April 18, 2010  Ecuador’s Rafael Correa stubbornly keeps up his incompetent position that he will replicate the glories of Castro’s Cuba in Ecuador. Correa lies about Cuba. He lies about Ecuador and he lies about what he is doing. Cuba for the Castros is no victim of anything and neither is Ecuador.

Jaime’s review as below is helpful. He does not lie. You will not find these facts from the government of Ecuador nor from the U.S. Department of State. For your part, you instinctively know that Jaime does not lie about Cuba. Besides, Ecuador now has tens and tens of thousands of paid Cubans in Ecuador: minders on the job, spying on one and all. Correa pays the Castros for this and they pay their own slaves a paltry communist wage. Who will deport these illegal Cuban spies back to the hell from whence they came? Do you think these thousands will return? Do you think these Cubans add value to your daily life as imports….imports who know nothing and serve to expand the statist control over your life? They come in the dark and they come by plane loads. If their jobs were so great, why are so many Ecuadoreans out of work? Do you actually think these Cubans, chattel of Castro that they are, will ever return to Cuba? How about the tens of thousands in Bolivia and Venezuela? We add these Cubans up: the ALBA bloc states have crafted a Diaspora of Cuban spies totaling about a million now. More are coming with the Iranians who cannot seem to learn Spanish fast enough although their new fake passports say they are of Latin heritage. Do you know what Correa is doing?

Meanwhile, over 30% of all Ecuadoreans have fled Correa-ville for other nations. Millions live in the USA and millions more live badly in Spain. Why would anyone flee what the US Department of State so lovingly and so crudely and dishonestly describes as such a wonderful nation? Why indeed. The U.S. government under Obama is lying straight on about Correa’s Ecuador. It is not an ally of the USA but it is a criminal zone for…..criminals on the move now. One third have fled while Correa takes human trash from Iran. Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine and gifts these Mohammeds with new names like Mendoza. And then helps them move, as Sr Mendoza in to the USA and Spain. While we applaud recycling trash, we do not applaud Correa’s human trash recycling business, which makes him and his chums a lot of money. But… the Obama administration does not want you to know about this. And it seems you do not want to know about this either.

It is our hope you educate yourself about your new tri-partite underpinnings from Cuba in Ecuador. You are now a proxy for the Russo-Iranian-Cuban cartel. Your future is leveraged for decades to come because Correa stole so much cash that he wanted more cash to keep his baseless power plans in play. And you let him. Now your lives are contracted like serfs to the cartels in perpetuity to pay back that which Correa stole from you. You think you can void contracts with the Russian mob? They play for keeps.  We are sure that with a little web searching if you chose to disagree with Jaime, you can find him and write him. Unlike in Ecuador, Jaime still- for now- lives in a time and place where communications remain open. Were Jaime writing about Ecuador inside Ecuador, he would be called a traitor and sent to jail. Because….you let Correa muzzle this land. Yeah yeah- we know. You are too busy vacationing and too busy taking bribes from Correa to be bothered. How is this working out for the real Cubans?  Most Cubans under the age of 30 are now working for another Castro family business out of Havana: prostitution rungs currently sold by Castro along with his “doctors”- a well prepared Cuban work force now unhinged for money and Castro and Correa are the pimps. Take a scant glimpse at photos from Cuba: you see an appalling lack of young people present under the age of 30. Too many are already hard at work by the tender age of 9 for those special tourists in the special Spanish tourist hotels or else by age 15 sent out by Castro to prostitute in foreign climes like Ecuador and Venezuela- for fees. You think for one second these folks are not spreading HIV AIDS? Just ask real Haitians how that worked out for them in Haiti. For his part, Raul Castro simply kills anyone with known AIDS virus for obvious reasons or sends them onward to Mexico, Lago Agrio and Caracas. Pimps and perverts for spreading HIV AIDS is not helpful. Then again, the USA is funding little boys to go around and give inoculations to supposedly abort babies in little girls- ages 11 and 12 in Ecuador. US AID calls this terrific.

Have any actually detailed the utter fraud of the so called Cubans in Ecuador? All doctors should denounce them immediately as fake doctors. Of course Mrs Clinton of the USA praises these fake doctors happily pouring in to another Marxist led land of failure, Haiti. Some fear she will import these fake Cuban doctors- and yes a very very small handful are actual doctors with some pre-1961 medical training- but most are fake doctors who may be brought to the USA on the fake ploy that Obama’s healthcare forces real American doctors out of business and these fake Cuban doctors can substitute- again- fake doctors working for slave wages and with no real medical training. This fraud should not continue. Tens of thousands of Cubans in Ecuador are paid by you and they actually do….what? And then you must ask: what are you gonna’ do about it? 

Here’s a little reality you can spread on that fantasy sandwich you’re preparing  

BABALU  Alberto de la Cruz, on April 17, 2010

Earlier this week, Dr. Jaime Suchlicki of the University of Miami published an excellent analysis of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent comments on Cuba and the Castro dictatorship.

Here it is in its entirety:

Secretary of State on Cuba

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated that the Castro brothers are against normalizing relations with the U.S. because the U.S. embargo serves as an excuse for the failures of the Cuban government.

So far so good. Yet the question that follows this statement is how many Cubans really believe that the shortages of bananas, potatoes and beans in Cuba are the result of U.S. policy? Very few. The Cubans understand well that the reason for economic distress in the island is the same as in Eastern Europe during the Communist era: a failed centrally planned economic system that doesn’t produce and stifles individual initiative.

Furthermore, food is not part of the U.S. embargo. For the past several years Cuba has been purchasing food and agricultural products from the U.S. The U.S. has become the largest exporter of food and agricultural products to Cuba.

Yet, there are other reasons why General Raul Castro doesn’t want to normalize relations with the U.S. It would mean a rejection of one of Fidel Castro’s main legacies: anti-Americanism. For the past half century, opposition to the U.S. and support of anti-American revolutionary and terrorist groups has been the main foreign policy cornerstone of the Cuban revolution. Moving toward the United States would require the weakening of Cuba’s anti-American alliance with radical regimes and groups in Latin America, as well as Iran and Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.

From the Castro brothers’ point of view, the U.S. has little to offer: American tourists which Raul doesn’t need (2 million tourists visit Cuba yearly); American investments which he fears may subvert his highly centralized and controlled economy; and products such as medicines and heavy equipment that he can buy cheaper from other countries. The U.S. does not have, furthermore, the ability to provide Cuba with the petroleum Venezuela is sending with little or no payment.

Emboldened by Venezuela’s continuous largesse and recent large credits from China, Iran, Russia and Brazil, General Castro feels confident that Cubans can be pacified with growing imports of foods and consumer goods, more economic concessions and continuous control and repression.

Foreign aid from these countries, furthermore, comes without conditions. None of these countries are concerned with Cuba’s political system, human rights or a return to democracy.

Why would Raul Castro offer concessions to the U.S. while he enjoys the fruits of a close relationship with the above countries? Even at the height of uncertainty, following the collapse of Communism, the Castro brothers insisted they would offer no concessions or change Cuba’s system. Raul repeated this recently. They prefer to sacrifice the economic well-being of the Cubans rather than cave in to demands for a free Cuba politically and economically. Neither economic incentives nor punishment have worked with the Castros in the past. They are not likely to work in the future.

Which brings us to the obvious conclusion that not all differences and problems in international affairs can be solved through negotiations, or can be solved at all. This reality vitiates an assumption that has permeated American foreign policy for decades. There are international disputes that are not negotiable and can be resolved only through the use of force or through prolonged patience until the leadership disappears or situations change. While some differences naturally can be solved through negotiations, others are irreconcilable. Cuba seems to fall in this last category.

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* Jaime Suchlicki is Emilio Bacardi Moreau Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami. He is the author of Cuba: From Columbus to Castro, now in its fifth edition; Mexico: From Montezuma to NAFTA, now in its second edition and the recently published Breve Historia de Cuba.

In my opinion, Dr. Suchlicki's final assessment boils down the entire Cuba situation to this indisputable reality:

"There are international disputes that are not negotiable and can be resolved only through the use of force or through prolonged patience until the leadership disappears or situations change. While some differences naturally can be solved through negotiations, others are irreconcilable. Cuba seems to fall in this last category."

To assume we can negotiate with despotic dictators whose only concern is self-preservation, and somehow convince them that committing personal and political suicide is their best option, is to ignore the reality that has been documented for the past half-century.
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ECrisis remains horrified at the lack of facts on the table about Ecuador and Correa. We reprint this report from the BBC for your education. It is three years old. Has anything improved? No indeed it has not…   Look again at the Correa man-boy campaign poster: he actually looks hermaphroditic… more of a girl than a man. In fact he seems to float out of nowhere on the red tide of propaganda. Who is this person?

Ecuador throws down oil gauntlet
 
By Jane Monahan
Washington             BBC News 12-12-07

When Ecuador's left-wing President Rafael Correa drastically increased the state's share of oil revenues in October, and oil minister Galo Chiriboga also announced that contracts with foreign oil companies had to change, industry analysts said the country had gone too far.

Correa's recent electoral win has strengthened his hand
 
After all, foreign firms currently account for about half of Ecuador's total crude production of more than 500,000 barrels a day (bpd).

And while Petroecuador, the state oil corporation, accounts for the rest, it continues to be plagued by mismanagement and debt, analysts say.

The proposed increase in the government's share of windfall oil profits - those obtained whenever world oil prices exceed those established in existing contracts - was also huge.

The tax went up from 50% of windfall oil profits to 99%.

That would net the government $830m a year more in revenues, assuming world oil prices stay at current levels.

The principal oil companies affected - Spain's Repsol, China's Andes Petroleum, Brazil's state company Petrobras, French-owned Perenco and US-owned City Oriente - were already unhappy.

There will be much less incentive for the companies to increase exploratory work and production

Simon Pachano, university professor, Quito
 
They objected strongly when the state's share of windfall oil profits was increased for the first time, to 50%, in a law passed in 2006.

But President Correa, who has been in office since January, is coming from a position of strength.

He decreed the oil tax hike within hours of winning a landslide victory in a vote and more than 60% of the seats in a new national assembly, which has started rewriting the country's constitution and forging ahead with his radical agenda.

Poverty reduction

Mr Correa, a former finance minister who has a PhD in economics, also explained the move in his decree.

He said the government would spend the extra oil money on services, roads and electricity for the poor, which was wildly popular.

Ecuador is Latin America's fifth-biggest oil producer. But World Bank estimates show that some 56% of the country's 13.4 million people live in poverty.

That figure rises to more than 80% for indigenous Ecuadoreans, who are mainly small farmers in mountainous highlands.

Mr. Chiriboga and Mr. Correa believe justice is on their side
 
But confronting the foreign oil companies is risky. Take the controversy over changing the oil contracts.

In announcing the change at a recent press conference, Mr Chiriboga said the companies could comply by reducing their levels of participation in existing production-sharing contracts with Petroecuador.

Otherwise, they could switch to new service contracts, where they earn a fixed fee for specific services such as prospecting and production, but the state owns all the oil once it is extracted from the ground.

Mr Chiriboga, whose ministry is now in talks with the oil companies over the latest oil tax increase and the new contracts, said his objective was to find a solution that offered both sides "a reasonable profit".

But Simon Pachano, a professor at the Latin American University of Social Sciences in Quito, Ecuador's capital, says that in either case, "there will be much less incentive for the companies to increase exploratory work and production, or to invest in machinery."

As a result, because Ecuador's oil industry accounts for 40% of the country's exports and more than a third of government revenues, there is a risk that the nation's economy may suffer, if investment and production in the oil sector declines.

Legal wrangles

There is also a risk of litigation, as shown by the US's City Oriente, the smallest of the principal oil firms in Ecuador with only a 3,000 bpd output.

It won a favourable ruling in November from the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes over the first oil tax increase approved last year.

Ecuador's Constitutional Assembly has already begun its work
 
And Antonio Brufau, chief executive of Repsol, the biggest oil multinational now in Ecuador, with a 65,000 bpd output, referred to Mr Correa's new oil tax hike at a meeting in Chile in November, saying: "This [measure] to us is one that does not allow us to operate within a reasonable corporate environment."

Complicating matters further, Mr Correa's repudiation of the current oil contracts is not just about foreign oil companies, but also the previous Ecuadorean governments, run by conservative political elites, that agreed to them.

"The contracts have not benefited Ecuador. The problem is also the previous governments. This is widely recognised, " Mr Pachano says.

Mr Correa is an ally of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez - and, like him, is not shy about using colourful rhetoric on occasions.

He maintains justice is on his side. Most of the existing oil contracts were agreed when international oil prices averaged $24 a barrel, before they started rising in 2003.

But, said Mr Correa at a press conference during a state visit to China in November, Ecuador was still receiving just $3 to $4 in taxes from oil sales, even though the price of crude has risen to about $90 a barrel.

"These are the extraordinary benefits that the investors haven't done anything specific to receive. The benefits should go to the owner of the resources," Mr. Correa declared - in other words, the citizens of Ecuador.
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Nothing that Correa has done has bettered Ecuador. Did you get any “benefit” from Correa’s theft of other people’s contracted work? One penny? No- you did not. Ecuador is- thanks to Correa- more bankrupt today than ever before in the last 50 years. Tens of billions are missing in action and will not be found from the wallets of these perps. Notable in this older article is the wild eyed, fact-free claim that Correa stated… that so called conservative political elites made contracts with oil companies and somehow harmed Ecuador. And he, the great Correa would undo this harm… and convert Ecuador in to a lawless, Cuban state where no one knows where the money is, no discernable progress is made on anything and no one’s life is bettered.

PetroEcuador is simply an excuse for Correa to continue to defraud companies and the citizens of Ecuador. There is nothing honest out of PetroEcuador or Correa. Had Correa wanted a clean nation, he would deliver a full forensic audit of PetroEcuador. This he will never do. Besides- he likes to pretend that all life’s problems are from capitalists and never his sainted Cuban communist mafia running Quito.  Look again at the photo above: does Chiriborga actually inspire confidence as an honest man? He looks like a mafia hit man. Granted it could be bad lighting but we all know what Chiriborga was up to… and that is called lying.

It seems to us that Correa’s witch hunt to blame others- those whom he calls conservative political elites- and declare them as evil traitors of the state remains unacceptable. High minded, integrity-full public servants in Ecuador have been in short supply since about 1968. You know this. Of the scant few dozens, who among these so called perps of evil capitalism- as deemed by Correa to be traitors- are identifiably evil doers? What exactly was their elite crime of conservative persuasion? The crime of being a conservative politically aligned actor? To Correa that is enough to land on his growing Hit List of Criminals Deemed Traitors. In fact, anyone who ever actually did business appropriately and with honor with the USA, the UK or Europe- and was not a criminal- is now on Correa’s Hate List. That means- just about anyone who actually holds capitalism as a better system of commerce that Cuban Marxism is now an enemy of Correa and his state run spy agency. You can ask Ms. Heather Hodges to help you understand why it is that those who actually like the old USA are considered evil doers by Rafael Correa. You can also ask her what she is gonna’ do about it. Maybe she can stop funding her own hundreds of paid liars busily telling us all how wonderful Correa is and how wonderful it is to do business in Ecuador for Americans. Do you know how hard it is to get off of Correa’s Hate List? To date it does not happen. Just ask the Cardinal Archbishop of Guayaquil how that is working out for him and his free speech advocates. For Americans- there is no business in Ecuador unless one pays hefty Correa family cartel bribes and considers that extortion by Marxists is a better contract than a real contract. Ms. Hodges knows this. What is she gonna’ do about it? What are you gonna’ do about the mess that is Ecuador?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis