December 12, 2008   Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa is a liar and a thief. He is also spending a lot of your money to tell you and anyone else stupid enough to listen that poor poor Ecuador is broke because everyone else made mistakes- but never Correa who has utterly destroyed Ecuador. This is a remarkable example of Ecuadorean passive- aggressive behavior: commit crimes and blame everyone else while spending millions in propaganda to pretend that Correa's own crimes do not matter while blaming everyone else. It is time to remove Rafael Correa: his behaviors are way over the top and way beyond rationalizing.
 
Ecuador is begging the U.S. Democrats to pretend that Ecuador's Debt Report is honest when it is not. Ecuador is blaming evil multilateral bankers for crimes that they did not commit. Ecuador wants the U.S. Democrats in the U.S. Congress to pretend that financial crimes committed by the Ecuadorean cabinet are to be blessed as long as Correa gifts the world with full support for Iran's merger with Ecuador and Ecuador's burgeoning narcoterror activities as dictated by a whole swath of US AID-George Soros actors in Quito legalizing drugs, abortions, transgender sex and euthanasia. It is time for Ecuadoreans to stand up and tell the truth.
 
Here is BLOOMBERGs news on the embarrassing Viteri lie-a lot tour across Washington, DC this week, politely encouraged, supported and arranged to help Ecuador secure support for its lies by the U.S. Department of Stat, also called the department of stat-ism to aid and abet criminal regimes such as Correa's:
 
           “Ecuador Still Undecided on Debt Default, Viteri Says
 -- Ecuador hasn’t decided whether to default on foreign debt as oil revenue plunges and doesn’t take the decision “lightly,” Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said.
President Rafael Correa will announce the decision when he is ready to do so, Viteri told reporters today in Washington. She’s scheduled to meet U.S. congressional staff during the trip as the government seeks to drum up support for its position that much of its foreign debt was contracted illegally.

“This should not affect other debt issuance in the future,” Viteri said.

Ecuador has threatened to default on $3.9 billion in bonds because it says a government-commissioned audit found evidence of criminal violations in connection with the issuance of the debt. The government skipped a $30.6 million bond payment on Nov. 15, invoking a 30-day grace period.

Ecuador’s 12 percent bond maturing in November 2012 was little changed from yesterday at 31 cents on the dollar, yielding 58.62 percent at 11:53 a.m. New York time, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The price has fallen from 42 cents on Nov. 12 before Ecuador skipped the payment.

Correa has said the Ecuador will only repudiate debt in a legal manner, even though a government audit commission has found evidence that the obligations in dispute are “illegal” and “illegitimate.”

Viteri said the government expects the price of local crude to average $40 a barrel next year, down from an earlier $85 estimate. Oil accounted for $3.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in government revenue through the end of August this year, according to the central bank.

“The first quarter would be the toughest,” Viteri added.

The government says it uses oil income to fund investments in roads and other infrastructure."

This is a living, breathing example of financial fraud. Correa's team, never honest, tells us all that they are not adults, they are not responsible, they cannot make up their minds and they are making lots of bond and derivatives market speculation monies while playing the USA for fools. Particularly stupid would be willing dupes such as Senators Dodd, Reid and Congressman Engle and Speaker  Nancy Pelosi's coterie of Soros do-drugs legislators who pretend that enhancing narcotics is more admirable that defending U.S. financial laws. It is time for the U.S. Congress to be cleaned up and every enabler of Correa-Russo-Iranian-Venezuelan financial crimes stand under the scrutiny of the U.S. FBI.

But Minister Viteri wants you to actually believe, as she does, that Ecuador can steal and rob from others but this must not affect their reputation not affect their capacity to steal some more. This is dishonest in the extreme. This is not unlike a failed nation where thousands are dying of cholera and other diseases which Marxism does not permit. That nation is Zimbabwe today whose own president Mugabe publicly announces to the world that there is no disease- no cholera- in Zimbabwe. Hundreds o f dead bodies line their streets - all dead from a disease their president says does not exist. Ecuador's dishonesty is on par with Mugabe's and is every bit as disgusting. This is not unlike a failed marriage where the husband and wife have nothing in common- no communication, no respect, no future but their name and children but continue to lie to their community that theirs is a fabulous marriage in name only when the dishonesty and decay is ever present. This is the Ecuadorean credo: lie a lot and lie some more to cover it up while manipulating every single thing you can. This enabling of more dishonesty has got to stop.

Here is Castro's own dazed and confused and dishonest media: 
Ecuador Seeks Int'l Support on Foreign Debt

Quito, Dec 9 (Prensa Latina) Representatives from the Ecuadorian government travel Tuesday to Argentina and Peru, to seek support to stop paying stages of the foreign debt, termed here as illegitimate and illegal.

Politics Minister Ricardo Patino stated Monday they will move to Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, to present his country's position as to the audit of the foreign debt and mechanisms to use in this process.

Patino pointed out that he will meet with finance minister of that nation and judicial general secretary of President Cristina Fernandez, who supported Ecuador's decision, after holding a phone talk with this nation's statesman Rafael Correa.

Another top leader of this country will travel today to Lima, main Peruvian city, where he will welcome by the finance minister and two commissions of that country's Congress.

"We are to present the debit's audit report, which reveals serious irregularities in renegotiations of commitments and demand support faced with a possible no payment of those obligations," Patino stated.

It is also expected that Ecuadorian Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri meets Wednesday in the United States with representatives of the Chamber, the Senate and the UN.

Ecuador seeks an opportunity to explain the situation of irregularities and violations registered in renegotiations of the foreign debit, and lamentably there are no sufficient channels so that other nations have information of the national position, Viteri said.

But as with all good passive aggressive Ecuadoreans who run and hide from telling the truth, as instructed to do in their work places, their communities and their homes, here is the real story early Friday from The FINANCIAL TIMES:

Ecuador maintains bond default threat
By Naomi Mapstone in Lima

Published: December 11 2008

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s combative leftwing president, is keeping financial markets guessing about whether he will make an interest payment due on Monday on an international bond issue his administration claims is illegitimate.

Regardless of whether Mr Correa makes the payment, many observers say the global financial crisis, a sharp fall in oil prices and remittances from abroad, together with a costly programme of social spending make the odds of Ecuador eventually defaulting greater by the day.

”We feel that the government has entered a slippery slope that will ultimately lead to default, as low oil prices take a toll on revenues and risks over Ecuador’s willingness to pay are compounded by liquidity shortfalls,” said Patrick Esteruelas, Latin America analyst for New York-based Eurasia Group.
Participants in the market for credit default swaps, which provide a form of insurance against non-payments of debt, consider a default highly likely: it costs £4.2m to insure £10m of Ecuador’s bonds against default over the next five years.

But bond prices jumped sharply yesterday after a Quito newspaper reported that the government appeared to have quietly bought back bonds with a face value of $680m in recent months.

A 30-day grace period to pay $30.6m in interest on the 2012 bond issue runs out on Monday, when another $30.9m interest payment falls due on a 2015 bond.

While Ecuador has the funds to make the payments, Mr Correa has denounced these issues and another maturing in 2030 – $3.8bn in total – as "illegitimate”. Mr Correa claims they were improperly authorised by previous administrations and involved onerous interest rates, commissions and pre-payments.

Mr Correa has engaged US law firm Foley & Hoag to sue bondholders to Manhattan’s district court and flagged up an appeal to a forum such as the International Court of Justice at The Hague. ”We are not going to jump into the void. We’ve got to be responsible. We will seek all mechanisms to repudiate the debt, which is absolutely illegitimate and corrupt,” he said.

Meanwhile the president, a US-trained economist, is likely to find it increasingly difficult to pay, even if he wanted to. The collapse in oil prices has already driven the Opec nation to its first trade deficit in 15 months and remittances, which accounted for 7 per cent of gross domestic product last year, have slumped.

Mr Correa is also hamstrung by a dollarised economy. Ecuador abandoned the sucre for the dollar in 2000, after the collapse of its banking sector, leaving the government unable to run an independent monetary policy.

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left leaning Washington think tank, said Mr Correa may believe the costs of default are acceptable, given that Ecuador’s access to credit has already been strained by its frosty relations with international bodies such as the World Bank, fractious dealings with foreign investors and a recent suit against Brazil over a loan it says was contracted illegally.

”The consequences [of default] are not always as great as one might think,” he said. ”In Ecuador’s case they can’t really borrow on international markets anyway so they’re in a strong economic position to renegotiate with their creditors.”

But Ramiro Crespo, of Quito-based Analytica Securities, said Ecuador was engaging in dangerous game of brinkmanship that could leave it isolated.

”It is very difficult to try to look for rationality in perhaps an irrational situation,” he said. ”In a sense this is very ideological. They [Mr Correa’s administration] don’t like markets. They don’t like Wall Street. They don’t like most of the international organisations, especially the World Bank and the [International Monetary Fund]. But instead of being pragmatic about it and using them according to their needs they have taken an ideological approach.”

Today’s WALL STREET JOURNAL features a large vapid presentation from 5 former presidents, noting "Mr. Aznar is a former president of Spain. Mr. Fox is a former president of Mexico. Mr. Pastrana is a former president of Colombia. Mr. Sanguinetti is a former president of Uruguay. Mr. Flores is a former president of El Salvador." Their joint article states, "Latin America is an integral part of the community of nations that share the values of liberal democracy and market economy. Its combined GDP is larger than China's GDP.

History shows that whenever Latin America has been neglected the cause of freedom and prosperity has been undermined. Therefore, it is essential that nations that embrace the principles of freedom and democracy band together to face today's security threats.

We live in a dangerous world. The demise of communism was a step forward in the cause of liberty. But history has returned. The old enemies of free and open societies pose new challenges to the world. Terrorism, whatever its nature, continues to pose a threat to civilization and peace. Islamism is both a model and a yoke for millions. Regressive utopianism is spreading in many Latin American countries through a wave of populism. Nationalism and religious fanaticism continue to feed conflict and instability.

The enemies of freedom that share anti-Western views are now forming new alliances. Liberties and freedoms are progressively being diminished inside some Latin American countries while hard-power foreign policies are being implemented as a means to increase influence and weaken the common enemy: the West. Latin Americans must continue to work with their American partners and friends to ensure the protection of democracy and other civil institutions. We must promote a transition to democracy in Cuba and direct our efforts to avoid the resurgence of authoritarian regimes.

Poverty is a painful reality in many countries. Millions of people do not have access to health care or education. This is unacceptable. We strongly believe that the benefits of globalization should be available to everybody. We have found in our own countries that strengthening democratic institutions, providing good governance, and opening up our borders to trade is the best way to improve social conditions and economic welfare.

Latin America has much to gain from free trade. Successfully negotiating free-trade agreements will help bring progress and prosperity to Latin American countries, as well as around the globe.

Today, there are over 40 million people with strong links to Latin America who live in the U.S. and, through their dynamism, contribute to its greatness. The tradition of freedom embraced by the U.S. is in accord with Hispanic traditions and culture. The peaceful coexistence of the American and Hispanic traditions reinforces the idea of Latin America being part of the Western world.

Latin America needs support against the threats it currently faces. It is essential that Latin America be able to count on the support of the U.S. if it is to succeed at promoting and consolidating common values and principles."

While we commend the JOURNAL, this article is mostly garbage- a waste of time and ink. This article tells us that millions of Latins have no education or health care. This is a lie and mostly applies to rural Mexico because Mexico and other Caricom lands have a long tradition of ignoring its rural areas and presuming that it is best to foist their illegal citizenry off on the tender generosity of the state of Texas or California or Arizona, etc while never ever delivering honest services in Mexico for its own citizens because....as any honest Mexican will tell you: they are entitled to USA hand outs when in fact they are not. Every Latin nation has universal health care and education run by their state. It is not a good education nor a decent health care monopoly- they never are when as is the case in all Latin nations are state monopolies for socialized services now and only getting worse because socialism, contrary to what US ambassador Heather I love socialism and narcotrafficking because it helps the Poor Hodges wants to tell you, never ever works nor does socialism help the poor. But local tax payers are dunned a lot for these statist mandates. Yes- Peru, Mexico, Canada and Chile have made a lot of money from their free trade deal with the USA. But the US Democrats and most Latin leaders want nothing to do with sustainable trade with the USA except to take US giveaways and give back nothing in return. This Something for Nothing scam is currently called the USA's ATPDEA free trade deal to Ecuador and Bolivia which get a lot of free trade with the USA but do not give back free trade to the USA nor does Ecuador do anything but lie a lot about its so called drug war which does not exist except in the minds of the US Department of State which bars actual facts about Ecuadorean failures to fight narcoterrorism, pretending it does when it does not.

Aznar, who currently works out of London for a hedge fund, wants to pretend that racial discrimination against Latin Americans and Jews is not a huge problem in Spain when in fact it is. And Fox wants to pretend that the 40 million Mexicans living illegally in the USA should vote often for the US Democrats. Worse yet- not one of these authors who demand that the USA give away a lot to Latin America offer one reward for such gifting. In fact, the USA owes Latins nothing unless and until Latins offer up transparency, accountability, ethics on their workplaces, their governments and their homes. No one wants to be honest in any of these 3 locales any more and that is disgusting. For years the propagandists at the Inter American Dialogue told us that the USA should `keep its hands off Latin America' and do nothing except pour lots of money in to Latin propaganda teams. This was happily performed as if on cue by the discredited Latin teams at the US Department of State and the Senators Leahy-Dodd money teams from the US Congress none of whom would understand an honest analysis of Latin America if it hit them on the head. But that's all right they think because Obama and Hillary will throw even more money at US AID contractors for Latin American propaganda which of course never delivered one single thing to rebuild Latin democracies except like the Carter Center to lie a lot.

. But these 5 amigos tell us, "Friendship, respect, cooperation and trade among democracies promote prosperity, encourage stability, and reinforce freedom."

We are looking at a very very short list of real friends for anyone. Like a failed marriage where both partners actually despise each other and are committed only to the most shallow relationships in name only for the outward show of piety, there is not one ounce of anything coming to mutually support each other. Where stands one nation, besides Colombia, which would raise one finger to help the USA- or anyone else for that matter, were they in trouble? None. Like marriages of convenience, actually growing faith, confidence and honor cannot be bought nor manipulated but must be performed. Ecuadoreans today disavow this reality and believe that everything can and must be manipulated- that is what children are for, they tell you. This cult of shallow manipulators is a deadly disease and has killed truth, honor and ethical living in Ecuador as surely as cholera and typhus do in other Marxist-communist lands which also tell us these diseases do not exist when they do. This is not friendship and it is not a marriage. It is a chimera. The fact is this: the USA has no friends in Latin America because like all good Latin marriages, they cannot even be true to themselves. These are not functional relationships. Like all Latin marriages, they are dishonest and dysfunctional in general, with some notable exceptions. But 95% dysfunction is the rule. Why would anyone want to replicate dysfunctional South American families and marriages and pretend as Latins do that this is fabulous? Such falsities always lead to more manipulations and more dishonesty and more throwing money at things that do not work.  Do you seriously think Rafael Correa wants to be a friend of the USA when all he does is lie to the USA and laugh at the USA whom he like Iran and Chavez calls evil? Do you seriously think this is a "good friend"? Friends do not manipulate their friends. But Ecuadoreans consider manipulation the sine qua non - the zenith- their societal goal. This is disgusting. And while still busy, albeit choppily these days due to financial theft, Chavez is still selling anti-freedom programs. No one but Mexico, Peru and Colombia [and some few conservative Chileans and Uruguayans] are selling freedom in Latin America. But respect? Respect begins at home and total home lives hold no respect- only machinations.

But these 5 amigos, also concurrently working for the Soros narcotics expansion and enabling plan for Latin America, tell us, "We live in a dangerous world. The demise of communism was a step forward in the cause of liberty. But history has returned. The old enemies of free and open societies pose new challenges to the world. Terrorism, whatever its nature, continues to pose a threat to civilization and peace. Islamism is both a model and a yoke for millions. Regressive utopianism is spreading in many Latin American countries through a wave of populism. Nationalism and religious fanaticism continue to feed conflict and instability."

If these 5 men were serious in this statement, they would set about for one in their lives to help educate Latins that terrorists are real, they are expensive and their acts ruin economies and lives. But Latins believe that they can manipulate terrorists just as they manipulate their partners, their children and their own governments. This impossibly dishonest effrontery to normative living will hopefully see each Latin nation ruined by Islamic extremists for their ridiculous foolishness to manipulate Iran and its aggressively evil strata of terror actors who are in bed with Chavez,  Correa, Morales and Lugo. Nut these 5 men have no clue what goes on in Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela or Nicaragua- they care nothing about this but they do want the USA to keep pouring money down these rat holes.

ECUADOR

Local Press Reports Government Bought US$680 Million of Its Own Debt

A local newspaper (El Comercio) reported today, citing anonymous sources, that the government has managed to buy about US$680 million (nominal value) of its own Global bonds since November 15 through a local broker. The total amount of global bonds outstanding is US$3.86 billion: US$510 million 2012s, US$650 million 2015s, and US$2.7 billion 2030s.

The government’s aggressive rhetoric and veiled threats of default on what the government considers to be “illegitimate and illegal debt” have pushed prices down after the government failed to pay the 2012s coupon on the November 15 due date. To purchase the Globals the government allegedly spent US$170 million.

Finance Minister Viteri said today from Washington, DC that President Correa will decide whether the country will honor its external debt service commitments and is currently consulting with law offices in the United States on the legality, or lack thereof, of some of its external debt obligations. Minister Viteri reiterated the government is exploring legal ways to avoid paying the “illegal and illegitimate” debt. However, irrespective of the final decision, the government will respect the rule of law, Minister Viteri added.

Prompted to comment on reports the government might have bought back some of its own debt in recent weeks the Minister did not deny or confirm the report, adding just that the Ministry has the right to use all available tools to manage the country’s indebtedness in the nation’s best interest.

Later, Interior Minister Bustamante added that the Ministry of Finance does not have to disclose its deals until they are closed; only then does the government need to divulge the proceedings according to the Ecuadorian transparency laws.

Comment: (-) If confirmed, these types of actions by the issuer contribute, in a major way, to impairing the integrity of the Ecuadorian debt market, as it would suggest a premeditated strategy to push prices down in order to retire debt at favorable prices. However, if the government did indeed buy some of its debt, this would suggest it would likely pay the US$30.6 million coupon on the 2012s before the expiration of the 30-day grace period on December 17. Otherwise, it would make little sense to spend fiscal resources on debt the government was about to default.

The significant decline in oil prices is likely to put the external and fiscal accounts under growing stress in the months ahead. Given that in the last few weeks the government has revealed its questionable willingness to pay, we are of the view that the risk of default might not drop very significantly even if the 2012s coupon payment is made soon because fiscal pressures are likely to intensify and the government will have to meet a sizeable US$135 million coupon payment on the 2030s in February.

Late day update: Viteri resigned. Correa defaulted. Ecuador lied to Wall Street, lied to the government of the United States, lied to its own people and lied to itself: the perfect example of manipulative Ecuadorean ethics. It is past time for the USA to stop lying about the government of Ecuador and revoke its ATPDEA benefits now. Correa, who is a drug king pin, does not deserve this in any case because....he aids and abets the FARC as anyone with a brain knows.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis