less well known is that Ecuador's Finance Minister Patino worked and breathed the Sandinista plan for installing communism, itself defended and promoted by Reichler, sharing a deceptive plan to replace democracy with neo-communism, also called pragmatic populism, also called the Soros plan for alternative or sovereign democracy and also called authoritarianism. What this would be properly called is: dead wrong and insupportable.
 
Correa- and his entire cabinet and his entire Embassy efforts are focused on the same effrontery that Hugo Chavez applies: spreading lies and scrambling to promote a dishonest positioning of their real actions.
 
There is no honor and no welcome mat rolled out for these agents of dishonesty any more except from the most ardent pro-communism activists who also, as it turns out, adore Fidel Castro's cruel regime and adhere to the falsehoods that Hugo Chavez is a `man of the people' when his criminal acts have debased the very meaning of comity among nations to the point where any who applaud Chavez are merely laughable.
 
With every intention to mislead and lie to the American people and its governmental decision makers, Correa's team- led by Reichler- lied to the U.S. Congress regarding Colombia, they lied about free trade. they lied about the death of free enterprise and commercial growth in Ecuador, they lied about Ecuador's theft of an American company called OCCIDENTAL, they lied about Ecuador's reasons for rejecting free trade [ blaming this on Uribe's Colombia and soy beans], and they lied not only about the intentions of their meetings but also what precisely they sought, cynically abusing the good graces of the U.S. people who do not enjoy being manipulated, lied to or criminally abused with non-facts. The Correa cabinet, the Correa embassy in Washington and the Paul Reichler lobbying team of thugs and criminals has a real time plan for Ecuador and none of it is based on functional government but rather an addiction to manipulation and lying.
 
We remind that a simple third grade internet search of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Sra Espinosa reveals not only physical persons exposed in every fashion known to hard pornographers, explicitly revealed, but also nets a wealth of background information on Paul Reichler's activities to promote and defend criminal elements from the Kenyan government, Daniel Ortega's Sandinista communist-terror group, a hatred for President George Bush, a strong aversion to U.S. foreign policies, and a rasher of supports for the fanatical middle eastern terrorists currently held at Guantanamo because they are non-state actors of terror, a well paid legal position involving Hugo Chavez's preferred mouth organs called propaganda groups [also active in acts to defame Uribe's government in Colombia] in the USA as well as a lengthy and well paid representation of Haiti's Aristide across not only the gullible U.S. Congressional Black Caucus but U.S. media and U.S decision makers which has ended up costing Haitians dearly....with what remained of their capacity to live as many died. Paul Reichler will aid and abet Rafael Correa and his cabinet's disinformation campaign to destroy what little is left of Ecuador unless he is stopped immediately. Ecuadoreans- and U.S. decision makers- are foolish to ignore simple due diligence on Rafael Correa's contracts, his agents and his activities. It is an obligation of all Ecuadorean and U.S. persons of good will to factually review the basics: who, what, when, where, why and how. Without a doubt, all basic due diligence regarding Correa, his lobbying teams and his Cabinet-Embassy [ all very well coordinated with the assistance of ambassador Jewell at the U.S. embassy in Quito] has been criminally ignored both by Ecuadorean and American leadership.
 
What we do not approve is the insistence that ignorance- and lying [also called deceptive propaganda and lying to the U.S. Congress]- is bliss in Ecuador. While most Ecuadoreans demand vacuousness, vapidity, hollow but bombastic rhetoric and non-facts to enable their own familial refusal to act with principled positions, the U.S. response to political propaganda by this well-oiled political game by the Correa regime of liar's poker is unbecoming to diplomats, the media and governments. It is more reprehensible in the light of day- the transparent light of day. No amount of pretending that ignorance is acceptable sustains these agents of non-democratic malfeasance and crime.
 
The government of Rafael Correa has lied to the U.S. government in a well orchestrated and heavily paid propaganda campaign.

The government of Rafael Correa- and his agents- are coordinating with well known actors who despise the United States and all multinational entities of good standing. The government of Rafael Correa conspires with the agents of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega as well as agents of the Iranian regime and the global underbelly of hidden speculators who enjoy self enriching at the expense of the Ecuadorean taxpayers who ultimately will foot the bill for Correa's bond market manipulations, investor flight, loss of jobs and the removal of all gains made over the last fifteen years. Instead what Ecuador will get if Correa is allowed to continue is a government chock full of some of the globe's worst progenitors of communism, deception, disease and degradation. The OAS and its leader, Sr. Insulza have also refused to review the Correa acts of democracy-destroying duplicity which places the OAS in the category of complicity to crime.
 
Today Paul Reichler will further the Correa regime's efforts to debase rule of law with his own acts as Correa's lobbyist and his agent in main before the World Bank arbitral courts regarding Ecuador's multibillion theft of Occidental which Correa whole heartedly approves and defends. While it remains indefensible for any sane nation to applaud the illegal and unwarranted theft of close to five billion dollars in assets from a U.S. company, the on going foolishness surrounding this badly mangled criminal caper is that well, you see, the company is part of the evil empire and therefore it is our duty to steal, lie and cheat. This ridiculous adolescent line of thinking permeates all who enter in to Quito these days....and we do mean all. We remind that it is not shameful to stand on principle and defend against the theft of assets- any  assets- and the theft of American assets is reprehensible even as the U.S. Embassy in Quito basically delivered absolutely no support for the Occidental position in any meaningful sense, instead preferring to block critical information and all normative due diligence not only on Rafael Correa but his entire cabinet, his paid propagandists, his paid lobbyists and his unprincipled positions before not only the USA but the U.S.-European communities in an effort to aid and abet the criminal underbelly of the Correa team.
 
To date the Correa team has domestically embarked on a ruinous string of acts. Correa has criminally manipulated global bond markets. Correa has illegally forced out members of the duly elected Congress of Ecuador who dared to question Correa's financial racketeering and even demanded disclosure of Correa's deals with Chavez and Iran's Ahmadinejad as well as his phony Annual Budget, notable for its lack of facts and refusal to disclose the whereabouts of whole chunks of Ecuador's oil monies and payments through Petroecuador.

Correa has officially bribed the military of Ecuador into obeying his illegal acts by rewarding their high command with profits derived from road contracts and now the biggest whopper of all- the military's command and control of Ecuador's oil, gas and mineral management, also called state seizure of what was once semi autonomous.

Correa has launched a diplomatic war of words against Alvaro Uribe's principled position in Colombia and has done nothing to stem the growing population of FARC money launderers, FARC land holders in Ecuador and FARC agents repopulating Ecuadorean territory as millions more begin to flee Ecuador. Rafael Correa has committed gross violence against pro-democracy actors in Ecuador and is guilty of second degree crimes by ordering the police and the military to refuse to protect innocent civilians and governmental agents any protection of due process.

Rafael Correa has bribed and co-opted major segments of Ecuadorean society. He claims, in all fairness to his brilliant tactics, that this is done to reform Ecuador. Reform, we remind, carries the obligation of knowing precisely what is being reformed. Correa's intention is to convert- aka reform- Ecuador in to a narco zone, a lawless state of dazed communists chanting CHE love songs for fun and profit. This irresponsible campground for Soros-based "NGOs" and Sandinista wanna bes is a job fair for the disaffected and promoters of pornography such as is underway with Sra Espinosa. But the U.S. Embassy in Quito, the government of Rafael Correa and certain members of the U.S. government- in addition to Senator Dodd and Congressman Delahunt- welcome this gaggle of abusive, self absorbed adolescents and appear to believe that all lies are fabulous as long as one is not discovered.
 
What needs to be discovered is how deeply involved the Correa conversion to authoritarianism is aided and abetted by the Sandinista job corps team.

We know that the government of Ecuador paid Washington's Roger Noriega of Tew Cardenas to promote the notion that Ecuadoreans are needy- needing the soft touch on criminal theft of billions in assets and the give-away of the U.S taxpayer in charity also called ATPDA duty free trading. Rafael Correa demands that the U.S. believe that this charity is not charity but a reward for Correa's fight against narcotrafficking and is somehow a leasehold payback for the U.S. rent-a-base at Manta. In fact, the USA's presence in Manta is very very small and is a short term leasehold which Correa has done all that he can to promote the notion that this is somehow the U.S.'s crime to fight against human and narcotrafficking out of Ecuador even as the USG spent millions on developing the airstrip and providing jobs- real jobs- for Ecuadoreans.The Correa regime has consistently and blatantly lied about the U.S. positions in Ecuador and has thus far satisfied their pro-drugs "NGO" political funding groups provided by the Soros and Hezbollah-style global drug legalization crews, currently amassed for victory in Quito. To Roger Noriega's unprincipled paid position that criminality in Ecuador is wonderful was always the backbone of Finance Minister Patino's old Sandinista pals in the person of Paul Reichler, himself deeply connected to numerous pro-Chavez mouth organs. Any who fall prey to the lie that Ecuador deserves an ATPDA extension in the face of these facts is a true idiot savant.
 
Roger Noriega of course needs to disclose what and when he acted to aid and abet these Sandinista and Chavez drug legalizers who are converting Ecuador into one of the globe's newest crime capitals. Noriega should apologize and return the funds to the people of Ecuador. We could also hope [vainly it would seem] that Paul Reichler and his well enshrined core group of activists [who are neither pragmatic nor principled nor anything but hiding behind the fake front that they are populists] nor are they in any way connected to anything other than furthering misery born of bleeding Ecuador dry to satisfy their false claims that communism will deliver all satisfactions for this broken land. Theirs is a fools' errand however much they are winning today.
 
The U.S. Embassy in Quito needs-must commence to suspend its support for these criminals and terminate all its funds for the destruction of democracy and freedom in Ecuador. A good place to start would be the cancellation of its support for the joke that Correa's so called constitutional reform is anything but a naked power grab. Readers of this site know  that we have long supported U.S.  Secretary of State Rice and State Department's Tom Shannon for their principled positions. We cannot support what the media reports as being stated by Shannon of late that Rafael Correa is a man of integrity and that democracy is not utterly shattered at the point of a gun in Quito by Correa for....it is so. Either Tom Shannon is delusional or his team of well paid advisors has handed him criminally negligent misinformation materials about Rafael Correa and his team of criminals. We can hope that Shannon and Rice cease taking their facts form the Soros-type groups in the Andes and start reviewing the actual facts. Indeed, the false legal analysis regarding the major crimes by Correa are already abjured to senselessness. Even as the constitutional and legal maneuvers of the Correa and Soros teams have been lied about, so too are the shocking ramifications of these acts stubbornly defended even while  indefensible.
 
It all comes down to greed and political zealotry. Neither are tenable traits of any administration. Privately we can hope that the Bush team finally demands functional due diligence on this welter of willful agents of disinformation and misinformation...and crime.
 
There is no excuse to lie about stealing from American companies. There is no excuse to lie about Uribe's Colombia. There is no excuse to lie about
the global network of thugs and drug runners currently populating both Quito and Caracas. There is no excuse to lie about the criminal destruction of the Congress of Ecuador by Correa's well paid goon squads, his forced military and police criminality, his steady stream of disinformation agents who lie about their constitution, lie about elected officials and lie about the anarchical state underway to aid and abet Correa's financial self enrichment plans for his neo communist politburo.
 
Ecuadoreans themselves lie about their own state of affairs by claiming that they are victims- victims of poverty, victims of crime, victims of their own delusion that they can never self govern because no one stands on principle.
Unless and until Ecuadoreans cease their own delusional self addiction to manipulation and lying, they have no effective remedies to stand against the massive manipulations and lying underway by the Correa and Chavez agents who are aided and abetted by sympathizers in varying stripes and mostly known as Soros-type NGOs who hate many things. But Ecuadoreans exhibit a self loathing by their incessant whining and baseless claims that they are but poor victims of their own selfishness which they now see as perpetuated by the U.S. Embassy in Quito's insistence that the Soros groups are fabulous and that the USA stands for aiding and abetting crime- over five billion dollars of criminal theft from Occidental among others. We would urge again full disclosure because what follows in this pathway would make Soros look like a benevolent, adalpated buffoon. Indeed, the FARC, the radical Chavez actors and the KGB-style agents who support Iran's fascist mullahs are agents of unending misery and no amount of manipulation will bend these mafias which are now welcome in Ecuador.
 
We reprint one of the most insightful analyses on the Correa regime by Walter Molano whose unassailable work has consistently been among the very best.

Molano correctly and factually reports that Ecuadoreans cannot afford Correa's criminality which he performs in lock step with Hugo Chavez. We note that Ecuadoreans are themselves unwittingly about to "vote Yes" for their own self destruction when all Ecuadoreans should "Vote NO" and insist on the facts. The current rush to appease and mislead is so tawdry and so glaringly obvious that we can only question the secondary aiding and abetting of this criminal regime whose aim is not focused solely on destroying Ecuador, which they are doing, but to add another star in to the firmament of criminal zones, itself soon to be  legitimized by Correa's new constitution which will legitimize all crime under his sole control.

Correa needs to call off his goon squads and return the members of their Congress to their seats. Correa needs to grow up and act like a responsible adult. Correa needs to start telling the truth and commence functional reforms.
 
Not one of the Correa team has ever held a legitimate job of any real responsibility. Many hold professional backgrounds as agents for criminal regimes, supporters of narcotrafficking activities and pornography mavens.

These are not principled persons no matter how clever their propaganda may be. All are deeply involved in lying and promoting the new communist paradise in the Andes where hidden speculators of global crime are interwoven with Correa's every step. No sane person would buy a used car from these creeps. So why, we ponder, are they dressed up and sold as a new model car- fully loaded- when in fact theirs is a stolen vehicle. Stolen off the lot of criminal financial scams, theft of others, and theft of democracy.
 
Foolishly fearful that Hugo Chavez might co opt the brain cells of the Correa regime- itself already in bed with the Chavez regime-the current string of lies in the Washington, D.C. community holds that unless the U.S. tax payers continue to subsidize jobs in Ecuador through the ATPDA give-away which is in no way an obligation by the U.S. taxpayers but is instead a treaty-backed device to further sustainable living for Ecuadoreans of a temporary nature, thus the lie goes that to deny free trade benefits for this criminal regime would be to further its bed mating with Hugo Chavez.

Again, the facts reveal that the Correa team is fully aligned with Hugo Chavez financially and spiritually which of course means that Correa was serious when he stated- over and over- that Ecuador was and will be in perpetuity- a member of the Chavez corral of communist criminal nations. To refuse to pay attention to Correa's oft-stated positions, pledges and more importantly his formal agreements with Chavez and Ahmadinejad is to deny reality and accept falsehoods to aid and abet the criminal regimes.

While Americans may be gullible and are generally generous, there can be no give aways to criminals as is currently the game plan in what is ridiculously called the ATPDA extension plan for Ecuador. Were any to support such a massive give-away, which is NOT an obligation of the U.S. taxpayers, same must first see to the return of Occidental's stolen assets, the return of legally elected government office holders and the cancellation of Correa's kangaroo/fake courts, fake judges, and his fake congresspersons.

Correa must cease and desist paying for his goon squads which are rapidly morphing in to paramilitaries- his paramilitaries. Correa needs to stop his global racketeering and his pledges with Iran's mullahs. Were such responsible, adult behaviors to ensue it would perhaps be advantageous to extend to Ecuador such a gift as free trade. Without these provisos being met, any who support an ATPDA extension for Ecuador is aiding and abetting a criminal regime whose perversities grow daily.

Even as Correa publicly and knowingly lied that he was a Chicago School economist when he never was and himself has stated often his hatred for the tenants of that school, so too will Correa lie that Ecuador deserves an ATPDA extension when they do not. If the people of Ecuador want to sustain what jobs they have and they hold, they would be well served to stop their foolish support for criminal entities and redirect their energies toward a sustainable future- their own which they will never realize under any regime led by manipulators, liars and neo communists.

by Pedro Camargo for Ecrisis
 
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/app/article.aspx?id=1038

Latin America: Dirty Politics 
 
Most investors disregard the new authoritarianism tendencies, but they could have dire implications for the future.

BY WALTER T. MOLANO

A streak of authoritarianism is sweeping through Latin America. The market is ignoring the trend, but it could become a major risk. Latin America abandoned its military governments almost two decades ago, but a fresh crop of caudillos (strongmen) are sprouting across the landscape. Growing out of the populist movements that commenced at the start of the decade, these leaders are enacting reforms to enhance their power, extend their mandates and reduce accountability. Unfortunately, these changes foster corruption. They sow the seeds for future political instability and reduce the prospects for foreign investment. 

DISMANTLING INSTITUTIONS

The adherents of the so-called Bolivarian movement did not do much to improve the general welfare. The countries are among the poorest in Latin America. However, these leaders used their popularity and their control of the governmental apparatus to dismantle their countries’ democratic institutions. Taking his cue from Fidel Castro, President Hugo Chavez brought most of Venezuela’s political and economic resources under his control—in the process enriching himself and his associates. President Correa is doing the same in Ecuador. The suspension of 57 congressmen by President Correa propelled Ecuador into a constitutional crisis. An attempt by the Constitutional Tribunal (TC) to invalidate the decision calling for a constitutional assembly is adding to Ecuador’s institutional woes. A similar drama is unfurling in Bolivia, where President Morales is implementing changes that will allow him to remain in office until 2018.

The national leadership’s disregard for governmental institutions and property rights is creating an air of impunity. The governments of Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia, for example, are nationalizing private assets. Not surprisingly, crime is on the rise--as people perceive the lack of regard for law and order. Street crime is reaching epidemic proportions in Venezuela, forcing an exodus of the middle class to the U.S., Europe and Panama. Unfortunately, these problems are not limited to the Bolivarian states. Other countries, such as Colombia, are witnessing the heavy infiltration of criminal elements. On the eve President Bush’s visit to Bogota, for example, Colombian prosecutors arrested Jorge Noguera, the former head of the national intelligence agency (DAS), for suspected ties with paramilitary groups. However, he was released as soon as the North American President departed. Dealing with criminal elements is becoming an everyday fact of life. The U.S. Justice Department recently fined Chiquita Foods for payments made to Colombian paramilitary groups for “security services.”

BACK TO AUTHORITARIANISM

Authoritarianism runs deep in Latin America. It is a legacy of colonial rule. During the 1980s and the 1990s, there was a shift towards democracy. However, the pendulum is moving in the opposite direction. The dismantling of checks and balances, the growing restrictions on the press and the erosion of democratic institutions results in corruption and mismanagement. Unchecked governance produces arbitrariness and casts doubts over property rights. It eventually increases the risk premium economic agents demand for investment, thus suppressing growth. Most investors disregard the new authoritarianism tendencies, but they could have dire implications for the future.

Walter Molano is head of research at BCP Securities.