August 15, 2007  Once again, we compliment Walter Molano's analysis which shows astute fact-based reporting on Ecuador.
Of course the truth is that president Rafael Correa has fully merged with Hugo Chavez in all meaningful senses. It is foolish to continue to spread the fake claim that Correa and Chavez are distinct entities when Correa has performed full mergers with Chavez's undertakings, both fiscal and political.
 
It is too late in this game to even hide the fact that Correa's team acts with any ethical performance or economic sustainability. Correa's cabinet of adolescent drunks and cheesy hotel denizens is shockingly inept and corrupt. It is a fools' errand to pretend that Correa will reform Ecuador's future through his bumbling kleptocracy and manifest authoritarianism. Read Molano's 8-13-07 piece, ECUADOR:GETTING UGLY here.
 
There is no chance that Correa will permit functional democratic values to emerge in his so called constituent assembly. The "new" constitution promised for Ecuador is neither new nor a vehicle for any transformative, functional state governability. Already Correa has all hands of the levers of state, controlling all governmental functions even as his own kangaroo congress, courts military, and cabinet do his bidding. It will enshrine state kleptocracy for the small politburo for a long time to come if permitted to proceed as planned and as covered over by the nexus of cheerleaders pouring in to Quito to cheer on this machine of anti-democracy idiots. The entire mess is pre rigged and fully established as a false front to mask what Correa has already performed which is a self coup.

The new Assembly will enshrine Correa's personal promise to craft Ecuador in to a Castro-styled socialist/communist version-paradise in Ecuador where deception, socialism, corrupt governance, misery and self inflicted hardships are the only outcome. There are no job creation programs underway in Ecuador and there is no interest whatsoever by any bona fide agents of growth in Ecuador under Correa. Rafael Correa has rolled out a Welcome Mat that reads: legitimate players stay away. Correa carries no commitment whatsoever to maintaining any sound economic policies for Ecuador, let alone "macroeconomic policies." The blame for the deteriorated economy and Correa's declines in popularity can only be laid solely at his feet, recently seen happily dancing- dirty dancing- and Rafael Correa's step by step removal of functional liberties simply follows his constant Chavez, KGB-style minders, whose play book is a disaster.
 
Any who claim that Correa is not a self proclaimed soul mate of Castro and Chavez need only review his own words and his own acts for verification.
 
Ecuador is almost dead now. Molano himself corrects his previous posts and adds that Ecuador's economy is basically heading for the toilet due to Correa's economic high jinks, frauds and cover ups.  Instead of more excuses and barbs at the very ones who created this mess, far better to take steps to honestly state the facts for what they are. Molano goes a long way toward rectifying what amounts to KGB-style propaganda about the new satellite state of corruption called the Bolivarian Axis. It is a league of corrupt nations which is up to no good.
 
 
On growing Latin American corruption, the FINANCIAL TIMES here writes, " The consensus is that the opposition is so dysfunctional that it doesn’t have the capacity to capitalize on these scandals”... and "The lack of opposition is compounded by voter apathy towards corruption." Or, Or, as the WALL STREET JOURNAL here correctly points out today, "Political parties in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have complained in the past about Mr. Chavez’s meddling in their presidential elections." In other words....`it's the corruption, stupid' that is ruining confidence in Latin American economies/investments and this end to any confidence in ethical performances by the very nations corrupted by Castro and Chavez's dream machine are failing their own citizens' futures. 
 
The BBC reports here, " Mr. Antonini Wilson is a Miami-based Venezuelan businessman known as El Gordo, or The Fat Man. He arrived in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, on a private jet 10 days ago, with executives from Energia Argentina and Venezuela's state oil corporation PDVSA just before Mr. Chavez arrived in the city to sign an energy deal. Mr. Antonini Wilson was carrying $800,000, which he failed to declare.  He was fined $400,000 and promptly disappeared.  The Argentine government wants explanations but Venezuela's government says it has nothing to do with the case." We ask: what is Mr. Wilson- aka El Gordo doing as a "Miami-based Venezuelan businessman" with almost a cool million in cash for Chavez's bribes?
Who paid his almost 1/2 million in fines and where is he now??? It is long past time to release a fulsome roster of just how much Hugo Chavez has paid out in bribes across the globe. For starters, it would be helpful to simply detail his bribes in Belarus, Moscow, Iran, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Chile. And of course to this must be added his payments in varying forms to politicians and paid propagandists in Washington, D.C., the Kennedy clan and numerous affianced activists, sometimes called NGOs and sometimes called U.S.-based Democratic Party allies.

We hope that this posting urges our readers to view again Capra's classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington about the perils of corruption, bribery and specifically graft. While we note that no Latin nation is any good at all with dealing with graft, we remind that it remains a true crime in the United States with penalties affixed. We also remind that corruption is seductive, entrancing the greedy and shallow in to its lures. If Western civilization fails to rectify what the media today calls, "voter apathy towards corruption" and when freedom lovers are themselves so "dysfunctional" that they refuse to stand united against the waves of crime and corrupt acts by their own governments, one must finally conclude that the shame of the Chavez-Castro cesspool is enjoyed by perfect idiots, swimming inside a cesspool of their own making.
 
Wherever Chavez, Correa and Castro go...their suitcases are dirty. We have seen enough examples already. Their emissaries and officials are embarrassingly dirty and chock full of well paid liars. Today, the happy gang of thieves actually owns their own media corporations to further spew more lies.
When Mr. Chavez and Mr. Correa go anywhere, even as Mr. Chavez has Come to Washington, corruption, deception and graft always follow.
 
- Pedro Camargo for ECrisis