Showing posts with label politica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politica. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Europe’s Shame: Snowden and Morales
Leaders in Europe Cave Under US Pressure over Snowden
Europe’s Shame: Snowden and Morales
Those of us who have been saying that the US has become a weak, or at least more ordinary power among many in the world because of its military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and because of its economic decline, will have to recalibrate our analysis after watching the pathetic behavior of the leaders of Russia, Germany and France under pressure from the Obama administration not to allow Edward Snowden to gain asylum in those countries or even to escape his purgatory in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Last night, in an astonishing display of fawning obedience to the demands of US leaders, France and Germany first announced that they would not grant asylum to Snowden, despite broad popular support by French and German people for such an offer of aid to the embattled whistleblower. Then, France and Portugal abruptly refused to allow a Bolivian aircraft carrying the country’s president, Evo Morales, from a state visit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, to land for refueling in their countries, saying that they were concerned he might be flying Snowden to asylum in Bolivia.
Although Spain said eventually it would allow the Morales plane to refuel in the Canary Islands, it did not have enough fuel to get there and had to be diverted to Vienna, where, astonishingly, it was then searched like a drug-smuggling flight over Bolivian protests. Snowden was not aboard. A furious Morales immediately blamed the US Department of State for the whole incident — a charge that no one has disputed, though of course the US is refusing to comment.
Aircraft carrying national leaders have absolute diplomatic immunity under international law and moreover, Bolivia would have the absolute right to grant Snowden amnesty, and to bring him to its territory, whether or not he had a valid passport. As the leader of a sovereign nation, Morales has every right to carry anyone he wants on his plane with him back to his country.
That France, Portugal and Austria would so violate such basic diplomatic rules suggests that the US (which of course has long demonstrated that it views diplomatic rules and international law as applying only to others, but not itself) has some powerful leverage to exert behind the scenes. The more so because this whole incident makes leaders like French President Francois Hollande, who only the day before had suggested his country might consider Snowden’s asylum appeal, look foolish, and because this aggressive and hostile action taken against the leader of a sovereign nation makes France, as well as Portugal and Italy, look pathetic and ridiculous at a time that public sentiment across Europe is solidly in support of Snowden. (An activist friend in Germany reports that sentiment there in support of Snowden and even of granting him asylum is “probably at about 80%,” and that is probably also true in France.)
This latest incident, which has incredibly not been protested either by Russia’s Putin, from whose country the disrupted flight originated, and who was Morales’ official host, also shows Putin and Russia to be under America’s thumb. Who could have imagined Putin allowing a meeting of leaders in his own country to be so shamed by US intervention with a foreign leader’s return flight home without a loud protest and even some counter action. At a minimum the US ambassador should have been called in to be tongue-lashed by the Russian president.
Has the US, with its massive spy network, just demonstrated that it now has a power greater than its nuclear arsenal: a dossier perhaps on almost every leader in the world with which it is able to blackmail even the likes of Hollande, Merkel and Putin? It is hard to come up with another explanation for the way this incident played out.
We will have to see now whether Morales, a popular leader from an impoverished indigenous background who is clearly no coward and who is probably too clean to be blackmailed, will make good on his assertion made in Moscow that Snowden would be welcome in Bolivia. Russia could recover a modicum of its self-respect by flying him there on a Russian plane to avoid similar US-orchestrated interference. Venezuela’s new president, Nicolás Maduro, who has also spoken favorably of granting asylum status to the National Security Agency whistleblower, should also step up at this point. Since he is still in Russia, he could offer to bring Snowden back home with him, and dare the nations of Europe to try and stop him.
Europeans are pissed already off at the US, in the wake of National Security Agency leaker Snowden’s latest revelation that the US was aggressively spying on its European allies, both at their and the European Union’s embassies in Washington, and in Europe itself, gleaning not information about terrorism, but inside-track knowledge about trade negotiation positions and other areas of disagreement or negotiation.
Leaders in Germany, France, Italy, and other European countries are demanding that the US cease its spying on them, and give a “full accounting” of the spying that it has been engaging in. But given the steady stream of lies coming from the NSA, the Obama Administration, Secretary of State John Kerry, and other American sources, why should they believe anything they are being told? Most Europeans understand now that all this bluster from their leaders is just that: bluster.
Europe’s leaders have shown themselves to their own people to be sell-outs in the pocket of the US. As several commenters on the website of the German magazine Der Spiegel, which last week ran a cover expose about the NSA spying program directed against European leaders, have written, Germany’s and France’s leaders have sold out their countries and people by caving in to US demands. As one person wrote: “Our government has sold us out and is beyond help.”
To be sure there was a wave of tough talk only days earlier, with, for example, Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, saying that the NSA is like the Soviet-era KGB, and with leaders of countries like Ireland and Norway saying that they might consider amnesty for Snowden, but only if he could reach their soil first — a ludicrous requirement, since there is no international law requiring such silliness. Any country can grant asylum to any person it wishes, wherever that person may be at the moment. They cannot offer protection, of course, except in an embassy or in-country, but that’s different from just offering a grant of amnesty. Indeed, the mere fact that the US has cancelled Snowden’s passport doesn’t mean his passport cannot be respected as a travel document by another country. How, in fact, when you think about it, would a country know that a person’s passport had been “cancelled” unless the issuing nation had issued some kind of news release about it as the US did in Snowden’s case? There’s no international registry of global passports. Those records are held closely by each country and in fact are supposed to be secure. Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Norway, Ireland or any other country that had said at any point that it would be willing to accept Snowden, could stamp their visa on his passport and accept him on their planes. (Even the US Passport Office accepts an old, expired passport as an identity document when one is applying for a new one.)
After this abject display of rank servitude in the interest of the US Imperium by some of Europe’s most powerful nations, if little Bolivia and/or Venezuela don’t step up and show Europe how sovereign nations are supposed to act, it will be up to the people of Europe to act.
Certainly, following the latest revelations in the Guardian and elsewhere showing that the NSA has been vacuuming up data on millions of Europeans, and with former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden stating publicly that the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution — the one that at least used to protect Americans’ right to privacy and from government search and seizure — “is not an international treaty,” the anger among Europeans at US spying is swelling, and with it, support for the embattled whistleblower Snowden.
We can only hope that the revelations of outrageous US intelligence abuses and violation of Europeans’ privacy rights will continue, that the rage against the US among ordinary European citizens will grow. We can only hope that with that growing rage, a desire to stick it to the US by protecting Snowden will grow too, until some European leader finally sees it as a popular or necesssary move to offer him asylum.
This latest abomination in the treatment of Bolivia and its leader, which has shamed France, Portugal, Austria, Italy and Russia, will be a great test of how angry the peoples of those countries are about their leaders’ servile behavior towards the US.
Of course, we in the US should be the most outraged of all, but sadly, there is probably even less chance that a majority Americans will get angry at all this than that Europeans will.
DAVE LINDORFF is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening!, an online newspaper collective, and is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press).
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
¿Por qué Capriles cogió hacia el Táchira, Mérida y el Zulia?
No es casualidad que Capriles haya estado en Estados Unidos los días previos al fallecimiento del Comandante Chávez, pero el Departamento de Estado es todo un misterio que apenas muestra sólo a sus seguidores una parte de los grandes planes que tiene para Venezuela. Mientras ofrece dinero a Capriles para que juegue “limpiamente” en la campaña electoral, simultáneamente apuesta a lo que mejor sabe hacer: a crear un estado de terror y caos en la población venezolana para luego poder utilizar las fuerzas “persuasivas” de sus portaaviones, pertinaces restuaradores de “democracia” en nuestro continente.
Si eliminar a Capriles contribuye a esa restauración, bien vale la bala que se le aloje en el cerebro. Esa sería para ellos la contribución más barata que podría hacerle este Majunche al imperio que tanto ha hecho por su clase social desde hace un siglo.
Alguien de peso tiene que sacrificarse.
Ahora bien, Capriles también recibió un conteiner de billetes por la frontera con Colombia,
y a eso ha ido este fin de semana pasada, a constatar esa entrega y a contabilizar los pagos que deben hacerse; inició su campaña, pulseando en los territorios que reciben más plata del narcotráfico uribista, asociados a los gringos. La penetración de los paramilitares en el Táchira es de pánico. Allí hay todo un territorio fuertemente controlado por la ultra-derecha, principalmente por los fachos que hacen vida en el Núcleo de la Universidad de Los Andes todos ellos vagos del Movimiento 13 que tienen fuertes vínculos con los más vomitivos malandros de Mérida y del Núcleo de Trujillo.
Capriles está haciendo lo imposible por tratar de revivir a los perversos enlaces con los huelgueros de hambre, con los cosedores de belfos que son empedernidos seguidores de la doctrina Nixon, El Violador.
Pero por otro lado, podemos decir que al menos las vagabuderías de los hijos de Nixon están casi extinguidas en Mérida. La mamaderita de gallo de la ultra cavernosa Gabi Arellano y el malandro Vilca Fernández, consumados y consuetudinarios vagos de la ULA, fue parada en seco por el gobernador Alexis Ramírez. Aquí en Mérida esta gente no volverá a perturbar a los pacíficos ciudadanos como lo venía haciendo desde hace doce años.
Pero no obstante estas fuerzas terroristas están haciéndole un reconocimiento al terreno, para coordinar acciones con el opudeista Lester Rodríguez y el ultra-cabeza rapada, ultra fascista rector de la ULA, Mario Bonucci. El sábado pasado se trajeron varios autobuses de la ULA lleno de mocosos burgueses de San Cristóbal para la concentración de Capriles en Mérida. Pero aquí se le hizo seguimiento a todo. Capriles en una reunión privada le reclamó tanto a Bonucci como a Lester, el que en modo alguno se estuviera justificando los 700 mil dólares que se les entregó hace un mes para provocar acciones de calle. Estas misma reprimendas fueron lanzadas a los fachos de LUZ que han estado apagados desde hace meses. Por el Zulia está ingresando otro camión de plata para estos malandros y hay que meterle mucho el ojo señor gobernador Francisco Arias Cárdenas.
La semana siguiente después de Semana Santa, se esperan acciones muy violentas en Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Maracaibo y Caracas. Las acciones estarán dirigidas contra el CNE, que en principios fueron las acordadas por el Departamento de Estado, como básicas para crear un ambiente de inseguridad electoral y jurídica en el país. Pero la ultra-derecha gringa mantiene en su agenda la posible eliminación del Majunche, porque considera que este hecho le daría mejores frutos: volarían por los aires los planes electorales del 14 de abril y Maduro entonces no podría asumir la Presidencia.
Debemos mantenernos muy alertas con respecto a estos planes porque no olvidemos que coinciden con los planes aplicado por Santander para destruir la Gran Colombia, cuando en 1828 se retiraron de la Convención de Ocaña, dejando sin lenguaje constitucional a la república y obligando al Libertador a asumir la dictadura.
La derecha no se cruzará de brazos y nosotros tenemos que ser cada vez más agudos en contra-inteligencia, a las vez que radicales y muy contundentes.
Ojo avizor, camaradas.
jsantroz@gmail.com
Si eliminar a Capriles contribuye a esa restauración, bien vale la bala que se le aloje en el cerebro. Esa sería para ellos la contribución más barata que podría hacerle este Majunche al imperio que tanto ha hecho por su clase social desde hace un siglo.
Alguien de peso tiene que sacrificarse.
Ahora bien, Capriles también recibió un conteiner de billetes por la frontera con Colombia,
y a eso ha ido este fin de semana pasada, a constatar esa entrega y a contabilizar los pagos que deben hacerse; inició su campaña, pulseando en los territorios que reciben más plata del narcotráfico uribista, asociados a los gringos. La penetración de los paramilitares en el Táchira es de pánico. Allí hay todo un territorio fuertemente controlado por la ultra-derecha, principalmente por los fachos que hacen vida en el Núcleo de la Universidad de Los Andes todos ellos vagos del Movimiento 13 que tienen fuertes vínculos con los más vomitivos malandros de Mérida y del Núcleo de Trujillo.
Capriles está haciendo lo imposible por tratar de revivir a los perversos enlaces con los huelgueros de hambre, con los cosedores de belfos que son empedernidos seguidores de la doctrina Nixon, El Violador.
Pero por otro lado, podemos decir que al menos las vagabuderías de los hijos de Nixon están casi extinguidas en Mérida. La mamaderita de gallo de la ultra cavernosa Gabi Arellano y el malandro Vilca Fernández, consumados y consuetudinarios vagos de la ULA, fue parada en seco por el gobernador Alexis Ramírez. Aquí en Mérida esta gente no volverá a perturbar a los pacíficos ciudadanos como lo venía haciendo desde hace doce años.
Pero no obstante estas fuerzas terroristas están haciéndole un reconocimiento al terreno, para coordinar acciones con el opudeista Lester Rodríguez y el ultra-cabeza rapada, ultra fascista rector de la ULA, Mario Bonucci. El sábado pasado se trajeron varios autobuses de la ULA lleno de mocosos burgueses de San Cristóbal para la concentración de Capriles en Mérida. Pero aquí se le hizo seguimiento a todo. Capriles en una reunión privada le reclamó tanto a Bonucci como a Lester, el que en modo alguno se estuviera justificando los 700 mil dólares que se les entregó hace un mes para provocar acciones de calle. Estas misma reprimendas fueron lanzadas a los fachos de LUZ que han estado apagados desde hace meses. Por el Zulia está ingresando otro camión de plata para estos malandros y hay que meterle mucho el ojo señor gobernador Francisco Arias Cárdenas.
La semana siguiente después de Semana Santa, se esperan acciones muy violentas en Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Maracaibo y Caracas. Las acciones estarán dirigidas contra el CNE, que en principios fueron las acordadas por el Departamento de Estado, como básicas para crear un ambiente de inseguridad electoral y jurídica en el país. Pero la ultra-derecha gringa mantiene en su agenda la posible eliminación del Majunche, porque considera que este hecho le daría mejores frutos: volarían por los aires los planes electorales del 14 de abril y Maduro entonces no podría asumir la Presidencia.
Debemos mantenernos muy alertas con respecto a estos planes porque no olvidemos que coinciden con los planes aplicado por Santander para destruir la Gran Colombia, cuando en 1828 se retiraron de la Convención de Ocaña, dejando sin lenguaje constitucional a la república y obligando al Libertador a asumir la dictadura.
La derecha no se cruzará de brazos y nosotros tenemos que ser cada vez más agudos en contra-inteligencia, a las vez que radicales y muy contundentes.
Ojo avizor, camaradas.
jsantroz@gmail.com
Trácala mortal: Capriles no llegará al final de la contienda, escríbanlo
Capriles estuvo reunido siete horas con la plana mayor de la ultra-derecha que funciona en Venezuela, y discutieron, arduamente, cómo proceder ante el desborde de pueblo que sigue a Maduro. Entre esa plana mayor se encontraban personajes del clero, asesores gringos y españoles.
Los dos puntos que se colocaron sobre la mesa fue: ir o no ir a las elecciones del 14 de abril. Los agentes gringos, que llevaban la voz cantante en la reunión, razonaron que de momento se debía plantear asistir al evento, porque millones de seguidores de la oposición requerían una orientación partidista perentoria ante el avasallante poder del gobierno. Que luego había que planificar una salida estratégica porque evidentemente está muy cuesta arriba vencer al candidato de Nicolás Maduro. Ahora bien, que esa salida debía estar muy bien fundamentada con hechos, con elementos jurídicos, con movilización internacional, con apoyo de los poderosos medios aliados a la SIP: medios estadounidenses y españoles sobre todo.
Un grupo de expertos en tensiones políticas, caos y desestabilización debe entregarse a diseñar el objetivo que conduzca a una salida “honrosa” del candidato. Pero que deje una estela de perturbación inmanejable constitucional y jurídicamente. Algo así como dejar sin lenguaje constitucional al la Nación.
En las manos de los expertos en estos traumas se encuentra la “airosa” salida de Capriles de la campaña. Hay que tener en cuenta que para estos crímenes en los que caen muchos inocentes, el imperio norteamericano es implacable. Otra vez se pondrá en marcha esa categoría de eventos terribles que puedan tratar de torcer el rumbo democrático de la república. Conmociones que ya hemos vivido en el pasado, o quizá mucho más refinadas y en las que se haga lo imposible por hacer ver que en ellas nada tiene que ver la oposición.
Puede ser:
1- Sabotajes eléctricos.
2- Mayor especulación y acaparamiento de alimentos.
3- Accidentes en los aeropuertos, y grandes tragedias como las de Amuay el año pasado.
4- Introducción de virus o plagas terribles.
5- Asesinato de dirigentes tanto de la oposición como de la revolución.
6- Sabotajes al metro de Caracas.
7- Pero PRINCIPALMENTE organizar alguna gran masacre de seguidores de Capriles en algún acto público, provocada por ellos mismos, que “obliguen” al candidato a no continuar en una campaña “evidentemente ventajista, sangrienta, dirigida por un oprobioso régimen dominado y supeditado al poder criminal de Fidel Castro y el terrorismo internacional”.
Alertemos a todo nuestro pueblo a no caer en provocaciones.
A mantenernos vigilantes, firmes y serenos ante las más terribles circunstancias y adversidades.
Ojo avizor, carajo.
jsantroz@gmail.com
Los dos puntos que se colocaron sobre la mesa fue: ir o no ir a las elecciones del 14 de abril. Los agentes gringos, que llevaban la voz cantante en la reunión, razonaron que de momento se debía plantear asistir al evento, porque millones de seguidores de la oposición requerían una orientación partidista perentoria ante el avasallante poder del gobierno. Que luego había que planificar una salida estratégica porque evidentemente está muy cuesta arriba vencer al candidato de Nicolás Maduro. Ahora bien, que esa salida debía estar muy bien fundamentada con hechos, con elementos jurídicos, con movilización internacional, con apoyo de los poderosos medios aliados a la SIP: medios estadounidenses y españoles sobre todo.
Un grupo de expertos en tensiones políticas, caos y desestabilización debe entregarse a diseñar el objetivo que conduzca a una salida “honrosa” del candidato. Pero que deje una estela de perturbación inmanejable constitucional y jurídicamente. Algo así como dejar sin lenguaje constitucional al la Nación.
En las manos de los expertos en estos traumas se encuentra la “airosa” salida de Capriles de la campaña. Hay que tener en cuenta que para estos crímenes en los que caen muchos inocentes, el imperio norteamericano es implacable. Otra vez se pondrá en marcha esa categoría de eventos terribles que puedan tratar de torcer el rumbo democrático de la república. Conmociones que ya hemos vivido en el pasado, o quizá mucho más refinadas y en las que se haga lo imposible por hacer ver que en ellas nada tiene que ver la oposición.
Puede ser:
1- Sabotajes eléctricos.
2- Mayor especulación y acaparamiento de alimentos.
3- Accidentes en los aeropuertos, y grandes tragedias como las de Amuay el año pasado.
4- Introducción de virus o plagas terribles.
5- Asesinato de dirigentes tanto de la oposición como de la revolución.
6- Sabotajes al metro de Caracas.
7- Pero PRINCIPALMENTE organizar alguna gran masacre de seguidores de Capriles en algún acto público, provocada por ellos mismos, que “obliguen” al candidato a no continuar en una campaña “evidentemente ventajista, sangrienta, dirigida por un oprobioso régimen dominado y supeditado al poder criminal de Fidel Castro y el terrorismo internacional”.
Alertemos a todo nuestro pueblo a no caer en provocaciones.
A mantenernos vigilantes, firmes y serenos ante las más terribles circunstancias y adversidades.
Ojo avizor, carajo.
jsantroz@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Fidel y Chavez: Una amistad entrañable (+ Fotos y Videoclip canción a Chavez)
No hace falta escribir cuánto se quisieron estos hombres. Cuánta obra compartieron. Cuánto tienen que seguir haciendo en América todavía.
El último mensaje público de Chávez a Fidel está registrado en su cuenta de twitter el 18 de febrero de 2013: “Gracias a Fidel, a Raúl y a toda Cuba!! Gracias a Venezuela por tanto amor!!”
En su último mensaje público a Chávez, ese propio día, Fidel le escribe: “Viviremos siempre luchando por la justicia entre los seres humanos sin temor a los años, los meses, los días o las horas, conscientes, humildemente, de que nos tocó vivir en la época más crítica de la historia de nuestra humanidad.”
La amistad de estos dos hombres extraordinarios, sus batallas, sus ideas son un legado excepcional para nuestros pueblos y para el futuro.
Cubadebate refleja con imágenes a estos dos gigantes y rinde sentido tributo al amigo y Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, incluyendo además el videoclip no oficial de la hermosa canción de Raúl Torres “El regreso de un amigo” :
Fidel recibe a Chávez en el Aeropuerto de La Habana 13 de diciembre de 1994. Foto Cubadebate/Estudios Revolución
Discurso de Fidel en el Aula Magna de la Universidad de La Habana en el homenaje a Chávez. 14 de diciembre de 1994
Fidel sostiene diálogo con los presidentes de Colombia y Venezuela, Andrés Pastrana y Hugo Chávez en el Palacio de la Revolución. La Habana, Cuba.17 de enero de 1999. Foto Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel se dirige al Presidente Venezolano Hugo Chávez durante su discurso ante la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela, en el Palacio Federal Legislativo de Caracas. 27 de octubre de 2000. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo Cubadebate
Fidel Recorre junto al presidente Hugo Chávez, las zonas más afectadas por la tragedia natural de diciembre en El Pavero. 26 de octubre de 2000.
Juego de Béisbol en Venezuela. Octubre de 2000
Fidel y Chavez en el Parque Nacional Canaima, Venezuela el 12 de agosto de 2001
Foto: Hugo Chávez y Fidel Castro durante un paseo en el Parque Nacional Canaima, el 12 de agosto de 2001. Prensa Presidencial – Egilda Gómez
Fidel y Chávez en Venezuela el 12 de agosto de 2001
Fidel y Chávez en Venezuela el 12 de agosto de 2001
Chávez brinda con Fidel a las 00 horas del 13 de agosto de 2001, por el cumpleaños 75 del líder de la Revolución Cubana. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Cubadebate
Fidel y Chávez en el acto por el 10mo aniversario de su encuentro. Chávez recibe la Orden Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.14 de diciembre de 2004 Foto: Estudios Revolución/Cubadebate
Fidel le impone a Chávez la Orden Carlos Manuel de Céspedes 14 de diciembre de 2004. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Chávez y Fidel. Foto: Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate
Chávez, Fidel y Evo, en la Plaza de la Revolución. Entrada de Bolivia al ALBA. Foto: Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate.
Recorrido de Fidel y Chávez por Expocuba en ocasión de la primera reunión Cuba – Venezuela para la aplicación de la Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas 28 de abril de 2005. Foto: estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Recorrido de Fidel y Chávez por Expocuba en ocasión de la primera reunión Cuba – Venezuela para la aplicación de la Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas 28 de abril de 2005. Foto: estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Con Fidel en Sandino, Pinar del Río, inaugurando la nueva comunidad Simón Bolívar. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
idel, Chávez y otros mandatarios y personalidades de América Latina y el Caribe presidieron la Primera Graduación de la Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina 20 de agosto 2005. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Cubadebate
En la Primera Graduación de la ELAM. 20 de agosto de 2005. Foto Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel y Chávez el 13 de diciembre de 2009.
Fidel Castro y Hugo Chavez. Foto: Estudios Revolución
Fidel y Raúl visitan a Chávez. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel y Chávez el 28 de junio de 2011. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fraternal encuentro entre Chávez y Fidel. 28 de junio de 2011 Foto: Estudio Revolución/archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel, Chávez, Raúl y Rafael Correa en La Habana. 21 de julio de 2011 Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel, Chávez y Daniel Ortega en La Habana. 23 de julio de 2011 Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Maradona, Fidel y Chávez. 23 de julio de 2011Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel Castro y Hugo Chávez conversan en La Habana, Cuba, el 3 de julio de 2011. Foto: Estudios Revolución/Archivo de Cubadebate
Fidel, Raúl y Chávez, el 11 de junio de 2011
Fidel y Chávez. (Foto: Archivo de Cubadebate)
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
A Democratic Display in the Center of the World
Rafael Correa, An Anti-Obama in Ecuador?
Latin American elections always seem to get it these days. Western journalists cannot deny an opportunity to pass without throwing some stones. So it was hardly surprising when the words “dictator”(Reuters, BBC) and “handouts”(USA Today, CBS News) were thrown into the hastily assembled reports on the election in “tiny”, read: insignificant,[i] Ecuador and the results turned out to be heavily in favor of the “anti-American” candidate.
It’s interesting to look at each of these terms to see the duplicitous nature of Western reporting. For example, the word dictator should hardly apply to Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian President comfortably reelected. That is unless you enjoy the use of hyperbole for dramatic effect. As they say, if it bleeds… and Latin American blood is always especially crimson in the grey of the New York Times and its counterparts. Except President Correa in Ecuador has killed no one. He has started zero wars, tortured or killed zero citizens, and while he may have a “pugnacious” (Reuters again) attitude how else could one realistically expect a politician to survive in the 21st century.
Here’s what you need to know. Rafael Correa was a nobody on the political scene in Ecuador when George W. Bush was being inaugurated for the second time in Washington 8 years ago. I know. It’s not polite to bring up such ugly episodes in US history but allow me to refresh your memory for a second. Bush just beat the current Secretary of State John Kerry in the November election and presumed he had a mandate. He was talking about going after Social Security. The left, right and center were paying close attention. It turns out though, that Bush’s victory was an incredibly narrow one, with allegations of strange occurrences in Ohio, people being forced to wait in line for hours around the country and corporations spending ever more on getting their representatives elected.[ii] All in all, the result was a US democracy looking less and less like an established fact, and more and more like some kind of disturbing case of regression back into the “good old days” of black, brown, poor, and those with some form of exploitable vulnerability being prevented from voting because they were black, brown, poor or vulnerable. No matter though. Both Kerry and Bush were rather familiar politicians, both extremely wealthy, both went to Yale and both even played in the same dark dungeons there.[iii] How nice!
Meanwhile, Rafael Correa was a nobody on the Ecuadorian political scene back then. Journalists would have found no reason to write about him, negatively or otherwise. Then, the Ecuadorian people had grown tired of dirty politics and politicians once and for all it seemed. Various social groups came together including natives from the highlands and lowlands and leftists who were inspired by Chavez in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil, Kirchner in Argentina, and Morales in Bolivia. They decided to throw out a president they called Sucio (Dirty) Lucio. Lucio Gutierrez was an alright guy in their eyes back in the year 2000 when he was in military fatigues and had decided to lend his hand to the social movements that were stirred up by a terrible economic crisis that featured dollarization of the economy. If you live in the US and wondered what happened to all your dirty old dollar bills, then dollarization could help you understand.
In 1999, the country was told by economists from the US and those benevolent monetary institutions, the IMF and World Bank, that its sucre currency was especially filthy lucre and needed to be thrown out. In turn, they could start using the US dollar and be happier for it. One problem though was that anyone with any small amount of savings in the bank were practically wiped out. So along came Sucio Lucio with some supporters behind him, ready to say ¡Ya Basta! but it turned out that he was only playing nice. Actually, Sucio Lucio was destined for bigger and better things than low or highland “Indians”. He had a date with George W. from Yale. How exciting!
Eventually, the people of Ecuador were stirred up once again and decided to take to the streets one more time. The legislature would have to take decisive action. The rest, as they say, is history. Lucio Gutierrez would be removed from office, albeit in a very civilized way, and his vice President Alfredo Palacio would take over. The man who would temporarily be in charge of the government in Quito was a medical doctor by trade. He would reportedly told BBC Journalist Greg Palast, our former boss, that if the IMF really made the Andean country pay the debt they said Ecuador owed, then they would not survive. This story isn’t about him though. It’s about the colorful and confident, if not pugnacious, finance minister he chose for a brief stint in 2005. This man subscribed to the views of Ha Joon Chang and other heterodox economists who pointed out that the West was “kicking away the ladder” when it came to advice on how to run an economy. His name was Rafael Correa!
Correa would then go on to run for president himself and surprise everyone by whipping the ever-persistent banana magnate and #1 wealthiest man in the country. Alvaro Noboa is the man behind Bonita bananas and he believed Ecuador should proudly continue in the path of the banana republicanism that it was known for. He felt so strongly about this that he was to run for president five times and not be deterred by his lack of success.[iv] Correa disagreed and so did the Ecuadorian people. The West was, wait for it now, flabbergasted. How could this be? Oh, that’s right! It was because Latin Americans like to elect populists who in turn like to screw up economies, and then who like to head for Miami or Zurich or some other safe haven. So the story goes.
Correa was not your typical populist in the sense that he actually knew a bit about what he was doing. He had studied in the US but he didn’t leave with tears in eyes, saying he’ll never forget those wonderful Yankees. He came back home like many Ecuadorians would love to do, and he did so with a plan. [Note: the country’s economy has been tragically dependent on remissions, with Ecuadorian migrants propping up the likes of Western Union and filling the squares of Madrid, Rome and other European cities on Sunday to celebrate their only day off.]
Correa’s plan was to save the economy of Ecuador by putting into place the economic programs so rarely enacted but superior in every way to the IMF Structural Adjustment Plans (SAPs) that economists love to talk about. There would be no more borrowing to pay off loans. There would be no more privatizing to place premiums on necessities such as water, electricity, gas and oil. Correa would reverse course and, six years later, Ecuador is celebrating their democracy with pride. While I do not wish to be overzealous and depict a knight in shining armour, most of the people are very happy with their president. They respect him and they even care about politics with him at the helm. This includes young and the old, the poor and the middle class, the black, brown and white.
I know. You’re thinking I’ve heard all this before. Obama was standing in DC reciting his passionate inaugural speech only weeks ago. Tears, though not as many as in 2008, were flowing and Obama supporters were saying it was time to get busy. Electoral politics is a sham but let’s give the Ecuadorian people and the government some credit here. The election appeared well-organized and peaceful. The winner was an incumbent with a plan to continue to try to revitalize the economy by giving ordinary everyday people a chance at living a life devoid of the desperation that comes with deep impoverishment. They are investing in social programs like healthcare, education, grassroots cooperatives, and even trying to mitigate serious environmental problems. In an article in The Guardian, the Indian economist Jayati Ghosh has called Ecuador the most radical and exciting place on earth as a result.[v]
Since Correa first took office in early 2007, he got a lot of interesting things done. He defaulted on Ecuador’s debt (that his predecessor swore would be the death of the country).[vi] He kept his campaign promise to evict the United States military from their base at Manta. He set about correcting some serious problems with the constitution by leading a team to draft a new one. This new constitution would be the first to provide rights to the environment, that is, rivers, lakes, and forests in Ecuador have rights and can be legally defended. He also sponsored a plan to keep the oil in the soil with the Yasuni Initiative, a plan to attract investors whose funds would be used to not extract oil.[vii] The plan and the constitution were hailed as trailblazing. Imagine all that from a dimunitive nation like Ecuador. He also declared solidarity with the plaintiffs in the Amazon against a shameless US corporation[viii] (Shell, now Chevron), whose refusal to act with minimal responsibility when drilling for oil and to clean up after itself has led to serious problems with the land and its inhabitants.[ix] He even invited Julian Assange to come down and live, so he could be sheltered from those countries (Sweden, Australia, the US) willing to destroy liberties to avoid the frightening idea of the free flow of information.
This is not to say that all is rosy. There are plenty of problems that must be dealt with. As in Venezuela and the United States, crime is a serious problem. People are worried about the executive branch having too much power. Mining in the country is deemed necessary by the government but the people that live in areas that will be affected need to have a seat at the table. Furthermore, Correa’s style can offend. His former ally, Alberto Acosta, broke with him because he feared that the president’s ego and quest for power was becoming too much. The progressive constitution the country’s assembly had written was being manipulated by the president in a quest to maintain and increase his power. He was backing down on some of the promises he made about the environment and was increasingly intolerant of dissent. Acosta was challenging him from the left and we can hope that the pressure he applies will keep the president in check and even set agendas like third parties should be able to do. Acosta, who called Correa “the sun-king of the 21st century” claiming that he controls everything,[x] appeared not to have a significant following in the election with only 3.4% of the vote, less than the banana magnate Noboa and Sucio Lucio Gutierrez (yes, both really did run again). His main competition, Lasso with around 22.5% of the vote, was a banker and it was really no contest at all.
It does seem that Correa has broken a lot less promises than President Obama. It also appears that he is probably not going to lock up whistleblowers, kill his own citizens, make a mockery of the citizens’ increasingly undermined civil liberties invade countries for “humanitarian purposes” like Bush and Obama have done. Rather, it seems like he is willing to stand up and count when it matters, like when an oil company poisons a significant portion of the country (BP flavored shrimp anyone?) or when bankers try to get their way by ruthlessly insisting that austerity simply must be carried out. There is an alternative and there shall always be one. Promises should be kept sometimes at least. ¡Viva la revolucion ciudadana in Ecuador and everywhere!
Adam Chimienti is a teacher and a doctoral student originally from New York. He can be reached at ajchimienti@gmail.com. Carmen L. Arias can be reached at karmenarias@gmail.com
Notes
[i] The Washington Post and Daily Mail, amongst others, recently used the adjective tiny, to describe Ecuador, roughly the size of Nevada.
[i] The Washington Post and Daily Mail, amongst others, recently used the adjective tiny, to describe Ecuador, roughly the size of Nevada.
[ii] For a summary of these problems that for the most part have yet to remedied see http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/national/24vote.html
[iii] Remember Skull and Bones: see this 60 Minutes “Skull and Bones,” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-576332.html
[iv] Alvaro Noboa likes to fashion himself as a philantropist http://www.alvaronoboa.org/2011/03/alvaro-noboa-helping-hand.html but critics contend that he uses the social funds for political purposes when running for office according to his Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Noboa#cite_note-9. Human Rights Watch has cited him for widespread abuse of labor and for child labor. See http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/04/24/ecuador-widespread-labor-abuse-banana-plantations
[v] Jayati Ghosh. “Could Ecuador be the most radical and exciting place on earth?” The Guardian 19 January 2012 online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/19/ecuador-radical-exciting-place, accessed 18 June 2012.
[vi] For more on the default and the reasoning behind it see Neil Watkins and Sarah Anders. “Ecuador’s Debt Default,” Foreign Policy in Focus December 15, 2008 at http://www.ipsdc.org/articles/ecuadors_debt_default_exposing_a_gap_in_the_global_financial_architecture accessed online on 18 May 2012 and an article titled “Ecuador declares foreign debt illegitimate,” published as an entry in the series Project Censored. Accessed online at http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/10-ecuador-declares-foreign-debt-illegitimate/
[vii] John Vidal. “Can Oil Save the Rainforest?” 19 January 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/20/can-oil-save-the-rainforest, accessed 19 January 2013.
[viii] According to a transcript from an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! on 29 June 2009, http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/29/ecuadoran_president_rafael_correa_on_global, accessed on 21 September 2012.
[ix] William Langeweische. “Jungle Law,” Vanity Fair May 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705, accessed 1 October 2012.
[x] See BBC News Election coverage http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21379601
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)