Uh-oh...another communist/socialist on the rise in South America

C

Cypress

Well-known member
Uh-oh. Another communist/socialist on the rise in South America. He told George Bush to shove it; closed an American military base; took a page from Dick Cheney and told the IMF and World Bank to go f*ck themselves; kicked a multinational oil corporation out of the country; befriended Hugo Chavez; and is suing Texaco for environmental damage.

President Correa- Ecuador

President Correa is one of the first dark-skinned men to win election to this Quechua and mixed-race nation. Certainly, one of the first from the streets. He’d won a surprise victory over the richest man in Ecuador, the owner of the biggest banana plantation.

Doctor Correa, I should say, with a Ph.D in economics earned in Europe. Professor Correa as he is officially called - who, until not long ago, taught at the University of Illinois.

And Professor Doctor Correa is one tough character. He told George Bush to take the US military base and stick it where the equatorial sun don’t shine. He told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which held Ecuador’s finances by the throat, to go to hell. He ripped up the “agreements” which his predecessors had signed at financial gun point. He told the Miami bond vultures that were charging Ecuador usurious interest, to eat their bonds. He said ‘We are not going to pay off this debt with the hunger of our people. ” Food first, interest later. Much later. And he meant it.

It was a stunning performance. I’d met two years ago with his predecessor, President Alfredo Palacio, a man of good heart, who told me, looking at the secret IMF agreements I showed him, “We cannot pay this level of debt. If we do, we are DEAD. And if we are dead, how can we pay?” Palacio told me that he would explain this to George Bush and Condoleezza Rice and the World Bank, then headed by Paul Wolfowitz. He was sure they would understand. They didn’t. They cut off Ecuador at the knees.

But Ecuador didn’t fall to the floor. Correa, then Economics Minister, secretly went to Hugo Chavez Venezuela’s president and obtained emergency financing. Ecuador survived.

And thrived. But Correa was not done.

Elected President, one of his first acts was to establish a fund for the Ecuadoran refugees in America - to give them loans to return to Ecuador with a little cash and lot of dignity. And there were other dragons to slay. He and Palacio kicked US oil giant Occidental Petroleum out of the country.

Correa STILL wasn’t done.

I’d returned from a very wet visit to the rainforest - by canoe to a Cofan Indian village in the Amazon where there was an epidemic of childhood cancers. The indigenous folk related this to the hundreds of open pits of oil sludge left to them by Texaco Oil, now part of Chevron, and its partners. I met the Cofan’s chief. His three year old son swam in what appeared to be contaminated water then came out vomiting blood and died.
Correa had gone there too, to the rainforest, though probably in something sturdier than a canoe. And President Correa announced that the company that left these filthy pits would pay to clean them up.

But it’s not just any company he was challenging. Chevron’s largest oil tanker was named after a long-serving member of its Board of Directors, the Condoleezza. Our Secretary of State.

The Cofan have sued Condi’s corporation, demanding the oil company clean up the crap it left in the jungle. The cost would be roughly $12 billion. Correa won’t comment on the suit itself, a private legal action. But if there’s a verdict in favor of Ecuador’s citizens, Correa told me, he will make sure Chevron pays up.

Is he kidding? No one has ever made an oil company pay for their slop. Even in the USA, the Exxon Valdez case drags on to its 18th year. Correa is not deterred.

He told me he would create an international tribunal to collect, if necessary. In retaliation, he could hold up payments to US companies who sue Ecuador in US courts.

This is hard core. No one - NO ONE - has made such a threat to Bush and Big Oil and lived to carry it out.

And, in an office tower looking down on Quito, the lawyers for Chevron were not amused….Texaco’s top lawyer in Ecuador was chuckling over the legal difficulties the Indians would have in proving their case that Chevron-Texaco caused their kids’ deaths. The oil company lawyer (told me), “No one has ever proved scientifically the connection between cancer and crude oil.” Really? You could swim in the stuff and you’d be just fine.

Continued
http://www.gregpalast.com/a-quechua-christmas-carol/
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Big shock why people still like to invest is safe markets like the U.S. at lower returns than investing in countries that won't pay or change their whole system on a whim.
 
Obfuscate said:
Big shock why people still like to invest is safe markets like the U.S. at lower returns than investing in countries that won't pay or change their whole system on a whim.
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We'll see what happens. I'm no expert on that country. But from what I've read, he's not saying there can't be foreign investment in the country.

He's saying that Ecuadors non-renewable resources (primarily oil and minerals) will be under the stewardship of public and national control. It won't be divested out to foreign multinationals.
 
I guess equador got tired of the US Banana companies using banned chemicals on their crops and causing sterility and worse in their workers.
 
look up the sky is falling again.
Yes 300 million workers averaging around 50,000 are going to stop working. BHAHAHAHA
 
so long as you refuse to read about what makes us work you remain clueless as to the chance of failure. The mind is a terrible thing to waiste you should have listened to the NAACP.
 
Obfuscate said:
Big shock why people still like to invest is safe markets like the U.S. at lower returns than investing in countries that won't pay or change their whole system on a whim.
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That goes without saying. Instead of measures that increase individual property rights, the rule of law etc. many of these Latin American countries continually attempt these populist measures that do nothing but retard growth and leave their countries further behind.
 
Well that is better , My niece fried my keyboard by spilling something on it and I just bought a new one.
 
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cawacko said:
That goes without saying. Instead of measures that increase individual property rights, the rule of law etc. many of these Latin American countries continually attempt these populist measures that do nothing but retard growth and leave their countries further behind.
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by populist you mean what the people want as in a Democracy ?
 
uscitizen said:
by populist you mean what the people want as in a Democracy ?
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No. By the state stepping in and taking over privately run assets for example. How much confidence do you think that inspires in investors looking to place capital?

I'm open if you can show me an example of a Latin American country where that has worked successfully.
 
I'm open if you can show me an example of a Latin American country where that has worked successfully.
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VZ so far , kinda like capitolism has worked so far in the USA. It all has to do with time periods. History has shown that no govt will last forever.
 
cawacko said:
No. By the state stepping in and taking over privately run assets for example. How much confidence do you think that inspires in investors looking to place capital?

I'm open if you can show me an example of a Latin American country where that has worked successfully.
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I'm not sure about Latin America.

But, Norway is a country that jealously guards its oil resources, and makes sure that the majority of their oil in under public/government ownership, and that the revenues from the public ownership of oil goes into a well run and transparent trust fund to invest in the retirement, social benefits, and future ecnomic security of norways citizens.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004024446_norway20.html


http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Norway/Oil.html
 
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