September 22, 2008   Rafael Correa in his so called constitution, which is really a communist manifesto for cartels, insists that the long dark night of neo liberalism will end in Ecuador in 9-28-08. This preamble to Correa's flawed and adolescent thinking is of course a bald lie- Ecuador never had nor held anything remotely resembling functional rule of law or integrity since at least 1999 when George Soros's own paid advisor Jeffrey Sachs- at the pushing of Clinton's own Peter Romero, took the helm of Ecuadorean finances and the banks were shuttered.

Nothing has been done to rebuild any integrity since that time and matters have slipped over the edge as one after the next of reformers and truth tellers were literally thrown out of Ecuador or watched their assets seized or experienced bodily injury and worse in Ecuador's rush to communize its lands and install itself as a narco state, which Jose Miguel Insulza of the OAS seriously thinks is a good idea. So too does the vast chattering liars from the George Soros-US AID work forces currently on their last week to support this horrifying constitution in the run up to the vote on Sunday. Rafael Correa is himself in thrall with the Soros team of socialists, notably in his life's work, his PhD thesis and his preference for all matters communist, as seen in his so called constitution. You can still vote NO on Sunday and stop this madness.

Bloomberg news states today: " The worst may be over for commodities after the steepest rout since at least 1956 drove out speculators and the U.S. government unveiled a plan to end the worst credit-market seizure since the Great Depression...The decline was `all about this crazy money flow that gripped all the financial markets,' said William O'Neill..." Like the John F. Kennedy assassination theory of a murderous "magic bullet," we question the theory of "crazy money." Money, like commodities speculation, is not crazy and bullets are never magical- but dishonesty and greed do extract horrifying end runs on stability while movements to manipulate markets dishonestly remain what they are: extortion rackets by criminal cartels.
 
As with the source of nation-ending leadership in the Andes, we suggest that while it is helpful to know the root causes of these calamities, as is currently seen in the U.S. speculative industries, it is far more important to know that the speculators already know what the causes were and gamed the system/ginned up the facts and made a run where laws are weak and oversight is non existent. In dark places, crime and speculation against the common good flourishes. Ecuador and Venezuela are dark places as is Russia and Iran.
 
Venezuelans are so terrifyingly corrupt that they are paid to tell the globe that the "suitcase scandal" trial in Miami is nothing and is meaningless. And here too in the MIAMI HERALD is Chavez telling us that law and order is meaningless also: " 'The matter of the suitcase -- that's not an issue for us,' Chávez told foreign correspondents in Caracas last Tuesday. He said the case was devised by the Bush administration to smear his `revolution.'

There has been no serious investigation in Venezuela of the origin and destination of the $800,000, and it took a year for prosecutors there to even issue an arrest warrant for Antonini." No serious consideration of the facts swirling around that the entire Hugo Chavez regime is utterly dishonest and debauched? Of course not- their leaders are all on the take both at home and abroad, currently spewing silly factoids that just because less than a dozen Chavez cartel leaders can be exposed and criticized [or jailed]  globally, the entire criminal narcostate building empire of Hugo Chavez- Evo Morales and Rafael Correa must be left alone- HANDS OFF! We disagree.

The Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. this week notes, `As Venezuelan economist and Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím wrote in late 2007, Venezuela under Chávez `has become a major hub for international crime syndicates. What attracts them is not the local market; what they really love are the excellent conditions Venezuela offers to anyone in charge of managing a global criminal network.' According to Naím, `A senior Dutch police officer told me that he and his European colleagues are spending more time in Caracas than in Bogotá, Colombia, and that the heads of many of the major criminal cartels now operate with impunity, and effectiveness, from Venezuela.' Earlier this month, a Colombian drug kingpin named Edgar Vallejo Guarín was arrested in Madrid.

As Reuters reported, "Spanish police found Vallejo Guarín had used Venezuelan documentation to obtain residency in Spain under the assumed name of Jairo Gómez" (emphasis added). Chávez is not representative of the broader Latin American left, and he is less powerful than he appears. Nevertheless, his regime has become a menace to democracy and stability throughout the region. Writing in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda argues that certain regional powers, such as Mexico and Colombia, have been reluctant to stand up to Chávez because they `are terrified of being left hanging by Washington.' “This is a sloppy, left-leaning silly analysis, such as we have come to expect from Moises Naim who owes his current career to George Soros and his leftist FOREIGN AFFAIRS magazine. And as a good Venezuelan in standing, Naim always tries to find the excuse- any excuse- for the failures of himself and his fellow countrymen. Naim's tainted /bought and sold words are never worth repeating but we just did.

As for the Hudson piece- we hope one day that they wake up and start reporting the facts better. Venezuela has been a criminal cartel government for almost a decade now and is kept in power not because Chavez runs the courts, the police-military, all schools and health care- for he does- but he is kept in power to serve his real bosses- the cartels which have criminally corrupted almost every facet of the Andes now, including Ecuador and Bolivia. All humans have the tools they need to reject/say NO! to corrupt cartels. Just do it and stop listening to your wives and mothers who push you to do the deal/take their money and hide. You know better. The Hudson, instead of soothing us all that Chavez is less popular than ever, needs to focus on the facts that criminal mafias are very hard to remove, especially when the entire landscape is in bed with the cartels. Chavez may be unpopular but his denizens and the entire Latin continent is lining up to do deals with his cartel, which is now called UNASUR.

Following God-only-knows-whose advice, Chavez and Correa speculate along with currency speculators, currently betting against the U.S. dollar and bulking up the Euro and Canadian dollar. Chavez stated yesterday that Venezuela's money is hidden- hidden well from any prying eyes. Or what did Norm Bailey and Jaime Darenblum call it recently-? no need to look at Venezuela's financial house....just hit a few random problems and leave the rest alone because, they explain, crime always helps the poor in the Andes. Crime never helps the poor anywhere- nor does communism. And if you seriously believe that all this hiding of criminal assets by governments to avoid scrutiny is a good idea and yields honest, transparent budgets of the people to serve the people, you are delusional for it does not.

Rafael Correa has repeatedly pledged allegiance to Fidel Castro's Cuba, swooning and crooning his veneration for this corrupt, failed island gulag. Pathetically the Ecuadorean failed state of failures to themselves, also called Ecuadoreans, thinks that Cuba's form of fake government is great because it is replicated in their "new democracy constitution" which is not new and is not constitutional. But Ecuadoreans, who love Castro's communism so much, have yet to donate one penny to Cuba which was hit very hard by Hurricane Ike, blowing over their crumbling infrastructure like toys. But Ecuadoreans care nothing for anyone or anything but themselves and charity is not a family value at all in Ecuador these days. Cuba has refused $10 million in charity from the USA for hurricane relief because Cuba demands that it return to its position of borrowing from the world and never paying back. Cuba's communism, like all communist states, never pays anyone back on debt and always lies and deceives. This is called Cuban business practices. The USA insists that Cuba pay in advance to prevent their business as usual plan. In other words, why would the USA sell items when they are never paid? Why would the USA subsidize give aways to Cuba when Cuba is a failed state, chock full of terror against its own and the world? But Correa adores Cuba's dictatorship- he tells us this a lot- and has yet to aid and abet anything but himself.

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The Wall Street Journal
THE AMERICAS
SEPTEMBER 22, 2008
Castro Looks for a U.S. Lifeline
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike inflicted misery on millions of Cubans. But when the Castro dictatorship looks at the devastation, it sees opportunity.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over as head of state in February, for years have been calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which they say is starving Cuba. But Cuba can already buy from U.S. producers all the food and medicine it can pay cash for. What the totalitarian tag-team really wants is an end to the ban on private-sector credit to the Cuban government.

Their demand has gone nowhere in Washington, both because of moral objections to doing business with tyrants, and because the Castro brothers are world-class deadbeats. They have defaulted on billions of dollars in debt to the rest of the world, and want credit from the "empire" (i.e., the U.S.) only because their options for borrowing elsewhere have narrowed significantly.

Now they are using the latest Cuban tragedy to ratchet up the pressure on Washington through the international press. Rather than accept an offer of $5 million in humanitarian assistance from the U.S., the regime is demanding that the credit ban be lifted.

Fidel writes in the state-owned newspaper Granma that Cuban dignity is at stake if the aid is accepted while the credit ban is still in place. Meanwhile, reports suggest that the regime is totally overwhelmed by the disaster. Raúl was not seen in the first week after Ike and only emerged a few days ago to tell Cubans they should be optimistic.

Given the poststorm conditions of transportation and communication infrastructure, it is hard to get an accurate assessment of the damage. But as near as outsiders can tell, the magnitude of the destruction is unmatched in Cuban history.

Here is some of what has been reported: On the Isle of Youth (population 86,000), 90% of the homes have been annihilated. On the northeastern end of Cuba, the province of Holguin also took a beating, and there are reports in the Spanish press that 50% of housing there is damaged beyond repair. The western province of Pinar del Rio suffered enormous losses too. Granma reported that almost 26,000 metric tons of crops were wiped out. According to the Miami Herald, "More than 3,000 tobacco leaf drying sheds and 8,600 homes for tobacco workers in the region also were destroyed."

On Tuesday, Granma said that 444,000 homes across Cuba had been damaged and more than 63,000 destroyed. Fidel, in a weekly column in Granma that he supposedly writes, said the storm was the equivalent of a nuclear blast with a cost of $5 billion.

Cuba was already facing food shortages before the storms. Last month Alfredo Jam, an analyst at the economy ministry, told the Financial Times that the system, which "overprotect[s]" Cubans with subsidized food while limiting earnings, was causing labor shortages in some sectors of the economy. Last week, the regime said it would accelerate one of its so-called reforms, allowing peasants to farm government-owned land and earn a profit. Collectivism may remain the official doctrine of the regime, but Ike delivered a reality check.

In the meantime, the effects of the hurricanes require immediate action, and Cuba is powerless to get back on its feet without outside help. Jorge Sanguinetty, president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, told the Miami Herald last week that "the immediate danger is spots of famine and epidemiological emergencies." These risks, together with the potential for another mass Cuban exodus, present imminent threats. "If I were Raúl, I would accept assistance from abroad," Mr. Sanguinetty said.

Aid has already arrived from allies like Russia and Spain, but none has the vast relief resources the nearby U.S. can muster. However, Fidel wants lines of credit from the U.S. that will help him hold onto power, and without that he says, Yankees go home.

This is largely bravado posturing for Cubans. The U.S. government is giving $1.65 million to nongovernmental organizations working in the disaster areas, and has authorized more than $5 million in private NGO donations; that total could go to $10 million. None of this is out of the ordinary. Americans are the single largest humanitarian providers to Cuba; in 2007, private donations totaled $240 million.

Fidel doesn't want the U.S. getting credit for stepping up to help. But that's not his only problem with the status quo. More urgent for him is that relief efforts come from the regime, which, when not engaged in such kind-hearted work, is busy torturing political prisoners. To wield that kind of power he needs to borrow money, which he is not likely to pay back. Americans have shown that they are ready to help hurricane victims, but loans that will prolong the power of a despotic and incompetent regime is no way to relieve Cuban misery.

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The JOURNAL is completely correct: the Castros are world class deadbeats: they lie a lot and take and take and take while its own citizens suffer mightily. Ecuador is about to vote itself in to a worse situation than Cuba. While approving the so called Cuban provincial control plan, Ecuadoreans will also hand total powers to Rafael Correa and craft a narcostate of the FARC and for the FARC with PetroBras and PdVSA the leading known investors, next to Iran. All else are being seized up and slated for "redistribution" to pay for all that Correa wants- sex changes, abortions on demand, safe havens for the FARC and command and control of all transportation in a place where no sane businessman will operate. No one- no one at all- will come to the aid of Ecuador under the Correa-Chavez plan because they are too busy playing the field with their Russo- Iranian cartels. And if you actually believe that with Chavez you get everything and without him you get nothing, you look about as vibrant as this paid crowd which hastily assembled to proclaim the expulsion of HRW as saintly:

Again- read that constitution today and decide for yourself if you want eternal communism or freedom. No future redress or amendments are physically possible because Correa's language forbids just about any redress so think twice. Forget the lazy and dishonest excuse that it can be amended. Like Chavez's mandate of one, there is no dealing with these dictators under this new constitution. Do not listen to liars who tell you that you can magically fix what Correa has offered up- you cannot. And before you vote in and approve what is essentially a replica of Chavez's "Tascon Lists"- who you are, how you work and how you vote, know this: if you vote NO on Sunday you are doing the right thing. Under that new constitution, just about anything can vote for Correa- dead people, dogs, cats, Cubans, the FARC after a short hiatus. If you like being a serf in lock down with no way out, you will love Correa's constitution.

But you had better keep a paper ballot to prove the NO votes which of course will not be counted correctly. Demand your rights now. And vote no.

Take a chance- stand up for something for once. The good you do on Sunday will come back for you: vote no. Do something good.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis