April 25, 2010 Yes- there are two polarizing, opposing –directly opposite reviews on Rafael Correa’s Ecuador. One is dishonest and the other is honest. It has come to this. To be sure, the Correa government, which we call a cartel government of goofy communist New Age believers in immoral statist take overs of your life, have gone wilding, giving nothing remotely resembling accountability and transparency. The U.S. government has assisted in this disgraceful non-factual summary of Ecuador with absolutely no facts and no date regarding Ecuador in its parvenu, as if hiding Correa’s crimes and failed government aids and abets something…something along the lines of more money laundering, more drugs and more betting. Ecuadoreans are getting the fake government- fraudsters- that they want.

What makes these two authors so different is that one tells the facts and the other plays with the facts to spin a story while saying nothing. One is paid by the taxpayers of Ecuador by Correa and his embassy in Washington, probably to their paid public relations team at Fenton Communications or other similarly expensive companies such as Patton Boggs, etc. to sell a myth of Ecuador while saying nothing. The U.S. Democrats continuously fund phony propaganda about Ecuador in their unbearably silly paid to contractor official reviews of Ecuador, too- almost as if coordinating with Correa’s paid PR companies, also currently working with George Soros’s preferred propaganda activists from MOVEON.org and the DAILYKOS to spread even more fact free confusion.

Into this polarized world of truths and fake truths in Correa’s alternative democracy where truths are always manipulated and called alternative honesty comes a short, direct piece by Mr. Pareja.  We at ECrisis commend Pareja. He has obviously taken the time, as all should, to move head and resist the unendingly dishonest Ecuadorean media as run by Correa and his state propagandists from TELESUR and AL JAZEERA, mostly run now in the Andes by Correa, Chavez and Iran-Cuba for the worst sot of state controls over information sharing. Refusing to be stupid and refusing to remain stupid is a challenge for all Ecuadoreans today, one that most are failing in because they do not care. Ecuadoreans swallow whole stories based on non facts and grow their internal hatred on non-Correa realities like a really ugly cancer. Pareja lays down some facts about Correa and this is much needed because no one else has the guts to say anything.

The Wall Street Journal

LETTERS

APRIL 22, 2010

Two Different Views of the U.S. Approach to Ecuador

Your columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady ("Ecuador's Chávez," Americas, April 12) is entitled to her opinions, but not to her own facts.

The recent visit to Ecuador by Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela was a continuation of ongoing, quiet bilateral discussions between the governments of the U.S. and Ecuador around such important items of mutual interest as security, cooperation, trade and migration. Because Ecuador's president currently leads the Union of South American Republics, the dialogue also included peace, regional security, fighting drug trafficking and money laundering.

It is true that since his election in 2007, President Rafael Correa has presided over the adoption of a new constitution, the restructuring of our Congress, an improved judiciary and a more stable economy. Along the way he also won re-election. Ms. O'Grady seems to long for the days when partisan gridlock and economic chaos made it impossible for any president of any philosophy to succeed in Ecuador, which is why we went through seven presidencies in about a decade.

Ms. O'Grady likens our president to other Latin American leaders past and present, but Rafael Correa is distinctly Ecuadorean and responds to the problems and pressures of Ecuador's people. An economist, President Correa was educated in Europe and at the University of Illinois. President Correa recently received a distinguished graduate award from his American alma mater.

Luis Gallegos

Ambassador of Ecuador

Washington
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From 1988 to 1992 I was Ecuador's ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to the United Nations' agencies in Vienna. I also served as undersecretary of finance and minister of energy from 1995 to 1996. In my retirement I was elected chairman of the Petroleum Forum of Ecuador (Fopec). It is with great concern that I now see the improbable mixture of fascism, populism, Castro's dictatorship and Hugo Chávez's primordial ideas glued with 21st-century socialism, whatever that may be.

What startles me is the passivity of the U.S. in watching the success of Fidel Castro's failed Latin American policies now coming back from the grave thanks to Venezuela's petrodollars.

Fopec has opposed Mr. Correa's deals with the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, without public bids and only based on "political considerations" while at the same time disregarding private investment. He has been eliminating dissenting opinions from television and has taken over several TV stations, dropping Fopec's weekly broadcast.

Mr. Correa's attorney general is going after critics, including one president, several ministers and assorted officials, all of whom have expressed opinions against the government. Mr. Correa has put pressure on the judiciary to support his views.

Both Mr. Correa and his vice president have visited Teheran. We cannot endorse Iran's anti-Semitic speech or its atomic weapons program. If events continue, we will need the courage of Honduras or we will face social turmoil. If this is what Washington wants, please stop Latin America; I want to get off!

Jorge Pareja

Quito, Ecuador

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We at ECrisis are sad- seriously sad- that thousands of Ecuadoreans did not write or speak or stand for the facts as Pareja has just done. Where are the truth tellers? Why are none insisting that full facts be on the table? Are you that lazy? That timid? That unmanned? Why all the hiding and lurking around as if this is helpful?

One must ask why Correa removed Pareja’s TV show…and so many like it. No one seemed to come to Pareja’s defense. Why the timidity? Why the feckless abuse of the need for free press when Ecuadoreans pretend to care but….do nothing when media and your freedoms are destroyed? Freedoms cannot be manipulated, no matter what Correa and his girlie-girls say- it is either that one is free in all ways or  one is not: there are no half way or manipulated in-betweens. This is also true for justice- either a nation has full, non-manipulated justice which is free and fair or you have manipulated unfree and unfair Correa justice where he lurks at your key holes, at your door, at your telephone, your workplace and your computers… always lurking, like a jealous wife who suspects you just might reject his lies and vapid waste of Ecuador’s money.  For his part, you gifted Correa with the sovereign right to abuse you under his awful ALBA contract with you- his constitution which you never read and pretended that Correa was honest when he said that constitution would give you more freedoms. Of course it did not.

What are you going to do about it?  To remove dishonesty, one must be honest.

To end manipulative government, one must not be manipulative. It really is that simple.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis