ecuador elects a leftist friend of chavez

[madrchsod]

....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6184854.stm

this quote is priceless----"Mr Correa is close to Venezuela's anti-American President Hugo Chavez and has called US President George W Bush a "dimwit"."

poor george, even the president elect of ecuador thinks he is a dimwit....

[MasonJar]

1. Well, he calls 'em the way he sees 'em! And it seems he has

superior eyesight.

[KSU Wildcat]

2. What will change in Ecuador now?

I have nephew that lives along with his Ecuadoran wife in Quito. He works for a floral company and she is a school teacher. I have never heard him say either good or bad about the political situation.

[madrchsod]

3. from what i have read

he`s not joining the us "free trade" pact and upping the oil companies payments. i think the people figured the other guy was just to friendly with washington

[nolabels]

4. The billionaire who deals in child sweat shop labor to amass fortune

Upside Down World - Ecuador on the Edge: A Tale of Two Presidential Candidates:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/500/1/

[Judi Lynn]

7. Great article! Loved this paragraph:

That’s not to mention Correa has also said that he would not renew the country’s agreement with the U.S. to use its Manta air base, which Washington alleges to use to fight its "war on drugs" in the region through Plan Colombia. He said he believes that the base is a threat to Ecuador’s sovereignty and would only extend the agreement if the U.S. allowed Ecuador to have a base in Miami. And it should be noted that a UN Working Group is quietly investigating whether a private firm run by a former DynCorp employee used the Manta base to recruit Ecuadorians and Colombians as mercenaries to fight in Iraq. A report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in 2007.
(snip)

May he live a long, productive, assassination-free life!




The Manta base is not universally appreciated by the citizens of Uruguay.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Changes should not impact honest hard working citizens of Ecuador.

Here are some of Correa's key proposals:

ECONOMY:

- Audit the country's foreign bonds to determine "illegal" debt that he says his government will not pay.

- Keep the U.S. dollar as the country's official currency.

- Not sign a free trade agreement with the United States.

- Restructure foreign debt to lower coupon and extend maturities on more expensive bonds to boost social spending.

ENERGY:

- Renegotiate contracts with foreign oil companies to hike the volume of crude oil received by the state.

- Seek foreign investment in more expensive and riskier oil projects.

- Seek to renew Ecuador's membership with OPEC.

POLITICS:

- Call for popular vote to decide on a constituent assembly with broad powers to rewrite the constitution.

- Use constituent assembly to end political parties' influence over top courts and other institutions.

- Use constituent assembly to overhaul electoral system.

[oasis]

6. W: A lameduck "dimwit". (eom)

[1932]

8. Last week, the WSJ ran a cover story with an illustrated Chavez head that said

that Latin America was rejecting Chavez because all the liberals elected recently are pro-market. But so is Chavez! Just because you're against neoliberalism and selling all your country's assets to Wall Street, doesn't mean your anti-market. In Venezuela, the private sector is the fastest growing sector of the economy, and the only part of the economy they want the state to own is the planning part of the oil company. Almost everything they do is designed to promote aggregate demand by building up a wealthy middle class through market reforms. All these liberals getting elected in Latin America INCLUDING Chavez, are on the same page -- they're against the neoliberal exploitation of their economies, they believe in a cradle-to-grave, Galbraithian social safety net, and they're nationalists who put the interests of their own citizens before the interests of multinational corporations.

[Cascadian]

10. This goes to prove that Chavez is no despot or communist.

All these claims that Chavez was going to turn Venezuela into a Marxist state or dictatorship is just bogus. Chavez is at best a democratic socialist. The only reason Chavez pals around with the likes of Fidel Castro or Ahmednijad of Iran is because he knows it pisses off the Bushites in Washington. That's all. He wants to show he is independent. Latin America rejecting Chavez? Give me a break! I like Chavez and I hope he and his colleagues in Latin America succeed and making lives for their people better.

John

[Judi Lynn]

11. Well said. It looks as if the WSJ will NEVER respect any country's leader

who doesn't appear to put American business interests first, and align his own country's economy to accomodate American business.

Almost from the first it has looked as if the European images in the Presidential palaces were completely in step with Washington, and often violently at odds with their own people.

The WSJ has a way of attempting to make HUGE claims based on questionable facts. It appears a character assassination sunami suddenly was thrown into the mix near the end of the campaigns in both Peru and Mexico by right-wingers attempting to block the success of wildly popular populist leaders in Humala and Obrador, combined with what looks like massive vote fraud which materialized overnight during the vote counting in Mexico. (You might remember they accused both men of being dangerous to the future of their economies, and both men of being near psychopaths, and friends of Chavez, whom they have never stopped smearing.)

If it weren't for those two contests suddenly swerving away from the leftist at the last minute the WSJ wouldn't have any way to make this claim. It's just a matter of time before both Peru AND Mexico are able to correct the hijacking of their forward progress.

[Cascadian]

9. VIVA ECUADOR!

And the U.S. loses more influence in Latin America. The only reason I am glad Correa won is because it means for a more stronger Latin America that can speak it's own mind and be in more control of their own economy. I think it's great. Congratulations to Senor Correa on his victory.


John