September 7, 2008   Ecuadoreans have bought into an environmentalists' scam of remarkable proportions- one which throws out contract or common law, even barring the old European civil law and its caudillo enabling Napoleonic Codes- in favor of....non law. While no court on earth would uphold the ridiculous non laws just passing into constitutional language, Ecuadoreans, relying on the so called constitutional assembly in Montecristi which operated illegally and with the collective [and highly overpaid] total IQ of 14, approved a string of proposals through the Chavez-Russo-Iranian constitutional writing team spearheaded by Sr. Viciano Pastor moving in and out of Caracas and also some of the USA's most unbearable so called community organizers, also called CELDF or Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
 
For its part, the United States of America has poured tens of millions of dollars in to supporting and defending this bizarre and tortuous end to democracy, community and rule of law called Correa's constitution for reasons that border on seditious. It is impossibly illegal for the USA to pour US tax dollars in to this constitutional screed, as have Ecuadoreans, when the so called constitution itself is determined to break all international legal norms and stand as one of the most aberrant and appallingly bad constitutions in the history of mankind.
 
For his part, president Rafael Correa of Ecuador, himself a dishonest, adolescent  mental and emotional basket case of lies and manipulative thinking, throws an in your face punch with his red herrings/his decoy sweeping mandates found in that constitution which includes transgender rights, abortion on demand, full national communism and full legal rights to inert objects and so called rights of nature, which are increasingly replacing normative religious ethics on lieu of actual nature worship. Further, that ridiculous so called constitution hands full powers to Correa for a certifiably dishonest open wallet theft of any Ecuadorean resources, also called its petro-economy and allows Correa's cronies to take money at will with no paper trail. Further, it relegates all geopolitical and military behaviors to a joint Venezuelan military-economic bond of unending criminality. The BBC today notes, "A senior Venezuelan naval officer said four Russian ships would take part in the exercises, which would also involve Venezuelan aircraft and submarines. ...In July, he [Chavez] called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US.  Caracas and Moscow agreed to extend bilateral co-operation on energy, with three Russian energy companies to be allowed to operate in Venezuela. ...On Saturday, Venezuela's Rear Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas said four Russian ships and 1,000 Russian troops would take part in exercises in Venezuelan territorial waters from 10 to 14 November. `This is of great importance because it is the first time it is being done (in the Americas),' he said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency and local media. President Chavez supported Russia's intervention in Georgia last month and has accused Washington of being scared of Moscow's `new world potential.' Earlier, US Vice-President Dick Cheney...  described Moscow's actions against Georgia as an affront to civilized standards and said it was reverting back to old Soviet tactics of intimidation and the use of brute force. He added that Russia was also seeking to use its energy resources as a weapon. "


 
The [Russo-Venezuelan] exercises will be the first of their kind in the region
 
Ecuador is merging its military and its finances and its very statehood to Venezuela. This outsourcing of a verifiable statehood to the tender mercies of DISIP, Cuban agents and the Russo-Iranian mass entanglement is of course guaranteed to "use energy resources as a weapon." And comes now the most ridiculous and incompetent foolishness...that these energy resources have animate life- have human life features such as a brain and a soul- and must be defended and manipulated exactly as Correa, Chavez and all Ecuadoreans do....manipulating reality by dishonesty, greed and idiocy.
 
For its part, CELDF which claims the hero's role in crafting the inanimate object as animate section of Correa's constitutional creed, does not reveal who or what paid them for their expensive visits to Ecuador nor their consulting services. CELDF does report on  its web pages that it runs "democracy schools" to teach community organizing about how evil corporate America is and how to break up businesses who they presume have no rights and indeed all rights should be handed back to some ill defined nature. To be sure, such an approach while endearing to those who talk to the animals and sing with the rocks and stones and note that carrots cry when boiled in the kitchen, are very wrong in their essential premise- and have sold this to Ecuadoreans who seek an excuse/ a front- to break all international treaties, laws and covenants and that is...the some amorphous, non defined right of inanimate objects from nature have inherent rights and that these so called rights supplant the rights of man to exist in trade, commerce and democratic endeavors. In other words, CELDF inserts mobocracy with additional attention given to polytheism in place of normative western civilization, whose tenants will no longer live inside this ridiculously shameful place called Ecuador.
 
The so called government of Ecuador has crafted another whopper in supposedly presenting their false face as stewards of nature when in fact the government of Ecuador cares about nothing except avoiding adult responsibilities and normative standards. This is not stewardship but is in fact a fraud. Meanwhile, Ecuador's own university system and Legal Bar cannot even bring itself to deliver any constitutional analysis on Correa's communist constitution even as the USA refuses to even consider the USA-Ecuador breaking text, which it has partially paid for, has lied about and will now deal with the remnants of what it has crafted- a new narcozone in the Andes of and by the people backing Soros and not normal law and order.
 
Here is the great economist, also doubling as head of a nasty Oil & Gas Extortion Racket, the incredibly dishonest and master of manipulations  Rafael Correa concerned about the environment...threatening to refuse to pay its debt obligations if oil prices retreat to a normal range without jacked up spot trading add ins, of around $80 a barrel and thus, speaketh Correa, all humans should jack  up global oil prices to protect the  debt obligations of Ecuadorean bonds, which of course means Correa insists that we all enable more global energy misery and criminally, synthetically soaring oil prices to help his off the books jack ups, currently helping sell the Correa cartel system of non governance, sometimes called its new constitution for communists:

Correa amenaza de nuevo: “Si baja el crudo, dejará de pagar la deuda externa” 06 Sep 2008
 
Ecuador dejará de pagar su deuda externa antes que limitar el gasto social en caso de que caigan los precios del petróleo, dijo hoy el presidente Rafael Correa.

It is incumbent on all citizens to stop making excuses and read the proposed constitution of Ecuador. You will have no freedom unless you know what is going on- not just the cheesy spoonfuls handed out by Co0rrea's propaganda team, currently called public education when....it is not.
 
And here is some inchoate background on what the Correa-Chavez plus US AID/Soros teams did to Ecuador:
        Ecuadorians Follow Lead of U.S. Communities Partnering With Legal Defense Fund
 
This is the trash coming from this group of reds:
 
Assisting the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Draft Rights of Nature    

In 2007, Ecuador began the process of writing a new Constitution for the country.  Of particular concern to elected Delegates to the Constitutional Assembly is the ongoing and increasing pressure from multinational corporations to exploit the country’s oil reserves and biodiversity. 

As in the U.S., Ecuador’s current structure of law puts the interests of corporations over those of nature and communities, allowing the best interests of ecosystems to be overridden. 

At the request of the Pachamama Alliance – an Ecuador-based foundation – the Legal Defense Fund is now advising Assembly Delegates.  Staff traveled to Ecuador in both November 2007 and February 2008 to meet with elected Delegates.

Of particular interest to them is our work assisting local communities to pioneer a new form of jurisprudence recognizing legally enforceable Rights of Nature, and challenging a system of law which grants corporations constitutional “rights” and protections. 

Current law in Ecuador, as in the U.S., grants corporations “rights” which are routinely used to override local, democratic decision making.  In addition, there, as here, nature is treated as property under the law, and efforts to protect it are subordinate to the interests of property and commerce.

In February, we met with the Constitutional Assembly in Montecristi where the Constitutional Convention is underway.  We presented to a number of different Mesas, or committees, comprised of Delegates, on our work with local communities in the U.S.  In addition, we met with the Constitutional Assembly President Alberto Acosta and held a separate meeting with the Assembly Vice President Aminta Buenano.  
 
Nature as Property: English and Spanish Structures of Law

Under both English and Spanish structures of law, ecosystems and natural communities are treated as articles of property.  That means that ownership of land carries with it the right to destroy ecosystems and natural communities that depend upon the land for their existence.  We explained how even the best environmental laws treat ecosystems as private property or as “common property,” attempting to regulate activities that damage the environment, but failing to establish a rights-based structure under which liability arises in response to the violation of the rights of ecosystems.

Governments attempt to protect ecosystems through environmental regulation that legalizes certain activities that endanger the natural environment, while attempting to limit the degree of harm that can be inflicted upon the natural environment.  

For instance, mining corporations are issued permits to extract coal and those permits establish legally permissible levels of pollution for the corporation.  Unfortunately, the regulatory limitations established by the system are usually written by the corporations themselves through governing legislation.  Thus, citizen efforts to protect the environment through those regulatory frameworks have generally failed.

We explained to Delegates how recognizing legally enforceable Rights of Nature in the Constitution would enable governments, organizations, and people to take action on behalf of ecosystems and communities to defend them against projects that would interfere with their integrity, existence, and functioning.  

While under existing law, people defending ecosystems can only recover damages based on an individual’s loss of use of that ecosystem, a legal system of ecosystem rights would guarantee that the ecosystem’s right to exist and flourish could not be impaired.  Damages would be measured not by people’s loss of use of the ecosystem, but by the damage inflicted on the ecosystem itself.
 
Proposed Language for the Constitution: Rights of Nature

At the request of Assembly Delegates, we drafted Rights of Nature language – based on Ordinances we’ve developed for municipalities in the U.S.  The language recognizes that ecosystems and natural communities possess independently enforceable legal rights to exist and flourish.  Recognition of those rights enables governments and communities to enforce those rights to protect the natural environment.  The proposed language is below:
 
Natural communities and ecosystems possess the inalienable right to exist, flourish, and evolve within Ecuador.

Those rights shall be self-executing, and it shall be the duty and right of all Ecuadorian governments, communities, and individuals to enforce those rights. Suits brought to enforce those rights shall be filed in the name of the natural communities or ecosystem whose rights have been violated, damages shall be awarded to fully restore the natural communities or ecosystems, and awarded damages shall be applied exclusively towards returning the natural community or ecosystem to its previous state.


 Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Votes to Approve Rights of Nature In New Constitution    

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Main Office:  675 Mower Road    Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17202
West Coast Office:  126 NE Mason Street, Portland, OR  97211
 
Ecuador Constitutional Assembly Votes to Approve Rights of Nature In New Constitution
Legal Defense Fund: Ecuador First Nation in the World to Shift to Rights-Based
Environmental Protection Using Legal Defense Fund Support
 Ecuadorians Follow Lead of U.S. Communities Partnering With Legal Defense Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly – composed of one hundred and thirty (130) delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the country’s Constitution – voted to approve articles for the new constitution recognizing rights for nature and ecosystems.

“If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights,” stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

“Ecuador is now leading the way for countries around the world to make this necessary and fundamental change in how we protect nature,” added Mari Margil, Associate Director of the Legal Defense Fund.

Over the past year, the Legal Defense Fund has been invited to assist Delegates to the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly to re-write that country’s constitution.  Delegates requested that the Legal Defense Fund draft proposed Rights of Nature language for the constitution based on ordinances developed and adopted by municipalities in the United States.

The Legal Defense Fund has now assisted communities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Virginia to draft and adopt new laws that change the status of natural communities and ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities. 

Those local laws recognize that natural communities and ecosystems possess an inalienable and fundamental right to exist and flourish, and that residents of those communities possess the legal authority to enforce those rights on behalf of those ecosystems.  In addition, these laws require the local governments to remedy violations of those ecosystem rights.

In essence, these laws represent changes to the status of property law, eliminating the authority of a property owner to interfere with the functioning of ecosystems and natural communities that exist and depend upon that property for their existence and flourishing. The local laws allow certain types of development that do not interfere with the rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish.

Background

The Legal Defense Fund, created in 1995 as a public interest law firm, works with communities that recognize that environmental protection cannot be attained under a structure of law that treats natural communities and ecosystems as mere property. 

By most every measure, the environment today is in worse shape than when the major U.S. environmental laws were adopted over thirty years ago.  Since then, countries around the world have sought to replicate these laws.  Yet, species decline worldwide is increasing exponentially, global warming is far more accelerated than previously believed, deforestation continues unabated around the world, and overfishing in the world’s oceans is pushing many fisheries to collapse.

These laws – including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and similar state laws – legalize environmental harms by regulating how much pollution or destruction of nature can occur under law.  Rather than preventing pollution and environmental destruction, these laws instead codify it.  In addition, under commonly understood terms of preemption, once these activities are legalized by federal or state governments, local governments are prohibited from banning them.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is the only public interest law firm in the U.S. that specializes in building a body of law focused on establishing rights for nature. In pursuit of that goal, the Legal Defense Fund has served as special legal counsel to over one hundred municipal governments across the U.S., and serves as a legal advisor to organizations and governments in other countries, including Ecuador, who are focused on driving similar laws into their governing frameworks.   

Articles approved by Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly,
April 10th, 2008
 
Title II
Fundamental Rights

Chapter 1
 Entitlement, Application and Interpretation Principles of the Fundamental Rights
Art. Rights Entitlement[N1] .- Persons and people have the fundamental rights guaranteed in this Constitution and in the international human rights instruments.

Nature is subject to those rights given by this Constitution and Law. <!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
Articles approved by Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly,
July 7th, 2008
Chapter: Rights for Nature
Art. 1[N2] . Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms.* The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.
Art. 2[N3] .  Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.
Art. 3.[N4]  The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.   <!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
Art. 4[N5] . The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
 The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Art. 5[N6] . The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing. <!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><!--[endif]-->
The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.
 
ECrisis has said it before: Ecuadoreans need not support this lunacy and indeed must stay this lunatic effort. You can also politely ask how much money was wasted on this effrontery by the USA and Ecuadorean governments. You can still ask although of course all you will receive are...lies. You can VOTE NO to state suicide and deviancy. And in the meantime, politely request of the US Embassy in Quito that they cease and desist funding deviancy upward in Ecuador. Remind them that Plan Colombia works and that Plan Ecuador, co written with the FARC, will not work, Stay this lunacy currently throwing around more money than common sense. And in the meantime...review that so called constitution for its geo-political military and financial sweep, couched under an amazing Ponzi scheme which converts Ecuador to a political, financial and military contractor of the Russo-Iranian-Venezuelan axis of opacity and deviancy.

Ecuadoreans will all be proxies now with as much meaning to their own lives as any puppet.

- Pedro Camargo for ECrisis