September 8, 2008  Ecuadoreans are incredulously showing favoritism for state communism which aligns their land with Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Russo-Iranian axis. This is just one by product of the democracy-ending manifesto of the sociopathic liar presidente Rafael Correa. Instead of acting like adults to know what the thing says, Ecuadoreans....go shopping and pretend that government is "too much" for them. You will get the government you want and in this case, it is ruinous. Today we note from Costa Rican media, `According to Recalde poll 64 percent of the people in Ecuador capital favor the constitutional proposal while in Guayaquil 36 percent support it. The government announced that starting next week the new Constitution text will be broadcast through TV programs three times a day.'
 
The Quito newspaper EL COMERCIO today blasts the radio and TV broadcasters for running Correa's propaganda about his pathetic constitution, calling this public education and outreach.  We say this: all media has an obligation itself- with or without statist backing- to distribute the full text of that woebegone constitution so that the public knows exactly what is in it. This requires not one blessing from the Correa cabinet. Indeed, instead of the Carter Center, all the US AID whackos and the OAS minions scurrying around to tell us that all is well in Quito, they should be performing the essentials of democracy building which remains truth telling. There is no truth- no true vote/no functional democracy in a place and in a time when no one knows what it is the vote for. In fact, there is no cause/no justification at all to support or encourage this so called constitution without the truth of what it actually is. Read it. Study it. Know what it says. Demand that the entire text be distributed for review. Stop pretending that Ecuadoreans are so uneducated in this land where universal education is the law and where literacy used to be almost the majority. If you do not know what that constitution says in full...you must vote no.
 
If you do not know, you must vote no.
 
As it is, Ecuador is plunging itself under this proposed so called constitution in to a ruinous dead zone where no trade, no future and no jobs will grow.
Here is a terrific explanation of how free trade grows jobs and security: Of course Ecuadoreans simply think that they can move trade-able goods just as they do illicit contraband- easily and smoothly- and that they need not engage in lawful anything. Indeed, Ecuadoreans are encouraged to be as lawless as possible and are rewarded for their criminality.
 
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The Wall Street Journal
September 8, 2008 
 
THE AMERICAS
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY  

Latin America Wants Free Trade
September 8, 2008; Page A17

Of the two U.S. presidential candidates, one promises to expand international trading opportunities for American producers and consumers. The other pledges to raise the barriers that Americans already face in global commerce.

For Latin America, this is the single most important policy issue in the campaign. If Republican candidate John McCain wins, he says he will lead the Western Hemisphere toward freer trade. Conversely, Democratic candidate Barack Obama has promised that he will craft a U.S. trade policy of greater protectionism against our Latin neighbors. The former agenda will advance regional economic integration, the latter will further Latin American isolation.

Anyone who has read 20th-century history knows the seriousness of this policy divide. The last time Washington adopted a protectionist stance toward our southern neighbors was in 1930, when Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. It took more than 50 years to even begin to climb out of that hole.

Many economists blame Smoot-Hawley for the depths of the U.S. depression. But Latin Americans have suffered even more over a longer period. Their leaders chose to retaliate at the time with their own protectionist tariffs, but the damage didn't end there.

In his 1995 book "Crisis and Reform in Latin America," UCLA professor Sebastian Edwards writes that though there was a brief period of liberalization in Argentina, Brazil and Chile in the late 1930s, it didn't last long. Adverse conditions brought about by World War II prompted the region's policy makers to restore tariffs, in the hope that protectionism would stimulate economic development.

Latins need a McCain victory over Obama, The Americas columnist Mary O'Grady tells James Freeman. (Sept. 8)
"By the late 1940s and early 1950s," writes Mr. Edwards, "protectionist policies based on import substitution were well entrenched and constituted, by far, the dominant perspective." The U.N.'s Economic Commission on Latin American and the Caribbean, he adds, provided the "intellectual underpinning for the protectionist position."

Protectionism made a mess out of the region, and not only because spiraling tariffs and nontariff barriers blocked imports and destroyed the export sector. They also provoked an intellectual isolation as the information and new ideas that flow with trade dried up, along with consumer choice and competition. This had a deleterious effect on politics too, as closed economies spawned powerful interests which seized not only economic but political control and grew entrenched.

According to Mr. Edwards, it was only in the late 1980s and early 1990s that U.S. and Latin leadership (not counting Chile, which liberalized earlier) began to recognize the twin unintended consequences of this model -- poverty and instability -- and decided to act. "Tariffs were drastically slashed, many countries completely eliminated import licenses and prohibitions and several countries began negotiating free trade agreements with the United States."

Mexico and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. in 1993, but the regional opening process continued well into this decade. A U.S.-Chile bilateral agreement kicked off in 2004. Five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic signed their own FTA (Cafta) with the U.S. in 2006. Peru's FTA with the U.S. was finalized in 2007. Colombia and Panama have signed agreements with the U.S. that are awaiting ratification by the U.S. Congress.

It is true that unilateral opening would have been a superior path. Yet for a variety of reasons -- not the least the political attraction of reciprocity -- FTAs have become fashionable. And there is no doubt that the agreements, warts and all, have aided in the process of dismantling trade barriers, strengthening the rule of law, and moving the region in the direction of democratic capitalism.

Mr. McCain wants the U.S. to continue its leadership role in opening markets in the region. He favors ratification of the Colombia and Panama FTAs, which the Democratic-controlled Congress is blocking. He also wants to lift the U.S.'s 54-cent tariff on Brazilian ethanol, and he wants to preserve Nafta.

Mr. Obama would reverse regional trade progress. He supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opposition to the Colombia FTA, even though it will open new markets for U.S. exporters. He promises to "stand firm" against pacts like Cafta and proposes to force a renegotiation of Nafta, which is likely to disrupt North American supply chains and damage the U.S. economy. By heaping new labor and environmental regulations on our trading partners, his "fair trade" proposal will raise costs for our trading partners and reduce their competitiveness.

Perhaps worst of all, his antitrade bias will signal the region that protectionism is back in style in the U.S., and encourage new trade wars. No good can     come from that, for the U.S. or for Latin America.

ECrisis recommends that its readers actually apply a cause and effect analysis of what this nation will look like under the Correa-Chavez Cuban constitution, ghost written by Euro-Red Viciano Pastor winging in and out of Caracas, they are about to vote on. BLOOMBERG's today notes about the semi-failing European Union nations, "The result: Europe's non-financial companies are burdened with 5.3 trillion euros ($7.6 trillion) of debt, equal to about 57 percent of the euro-zone economy. That's up from 48 percent before the 2001 slowdown and compares with 46 percent in the U.S., according to data from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. " What does this mean? It means that like Spain today, job growth is falling off in Europe, credit is drying up, debt is piling up and the financial security structures will take a long time to reinvigorate. The article further states," ' More pain probably lies ahead,' says Michael Saunders, chief European economist at Citigroup in London. `Worsening corporate finances add to downside risks to growth.' '' In other words, one cannot manipulate away the fantasy that Europe welcomes millions of Ecuadorean refugees, currently flooding London from Spain's abusive socio-economic vultures. The EU, whatever that means, is in trouble. Ecuadoreans are in serious trouble but to date, they have not been honest or responsible about their plight.

It also means that Ecuadoreans have nowhere to go. Ecuadoreans have enjoyed a more than 30% of its population mass exodus- a huge flight of human capitol-  one of the world's largest migrations. Ecuadoreans, unprepared for any regular employment and anticipating state hand outs- litter the world's highways and byways to no success. Ecuadoreans, because they are lazy and manipulative, are no longer welcome anywhere. The United States itself is not welcoming these whining and manipulative persons, also called job seekers, because they refuse to be prepared for anything because their schools and families instructed them that they need not be prepared to do anything except run away when the going gets tough. Ecuadoreans today do not even have the grace to tell the truth about why their nation is a disaster.  To be sure, Ecuadoreans think that running away from life's responsibilities is a good thing but we consider this a ruinous plan when families are broken up and futures uncertain because the statist-communist self enriching politburo called Correa's cabinet cares nothing at all for its citizen's well-being. Today Ecuadoreans say often that it is more rewarding to keep the family together inside a bubble of lies and manipulative living with no way out, like a windowless jail cell, than to actually reach out and act like prepared adults. All the better to manipulate they say. We say- grow up and get prepared. Apparently no one else in Ecuador cares about freedom's rewards either. This is morally reprehensible and exhibits a stunning dishonesty.

We are aware that the sole reason that no one wants you to know what is inside the Correa constitution is that the motto “ignorance is bliss." Ignorance brings many things and none of them any good. In fact, the USA is being asked by Ecuadoreans to lie a lot about Ecuador to pretend that Ecuador deserves an ATPDEA extension when the Correa constitution of 9-28-08 voting slate reveals that there is no way that the USA could legitimately gift another ATPDEA extension with that constitution passing. In other words, a vote for Correa's constitution is a vote to end trade with the outside world, no matter what lies- and there are millions being spent right now to lie to the USA and the people of Ecuador- by Correa and his team about this so called constitution which breaks all bonds of trade, comity, diplomacy and decency. Correa's constitution is a lie within a lie.

Ecuadorenvivo.com today covers Cesar Montufar telling us that the entire Correa constitution is a disaster...a lie. One can only ask Cesar just exactly where in his recent paid Ford foundation "Report" on Ecuador for the Inter American dialogue this correct analysis lay? Mostly his work for Michael Shifter and US AID is to hide Correa's criminality and pretend that all is wonderfully happy in Ecuador. Perhaps Cesar will issue a correction to his DIALOGUE puff pieces. Cesar Montufar had an obligation, as do any who comment on that constitution, to distribute the actual language therein. To fail to do so is to fail to act responsibly under any contract. In fact, it is time to snatch the facts from the jaws of liars.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis