September 13, 2008    It is our understanding that Colombia's Alvaro Uribe will be feted next week with a White House dinner in Washington, D.C. Most assert that Uribe will not run again for the presidency of Colombia. He is the last remaining friend/ally of the USA in Latin America and is squarely against expanding narcostates in the Andes even as his neighboring nations eschew the legitimization of all that should not be legitimized. Even El Salvador seems confused these days.
 
Many also assert that Colombia warrants action on the US-FTA. ECrisis asserts that free trade/USA subsidies of a sort- with Bolivia, Ecuador and partial FT for Venezuela....and now US diplomatic relations with Honduras and Nicaragua [somewhat]  must be stopped immediately because each are state sponsors of terror whether we want to believe this or not. We note this for no political reason whatsoever, knowing well that today politically, the "elected" majority in the Andes and the USA, also called US Democrats, believe that free trade should be conferred/retained/extended  to these state sponsor of terror nations even though they are state sponsors of narcoterrorism- while denying free trade to a known friend -Colombia- which is against narcoterror, telling us again that "the poor people must not be penalized and telling us that their remittances are invaluable." Why do the US taxpayers need to prop up drug running governments while causing harm to cleaner nations? We contend that the "poor" are not furthered living under de facto narco-regimes and as long as Band Aids are offered, dishonesty, also called appeasement, prolongs....narcoterrorism and its handmaidens. These are failing/failed nations which are "not well run"- that is- quality of life succumbs to corruption, etc.
 
We anticipate many news stories in the days ahead regarding the state sponsorship of the FARC and criminal cartels by Venezuela and Bolivia.

Note too that Lehman Brothers, currently backed by Soros funds in co ownership, warns that bond holders of Chavez's bonds- which Lehman hawked a lot over the last 4 years- are over reacting. Bloomberg's here notes, "Lehman strategist Gianfranco Bertozzi today said in a note to clients that bond investors are ``overreacting'' to Chavez's decision to expel the U.S. ambassador." This week end, the USG is deciding what to do about Lehman as it faces economic collapse of a sort. Will the USA taxpayers bail out a company "not well run"-  the Soros, Venezuelan bond boosting Lehmans also???
 
Here is the real story, "Five-year [Venezuelan] credit-default swaps based on the country's debt jumped 55 basis points to 7.13 percentage points, according to Bloomberg data. That means it costs $713,000 to protect $10 million of the country's debt from default. Credit-default swaps, contracts conceived to protect bondholders against default, pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent. Chavez's expulsion of the ambassador `doesn't help in the general environment, which is getting trickier,' said Silvia Marengo, who manages about $130 million of emerging-market bonds at Clariden Leu in London. `Venezuela is not a well-run country.' ''
 
The only real business, based on sheer volume and amount of paid propaganda/lobbying protections by and  with Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador etc these days are....credit default swaps, bonds, and London-Russian-Venezuelan off the books spot oil trading.  We hold no affection for extending open ended tax free benefits flow for such activities and as such have no problem with shutting down these so called banking efforts, no matter what persons such as those representing so called Venezuelan bankers lobby boldly before the US Congress to warn the USA that to hurt Chavez's standing hurts the bankers of Venezuela...and sometimes they tell us that this hurts the poor people of the region [ See Norman Bailey's testimony, summer 2008- US House, Western Hemisphere]. We are in no mood to pretend that the USA must defend the right for tax free, off the books/offshore derivatives swaps- also called Andean or Venezuelan bankers and spot oil traders- to exist just to defend narcoterrorists and criminal cartels...no matter what their paid lobbyists and paid infiltrators- sometimes called DISIP backed agents, incredulously tell us under sworn testimony, also called lying before the U.S. Congress- which apparently occurs a lot these days.
 
We at ECrisis have heard it all these last few days- the newly dusted off plans to support the designation of FARC zones again in Ecuador's northern zones, also called Plan Ecuador [co-written with Chavez and the FARC and supported by Chavez's agents plus Soros's anti Plan Colombia WOLA plus the OAS plus Karl Meacham of the US Senate Foreign Relations]- also called state sponsorship of the FARC and of course the promotion of breaking Bolivia in half to encourage its 2 exports: gas and narcotics while never cutting off free trade for Bolivia. These are tactics applied when law and order breaks down and the lawless seek advantage.
 
The WASHINGTON POST today reports, "The new move by the Bush administration signals a low point in relations between the administration and Chávez, who has used his nation's vast oil wealth to help political allies such as Cuba and, critics say, radical leftist groups across Latin America. The designation marks an escalation in the Bush administration's conflict with Chávez."  We have heard the tall tales also that the USA is playing into the new Venezuelan-Russian ploys and traps  by doing what it has just done and woe to the USA for rattling the Russo-Iranian axis which is in motion now in Cuba and Venezuela, also called the Andean block of communist cartel states. It is explained that this is not a Cuban issue and the USA must back off and never ever rattle Russo-Iranian allies called Rafael Correa, Chavez-Morales et al for in so doing, the USA sets off the new Cold War II.  We say this: the Russo-Iranian axis set off a new propaganda cold war and as such, that is where it starts and ends. When their only export is money laundering, drug running, weird bonds, spot/off the books/speculative oil trading and derivatives swaps as essential cause juste, we advise - end it and spring the trap. Enabling crime under false guises benefits no one. The USA’s John Walters has the right of it and deserves support.
 
It remains that Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras are not well run and concurrently are in bed with Iran and the FARC. Indeed they fail themselves. It is past time to stop propping up these derivatives and bond playing empires and return to normative state building which of course includes essential comity plus law and order.
 
And....to all our inquiries as to WHEN Ecuador would join Chavez, Honduras, probably Nicaragua and Morales in breaking diplomatic relations with the USA, we urge one and all finally to look at the facts. Rafael Correa has NO NEED to break relations with the USA because.....Correa has already broken relations with the USA tactically as he has refused to credential the US ambassador Hodges who remains in limbo/ essentially PNG with no portfolio - not acting in a timely fashion and as such, has broken relations anyway while he lies a lot that he loves the USA when....Correa respects nothing. The USA serves its own badly by refusing to state the facts about Rafael Correa and his ploys, which are legion. De facto Ecuador is in a break with the USA already while hiding behind the curtain of fake comity. This is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving when foolish diplomats lie a lot about how wonderful the Chavez-Correa-Morales axis remains. And still yet the U.S. Department of State is pouring millions of dollars in to propping up Rafael Correa's regime and his well known communist constitution plus drug zone designation region. Why are the US Democrats across that government and their State Department  defending narcozones and offshore derivatives swaps  traders, sometimes called Venezuelan bankers and also called illicit London-Russian spot oil traders? Do they really think that appeasement is helpful, as is notably the publicly stated policy for Ecuador? Throwing in the towel to lawlessness never helped anything. And leads to this:
               
Washington y Caracas tensan más su difícil relación
 
Publicado el 13/Septiembre/2008 | HOY

Los EEUU expulsaron también al embajador venezolano y sancionaron a dos funcionarios

 
US business interests lost billions and billions in the nation of Ecuador. There are no commercial interests between Ecuador and the USA of any consequence any more except...propagandists, PR companies, lobbyists, derivatives traders, money launderers, drug runners and of course....plaintiffs attorneys for specious lawsuits in this land where no rule of law exists and no one can possibly ever see justice because Rafael Correa controls all courts and there is no Congress, no justice, no light of day. But....the Carter Center runs a very expensive office in Quito to bless this mess and give false reports that Correa's democracy is fabulous.
 
The head counsel for Chevron Texaco sees Correa's corruption differently....and it is about time Chevron Texaco got around to defending itself, notably its own shareholders who have lost a lot of money because Chevron's Ecuadorean counsel are incompetent wallet padding buffoons who seriously contend, as do almost all Ecuadoreans, that they can jigger some semblance of justice from Correa which is impossibly never going to happen. But Chevron at last states some truths

 "Recent events in Ecuador leave no doubt that there is improper collaboration between the government and plaintiffs’ lawyers. The systematic denial of Chevron’s right to a fair trial is obvious, and it is clear that the proceeding has been thoroughly corrupted. By persecuting Chevron’s counsel and collaborating with the plaintiffs to undermine Chevron’s legal rights, Ecuador’s government has intervened in the legal proceeding. The Ecuadorian state continues to call into serious question the legitimacy of its judiciary and its commitment to the rule of law...Nonetheless, the government of Ecuador has forged an active partnership with plaintiffs’ attorneys to invalidate the agreements it has signed. ..Correa, stated in a nationwide radio broadcast that the signatories to the release agreement were traitors and demanded that the Prosecutor General seek criminal indictments against all involved. Subsequently the Prosecutor General’s office decided to reopen the investigation without offering any new facts or evidence...Meanwhile, it has become increasingly clear that the Ecuadorian state and advocates for the plaintiffs are working together.”
 
Corruption of and by the government, systematic denial of fair trials, state controls over every aspect of life, Ecuadorean state sponsorship of specious and fraudulent lawsuits in Ecuador, jiggered elections, plundered state assets and budgets, mismanagement of all statist monopolies, stunningly ineffective state services, complete national mergings with Venezuela and Iran,  full state control of media in all essential ways, state support for narcoterror, and refusal to act responsibly with international norms by Correa of Ecuador makes us wonder why the USA ever permitted its own ambassador in July 2008 to lie a lot about how wonderful Rafael Correa's total state corruption remains.
 
On the whole, the USA must conclude that its own dishonest employees have bamboozled one and all about the Andes which has led to the point where the rampant criminality of Correa's cartels must be cut off and shut down. ATPDEA benefits for Ecuador? We have heard it all and mostly the USA Soros democrats want you to know that this will hurt the "poor" who just want to make some money ....running drugs, contraband and while slavery. Follow the money trail, follow the paid propagandists- who say such things for influence and how much they are paid and with whom they have infiltrated.
 
Today Ecuador's credo is to make the best the enemy of the good. We vote NO! to this and urge you to do so also.
 
Today EL COMERCIO dishonestly and boldly headlines that the USA is in a diplomatic crisis with Hugo Chavez. There is no crisis. There is a lot of crime. We say that this is not a diplomatic crisis, unless of course one presumes that narco-backers are fabulous while hiding aberrantly behind the tissue thin protections of their diplomats, propagandists and lawyers- all bought and sold while their NGO actors craft false veneers of legitimacy. Trojan horses, also called liars from the NGO subset of human vermin, are clever for a while and are especially effective on lazy and broken nations as a tactic. And while Chavez blusters that Putin backs him- when Putin's Russia will never permit its national entity to be revealed for what it is, even by Chavez for its stubbornly corrupt, massive criminal cartel Russo national past times, Putin will of course back off/pull back to protect his own cartels, preferring to defend his own national criminality which he does not want exposed by his crime pushing pals Chavez-Correa and Iran.
 
Which of course explains exactly why there is real fear today in the eyes of Correa and Chavez.
 
- Pedro Camargo for ECrisis