November 20, 2008   Writing in HUMAN EVENTS, an author recently stated, "Crony capitalism is when government controls significant parts of the economy. Under this kind of bureaucratic micromanagement, politicians -- not the free market -- call the shots. And that means that the decisions that control the economy are of necessity political decisions, not economic ones. Crony capitalism is bad for government. Economic power in the hands of politicians breeds corruption.

Crony capitalism is bad for democracy. Individuals and businesses outside favored industries have an unequal voice in self-government.

Crony capitalism is bad for business. Politicians wedded to the status quo stifle growth and innovation." Sound familiar? This is Ecuador under Correa: manipulative, dishonest and chock full of crony capitalists who are ruining a once vibrant nation.
 
Why then do Ecuadoreans and Venezuelans actually want this built- in machine for statist fraud and failed state status? Why self defeat? Why keep on, like the Energizer Bunny, continuously and with vapid hyperactivity, maneuver to manipulate all of life at all costs even when it is obvious that deceit gets no one anywhere? Instead of crying and whining dishonestly that one and all are so frightened, scared and fearful of the communist juggernaut called their  government, why not be morally clear, functionally honest and calmly lead one's honor back in to a front row seat? Why indeed. The answer is that Ecuadoreans are taught from birth to be lazy and to blame all others while never performing credibly themselves. This has got to stop.
 
We strongly recommend again: hie thee to a psychiatrist and cease this infernal Ecuadorean addiction to manipulative living. Or- you can check in to one or Uribe's centers for retraining souls how to re enter a productive life. Every single Ecuadorean alive today really needs these retraining camps for the entire morass has lost its way and actually wants to tell you that Manipulating All of Life is Fabulous when of course they look like irresponsible fools at best and criminally addicted at worst.

As Walter Williams wrote here:  "We Have Become A Nation Of Thieves...Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism... socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man. Helping one's fellow man in need, by reaching into one's own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another's pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation. Some people might contend that we are a democracy where the majority agrees to the forcible use of one person for the good of another. But does a majority consensus confer morality to an act that would otherwise be deemed immoral? I don't believe any moral case can be made for the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another." And writing about the USA, the author continues, "The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.' Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail."
 
More tragic yet is the stubborn addiction by all Ecuadoreans that each can abandon any human decency and pretend that the all powerful state will take care of everything, freeing one and all from functional charity while cynically debasing any with true decency- laughing at any who are honest and not joining the flood of Ecuadoreans running to go shopping, eat a lot or make the most cravenly dishonest deals with Correa's cartel. Indeed, all across Ecuador today no one seriously assists the down trodden and one and all make a mockery of those who do. This is morally repugnant and has gotten Ecuador in to its current status: a nation of moral cowards and thieves.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Report by discredited Correa ghost writers, supposedly on Ecuadorean debt. Correa calls this "horrifying." In this we agree but not for the reasons Correa holds. We say this is horrifying because there is not one iota of credibility or honesty in this ginned up, unsourced REPORT which is essentially gossip/fraud making justification for more crime. Ecuadoreans consider this a clever tactic to lie while justifying fraud. We do not.
 
BLOOMBERGS today writes, "Ecuador's Audit Commission Finds `Illegality' in Debt: Ecuador's debt audit commission said it uncovered `illegality and illegitimacy' in the country's foreign obligations, findings that may give President Rafael Correa the legal basis he's sought to halt bond payments. The commission, in a final report posted on its Web site, said the government's global bonds due in 2012 and 2030 `show serious signs of illegality,' such as a lack of government authorization for their issuance. Correa withheld a $30 million interest payment that came due Nov. 15 on the 2012 bonds, saying he'd use a month long grace period to analyze the commission's final report and determine whether to honor the debt. The commission, which is scheduled to present the report to Correa later today, made no recommendations on actions for the government to take. The growth in Ecuador's debt over the past three decades `occurred for the benefit of the financial sector and transnational companies and clearly went against the interests of the country,' the commission says in the 172-page report. The payment of the debt `hurt the fundamental rights of people and communities, deepening poverty and adding to migration.'... 'Ecuador's bonds plummeted last week after Correa moved closer to carrying out the first sovereign default in Latin America since 2001 by withholding the interest payment on the $510 million bond. The bond's price sank to as low as 14 cents on the dollar on Nov. 14, pushing yields over 100 percent, after trading at 42 cents two days earlier and 95 cents two months earlier. The bonds have rebounded this week to trade at 26 cents on the dollar, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Two of the government's three foreign bonds -- the notes due in 2012 and 2030 -- are restructured securities from the country's last default, which came in 1999. " 

Ecuador needs to do more than just put its fiscal integrity, religiosity and ethics under plastic wrap, seen here the very symbol of its core beliefs at San Francisco:                        

Una vista panorámica del santuario. Desde el 17 de octubre se retiró el piso. Allí se colocará madera colorada, traída desde San Lorenzo. El costo será de USD 200 000.   Foto:EL COMERCIO

More than ever, an independent forensic audit must on the table before one more penny is spent on Ecuador's lies. While Gallardo, reprinted as follows, attempts to lay it out, his voice must not be alone and indeed, a full faith forensic audit- not the standard ginned up, data free lies currently floated by Correa:
 
19/11/2008
Gallardo califica de mentiroso el informe de la Comisión que investiga deuda externa
Washington (CRE).-
El ex ministro de Economía, Jorge Gallardo, cuestionó el informe final de la Comisión para la Auditoría Integral del Crédito Público Ecuatoriano (CAIC), que investiga la deuda externa.
Gallardo, quien participó en el proceso de canje de la deuda, envió una carta a esta redacción en la expresa su posición frente al documento, que será presentado este jueves por el presidente de la República, Rafael Correa.
A continuación reproducimos el texto:
"Ayuda memoria
• COMISION: “La emisión de los Bonos se dieron sin respectivos informes. El Decreto 618 entró en vigencia luego de la firma de la oferta, la cual fue además suscrita por el Cónsul General del Ecuador en Nueva York.”
MENTIRA: De acuerdo al Artículo 130 de la LOAFYC para emitir papeles fiduciarios se requieren previo a la emisión del Decreto Ejecutivo de tres informes: Ministerio de Economía, Directorio del Banco Central y Procuraduría. El Ministerio emitió la resolución ST y CP-2000-47, el Banco Central dio a conocer su decisión mediante oficio DBCE-1409-P-123, y la Procuraduría emitió informe favorable que hizo conocer mediante oficio No 13619.
• COMISION: “El Decreto 618 entró en vigencia luego de la firma de la oferta, la cual fue además suscrita por el Cónsul General del Ecuador en Nueva York.”
MENTIRA E IGNORANCIA: El Decreto 618 debía estar vigente antes de la emisión de los nuevos Bonos Global. El Decreto fue publicado en el Registro Oficial el 22 de Agosto del 2000, y los Bonos fueron emitidos el 23 de agosto del 2000, para lo cual el Cónsul en Nueva York, por delegación del Ministro Yturralde, suscribió en esa fecha los contratos respectivos.
En segundo lugar, el 27 de julio del 2000, el gobierno hizo una OFERTA a los tenedores de bonos para canjear los Brady y Eurobonos por nuevos Bonos Global con descuento. Para que la oferta se materialice se tenían que cumplir dos requisitos: el primero que se acojan a la oferta por lo menos el 85% de los tenedores, y segundo que se levante la decisión de declaratoria de plazo vencido de los Bonos Brady con Descuento que fue declarada el 1 de octubre de 1999. Como las dos condiciones se cumplieron, la oferta se hizo efectiva el 23 de agosto del 2000 luego de la publicación del Decreto 618 en el Registro Oficial. Así, que es mentira afirmar que el Cónsul en Nueva York suscribió la oferta, que como su nombre lo indica era una oferta que los inversionistas debían aceptar o rechazar.
• COMISION: “Salomon Smith Barney y JPMorgan participaron en la negociación el 27 de julio sin autorización del Ecuador.
MENTIRA: SALOMON fue contratada el 11 de octubre de 1999, en el gobierno del doctor Mahuad, por el Ministro de Economía economista Alfredo Arízaga después de que Ecuador había caído en moratoria. Este contrato fue ampliado para incluir a JP Morgan y suscrito por delegación el 23 de agosto del 2000 por el Cónsul del Ecuador en Nueva York. Hasta esa fecha ni Salomon, ni JP Morgan habían recibido por parte del Ecuador un solo centavo por honorarios o por gastos, ya que así lo establecía el contrato suscrito por Arízaga.
• COMISION: “Los Bonos Brady y Eurobonos canjeados no estaban vencidos, es decir no eran exigibles”
MENTIRA: El 28 de Agosto de 1999 (gobierno de Mahuad) el Ecuador dejó de pagar los intereses de los Bonos Brady con Descuento (Discount) entrando en moratoria. El 1 de Octubre de 1999 los inversionistas declararon de plazo vencido estos bonos que sumaban US $1,435 millones. Es decir, Ecuador debía pagar al contado, es decir a la vista, esa cantidad. Los intereses de los demás bonos Brady y Eurobonos no fueron pagados a su vencimiento cayendo en mora.
Si una persona hace un préstamo a 10 años plazo a un banco y después de 4 años, por ejemplo, no paga los intereses al vencimiento, el banco puede demandar a esa persona a que pague la totalidad del crédito al no haber honrado el contrato de préstamo. Según la novedosa teoría de los comisionados, el banco no podría exigir el pago del préstamo ya que no se habían cumplido los 10 años de vigencia del crédito a pesar de que el cliente se encontraba en mora. IGNORANCIA O MALA FE
• COMISION: “La Comisión cuestiona que el prepago (la negrita es mía) de dichos bonos se haya efectuado bajo la figura de canje pese a que la deuda estaba garantizada por colaterales. El análisis se refiere a los Bonos Par y Descuento que fueron reemplazados por tres tipos de bonos.” (fueron dos tipos de bonos 2012 y 2030, los 2015 fueron emitidos en el 2005 en el gobierno de Palacio)
MENTIRA E IGNORANCIA: Los Brady Par y Descuento tenía dos tipos de garantías. La una que garantizaba el capital al vencimiento, y la otra el pago de los intereses semestrales. La garantía del capital estaba constituida por bonos cupón cero del Tesoro americano, que se compran con descuento y al vencimiento se pagan a la par y formaban parte del diseño financiero del bono y por lo tanto eran de propiedad de los inversionistas. Los Bonos Par y Descuento emitidos en 1995 vencían en 30 años, es decir en el 2025. En el año 2000 que se realizó el canje, se habían acumulado rendimientos por cinco años, equivalentes a US $ 724 millones que fueron entregados a los inversionistas como parte de pago. Tan es verdad que dichos bonos eran de propiedad de los inversionistas, que el monto de ellos no estaba registrado como parte de la Reserva Monetaria. En cambio, el colateral de intereses sí era de propiedad del Estado ecuatoriano y por ello estaban registrados como parte de la Reserva Monetaria. ESTOS BONOS REPRESENTABAN EL 45% DEL TOTAL QUE SE REESTRUCTURO EN EL 2000.
•COMISION: “Las garantías colaterales de esos papeles por US $724 millones fueron utilizadas para fines “indebidos”, luego de ser depositados en una cuenta en Salomon Smith Barney, operación que no fue contabilizada ni por el Ministerio de Economía, ni por el Banco Central del Ecuador.”
MENTIRA: En la página 35 del Resumen Ejecutivo de fecha septiembre del 2008 elaborado por la Comisión se dice: “De hecho, cuando se realizó el canje de Brady por Global las garantías colaterales fueron rescatadas y un monto equivalente US $ 723.945.364,80 ingresó a la cuenta No 18 051375 a cargo del Banco Central del Ecuador en Salomon Smith Barney en el exterior.” (las negritas son mías, excepto las de Salomon que constan en el documento) En qué quedamos. Si el Banco Central tenía una cuenta en SSB donde se depositaron los fondos de los colaterales, es obvio que en sus registros contables debe constar el movimiento de esa cuenta que es citada por la propia Comisión. El Ministerio de Economía actúa financieramente a través del Banco Central que es el Agente Financiero del Estado ecuatoriano y por lo cual no tiene cuentas en el exterior.
DOS PERLAS DE LAS MUCHAS
1. COMISION: “Efectuar un pedido de opinión consultiva a la Corte de Justicia de la Haya sobre el alza unilateral de las tasas de interés en 1979”.
IGNORANCIA: En el año 1979 la economía norteamericana registraba una inflación de dos dígitos que debía ser controlada. La Reserva Federal, que es el Banco Central de los EE UU, elevó las tasas de interés para contener la inflación. Medida de política monetaria independiente y soberana que no admite autorización ni siquiera del Presidente de los EE UU. Como los contratos de deuda estaban contratados a tasas flotantes, inmediatamente las tasas de interés se elevaron como consecuencia de la política seguida por la Reserva Federal.
2. COMISION: “Financieramente, el canje de los Bonos Brady a Global contiene varios aspectos de ilegalidad y representó un serio perjuicio y daño económico y moral al Ecuador.”
MENTIRA: El valor nominal de los Bonos Brady y Eurobonos, más los intereses vencidos debido a la moratoria ascendían a la cantidad de US $6,946 millones. A este monto hay que restar los US $145 millones que se utilizaron del Presupuesto del Estado, para financiar parte de la operación. El saldo se lo canceló con el colateral de capital de propiedad de los inversionistas, y se emitieron un total de US $1,250 millones en 2012 y US $2,700 millones en 2030. Sobraron US $124.6 millones de bonos Global por que no se acogieron al canje el 100% de los tenedores de bonos. Esta operación llevó a una reducción de la deuda en un 40% y se evitó pagar los vencimientos de los Eurobonos en el 2002 y 2004 que ascendían a la cantidad de US $500 millones, y US $191 millones de Bonos Brady que vencían en el 2004. Estos últimos bonos fueron reprogramados con descuento a 12 y 30 años plazo. Hay que ser mentiroso o ignorante para mantener que el país se perjudicó con la reestructuración de la deuda de agosto del 2000.
Finalmente, se dice que por no haber recomprado el Ecuador la deuda que estaba a 29 centavos de dólar en promedio se perjudicó al país. Los comisionados omiten deliberadamente que los Bonos Brady con Descuento por US $1434 millones estaban declarados de plazo vencido desde el 1 de octubre de 1999, por lo cual el Ecuador, además de los intereses vencidos, tenía que pagar esa cantidad de contado. Por eso en la Oferta de Canje se puso como condición, para cerrar la operación, que los inversionistas levantaran la decisión de haber declarado de plazo vencido esos bonos. En segundo lugar, la Comisión en una de sus partes menciona este hecho, pero no lo hace extensivo a las conclusiones, en el sentido de que el Ecuador no podía recomprar su deuda por que se encontraba en moratoria.
Ahora bien, el saldo de los Bonos Global emitidos para el canje, ascienden a esta fecha a la cantidad de US $3210 millones, ya que los bonos Global 2015 por US $650 millones fueron emitidos en la época de Palacio en diciembre del 2005. Hoy, 19 de Noviembre del 2008, el valor de mercado de los bonos 2012 y 2030 asciende a US $900 millones. Es decir, que el Ecuador podría entrar al mercado a recomprar sus bonos y ahorrase la cantidad de US $ 2310 millones. Pero la politiquería se impone a la racionalidad."
Jorge Gallardo Zavala
Washington DC
 
Meanwhile, the AP on 11-19-08 writes, "QUITO, Ecuador: Ecuador's flirtation with a $10.3 billion foreign debt default may force bondholders into restructuring, potentially saving the government billions of dollars at a time when access to capital is increasingly tight. Ecuador is going to `present a credible threat of default and force bondholders to renegotiate the terms of existing debts, winning savings and considerable benefits for the state,' Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst at the Eurasia Group in New York, said Wednesday. `Bondholders are desperate for cash and ready to accept a significant reduction in nominal terms' to salvage their investments, he said...Viteri acknowledged that traditional credit flows may disappear if Ecuador does default, but said the country could turn to OPEC or even its own banking system to raise capital instead. Ecuador rejoined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2007 and will take advantage of that membership, Viteri said without giving details. Local banks meanwhile have $4 billion in assets, and the government could in theory require them to use that cash to buy its bonds. The government seems to think it will access other sources of financing, but in a default situation, it's not that easy to negotiate,' said Lisa Schineller, director of sovereign debt ratings at Standard and Poor's, which downgraded Ecuador's debt three notches to CCC- last week. Correa has suggested that previous governments mishandled debt negotiations for personal financial gain, and ordered an audit of the country's debt contracts in July 2007. Investigators have since found evidence of abuses and irregularities tied to almost all Ecuadorean bonds, audit chair Hugo Arias said this week, justifying his committee's default recommendation."
 
To be sure, this article exposes several fault lines in the on going fairy tale that all is wonderful in Ecuador. First, the EURASIA Group, currently a US AID preferred favorite for political advantage because they are puppets of the pathetic Soros mandate imbuing the Barack Hussein Obama administration already and stupidly not once barred by the Bush-Rice team in Washington for malfeasance, is not right about Ecuador again, as in all previous comments. We say the EURASIA Group, following its sister group the International Crisis Group- also a Soros group comarried bigamously with US AID and other so called NGOs, is not right nor should they get one more penny from the US taxpayers because this Soros group lives inside a conflict of interest. Besides supporting the full faith and warranty across the Andes to protect and defend the FARC, as notable in Plan Ecuador and Correa's new so called constitution, the EURASIA Group is funded by a massive arbitrage speculator Soros and co funded by the USA. Their complicity in heightening derivatives bets is criminal at best.

Moreover, it is false to claim that Ecuadorean bond holders are rushing to the exit door. That of course would be the Chavez cartel which concurrently holds Ecuadorean debt and, following the road map of all good insider traders, moves derivatives swaps up and down for self enrichment based on Rafael Correa's every coordinated movement. This is not financial literacy. This is not a credible analysis of Ecuador by the Eurasia Group nor is one thing about this Chavez-Correa bond market racket legitimate. But Ecuadoreans simply care nothing that the world is laughing at them for their laziness and aberrant lack of morals. Maybe they will not be laughing much longer.

Ecuador's pathetic polytheistic end run to remove the higher values of Western Civilization, replacing them with a replica of the failed European godless society, currently being over taken by serious enemies of Christianity from Iran, is outed once again here:
 
The Weekly Standard
Why We Call Them Human Rights
Ecuador just gave every virus, bacterium, insect, tree & weed constitutional rights.
by Wesley J. Smith
11/24/2008, Volume 014, Issue 10

Rights, properly understood, are moral entitlements embodied in law to protect all people. They are not earned: Rights come as part of the package of being a member of the human race. This principle was most eloquently enunciated in the Declaration of Independence's assertion that we are all created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This doctrine of human exceptionalism has been under assault in recent decades from many quarters. For example, many bioethicists assert that being human alone does not convey moral value, rather an individual must exhibit "relevant" cognitive capacities to claim the rights to life and bodily integrity. Animal rights ideology similarly denies the intrinsic value of being human, claiming that we and animals are moral equals based on our common capacity to feel pain, a concept known as "painience."
These radical agendas have now been overtaken by an extreme environmentalism that seeks to--and this is not a parody--grant equal rights to nature. Yes, nature; literally and explicitly. "Nature rights" have just been embodied as the highest law of the land in Ecuador's newly ratified constitution pushed by the country's hard-leftist president, Rafael Correa, an acolyte of Hugo Chávez.
The new Ecuadorian constitution reads:

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.

What does this co-equal legal status between humans and nature mean? Article 1 states:

Nature or Pachamama [the Goddess Earth], 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.

This goes way beyond establishing strict environmental protections as a human duty. It is a self-demotion of humankind to merely one among the billions of life forms on earth--no more worthy of protection than any other aspect of the natural world.

Viruses are part of nature. So, too, are bacteria, insects, trees, weeds, and snails. These and the rest of Ecuador's flora and fauna all now have the constitutional and legally enforceable right to exist, persist, and regenerate their vital cycles.

The potential harm to human welfare seems virtually unlimited. Take, for example, a farmer who wishes to drain a swamp to create more tillable land to better support his family. Now, the swamp has equal rights with the farmer, as do the mosquitoes, snakes, pond scum, rats, spiders, trees, and fish that reside therein.

And since draining the swamp would unquestionably destroy "nature" and prevent it from "existing" and "persisting," one can conceive of the farmer--or miners, loggers, fishermen, and other users and developers of natural resources--being not only prevented from earning his livelihood, but perhaps even charged with oppressing nature.

The inspiration for Ecuador's granting of rights to nature was an American extremist environmental group called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which presses to "change the status of ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities." The constitution, moreover, explicitly empowers organizations like CELDF to enforce nature's fundamental rights. Article 1 states:

Every person, people, community, or nationality, will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public bodies [i.e., courts, governmental agencies, etc.].

If the Ecuadorian government fails to protect the rights of the swamp (or the trees, the animals on the mineable mountain, the schools of fish, etc.), any radical environmental organization can descend on Ecuador and sue to thwart the desires of the farmer and prevent him from deciding what to do with his own land. The mind simply boggles.

The mainstream media have made no attempt to sound the alarm about the dangers of this agenda. A New York Times environmental blogger was bemused by the Ecuadorian constitution, and an editorial in the Los Angeles Times found Ecuador's proposal to make nature the moral equal of people "intriguing."

And it is not just in Ecuador that the international left has demonstrated its determination to devalue humankind in law and ethics. Just this year:

*The Socialists and Greens in Spain are on the verge of granting the rights to life, liberty, and freedom from torture to great apes and devolve humans into a "community of equals" with chimpanzees and gorillas.

*The European Court of Human Rights recently accepted a case out of Austria that appeals a ruling that refused to declare chimpanzees legal persons.

*Switzerland has constitutionally established the intrinsic dignity of individual plants, based on the many similarities they share with us at the molecular and cellular levels.

Some might say that Ecuador is a small country not worth much concern. But the concept of nature possessing rights seems to be spreading. The CELDF--which was only founded in 1995--brags that it is fielding calls from South Africa, Italy, Australia, and Nepal, that last of which is crafting its own leftist constitution.

Others might say that worrying about nature's rights should take a back seat to less abstract concerns such as the financial crisis and the war on terror. But consider this: The central importance of human life is the fundamental insight undergirding Western civilization. This tenet is now under energetic, and increasingly successful, attack. If such antihumanism prevails, we won't have to worry about nature having rights, but about human beings losing them.

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture.

Tragically, Ecuadoreans worship also the bizarre specter of CHE! seen here blessing the communist Chinese money in Havana:                     

Chinese President Hu Jintao
By AP | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:30 PM PT

 

Chinese President Hu Jintao, second from right, and Chinese officials attend a ceremony at the Jose Marti monument in Havana on Tuesday, hours before Hu was to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro as part of his multistop tour of the U.S. and Latin America. China and Cuba are agreeing to multiple deals on trade and loans as China bids to strengthen its links with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Ecuador has joined the Cuban band of CHE! deifying idiots. Worse, Correa's so called constitution makes a mockery of the very principle called "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" which this constitution mandates as coming directly from the state and not from God. This new so called constitution makes the honest in to a lie and the lie in to its own self procreated truism in an endlessly self manipulating game of deceit. How can anyone trust Rafael Correa after all this time?

Following the manipulative dictates of every living Ecuadorean mother, Correa has finally succeeded at Making the Best the Enemy of the Good.
 
This is also called state-inflicted evil for this narco-nation of thieves.
 
-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis