Why would Ecuador defy the United States?

[cali]

gee, maybe it has something to do with this:

Ecuador 1960-63: The CIA infiltrated the Ecuadorian government, set up news agencies and radio stations, bombed right-wing agencies and churches and blamed the left, all to force democratically elected Velasco Ibarra from office. When his replacement, Carlos Arosemara, refused to break relations with Cuba, the CIA-funded military took over the country, outlawed communism, and cancelled the 1964 elections.

http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-interventions-in-latin-american-021/

and this:

The US Embassador in Ecuador, Adam Namm, denied declarations made by Craig Murray, ex-diplomat of the United Kingdom, who assured that the CIA will try to prevent Rafael Correa's re-election on February 17, 2013.

Namm said: "This is completely false, a lot of people say a lot of things on the Internet". He added that the USA respect Ecuador, its democratic process, and they would never meddle with the electoral process.

Last Monday, Murray said that the CIA is investing $87 million to prevent Correa's re-election and then spread the news on his Twitter account.
http://board.totalecuador.com/News_Headlines/Embassador_denies_alleged_intervention_of_CIA


Whether the U.S. did this is irrelevant if a lot of people in Ecuador believe it.

quite recently there's this:

The 2010 Ecuador crisis took place on September 30, 2010, when elements of the National Police blockaded highways, occupied the National Parliament, blocked the Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito[1] and the José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil,[2] and took over TV Ecuador's station,[3] in what they claimed was a strike to oppose a government-sponsored law that supposedly reduced their benefits.[4]

<snip>

Journalist Jean-Guy Allard claimed, on Radio Del Sur, that the "coup attempt confirmed" a 2008 report by Defence Minister Javier Ponce on infiltration of the Ecuadorian police by United States intelligence agents, including funding of police equipment and operations, and payment of informers.[65] In response to the 2008 report, US ambassador Heather Hodges stated that the US "works with" the Ecuadorian military and police "on objectives that are very important for security", including the "fight against drug trafficking."[66] Allard also referred to former CIA agent Philip Agee's description of US involvement with the Ecuadorian police in the early 1960s.[65] He cited his suspicion about the visit of several United States officials to Ecuador, officially "to deepen relations," during the months prior to the coup attempt was a "pretext."[clarification needed][65] Pepe Escobar of Asia Times also alleged that "everyone in South America" knows of US involvement, as he cited similar reaction to the Honduran coup.[67] Russia Today alleged a link between the School of the Americas and the attempted coup.

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Ecuador_crisis#Alleged_perpetrators

[Zorro]

1. Maybe it's because Correa's a narcissistic drama queen

[cali]

2. Maybe. I think that our history of intervention in South America comes with a price tag

[Monkie]

3. i take it you are a lover of CIA sponsored mass-murdering dictatorships?

or am i mistaking what you mean by narcissistic drama queen?
i would have to look up how the DSM-V describes people that describe democratically elected leaders of a country previously ravaged by the CIA as narcissistic drama queens because im struggling to think of a fitting label for that particular condition.

[Mika]

7. Authoritarian personality disorder?

That's my educated guess.

[Zorro]

9. Spoken by a supporter of the Castro regime

How ironic.

[Mika]

70. LOL.

I know you aren't so dense as to not know the difference between support for the Cuban people, their choices, and Castro. You have a history here of smearing and fabrication. That's why it is known your claim is pure sophistry.

[Zorro]

74. Where can I read your criticisms of the Castros?

[Mika]

79. Gawd, you are too much.

You are a Genghis Khan supporter, since I can find no critique from you.

[Zorro]

8. It's no surprise you're struggling to think

since you apparently imagine Ecuador was previously ravaged by the CIA.

[cali]

11. whether you or I think it was or wasn't is irrelevant.

[Zorro]

12. Well, your response certainly was irrelevant

[cali]

14. No, it wasn't. in case the point I was making sailed right over your head...

What Ecuadorians believe about U.S. involvement in their country is far more germane regarding Snowden and the whole situation, than what you are I believe.

pretty basic.

[Zorro]

17. So you're claiming to know what Ecuadoreans believe about US involvement in their country?

It's too bad that Ecuadoreans run the risk of legal prosecution if they express a belief contrary to Correa administration policy, based on the new law passed a couple of weeks ago that clamps down on the press.

[cali]

26. No, but I am suggesting that it would hardly be surprising that most would

bear some animosity if they believe that the CIA was involved in coups and attempted coups of their democratically elected governments.

[backscatter712]

5. Yep. Right on schedule.

The fifty-centers are so predictable.

[LittleBlue]

10. You just knew it was coming, didn't you?

Let the trashing of Ecuador begin by the Big Brother Brigade.

[backscatter712]

55. It's like they're following a computer program.

They can't even pass a Turing Test.

[ljm2002]

15. Oh that's rich...

...you respond to a well documented post about U.S. direct interference in the affairs of Ecuador, by asserting that its current leader is a "narcissistic drama queen".

Epic failure.

[Zorro]

19. A "well-documented " post is not an indication of accuracy

especially when it promotes the phony narrative of an attempted "coup" against Correa.

[ljm2002]

25. The OP asked the question...

...of why Ecuador may be eager to poke their finger in the eye of the US government.

One of the things cited was a coup plot against Correa. The OP specifically stated that whether it is true or not, people in Ecuador tend to believe it (based on our past history in their country), so it still serves to inform us about WHY Ecuador is willing to grant asylum to Edward Snowden, knowing it will enrage the US.

Is that really so hard to understand?

Oh I understand the outrage. I don't agree with it, but I do understand it. But responding to the OP with "he's a narcissist" is just infantile and adds nothing of substance.

[Zorro]

28. I haven't heard that Ecuadoreans believe the US was behind a "coup plot" against Correa

What I hear is uninformed assertions that reflect a certain presumptuousness about Ecuadorean attitudes regarding the US.

I think Ecuadoreans believe Correa, notorious and prickly hothead that he is, created the situation that led to the police riot.

[ljm2002]

32. Self-parody much?

What I hear is uninformed assertions that reflect a certain presumptuousness about insight into Ecuadorean attitudes about the US.

vs.

I think Ecuadoreans believe Correa, notorious and prickly hothead that he is, created the situation that led to the police riot.

[Zorro]

34. I've spent plenty of time in Ecuador over the past 2 decades

How about you?

[cali]

36. None, dear, but I trust the BBC over the likes of YOU any fucking day of the week and

twice on Sunday.

[Zorro]

41. So does the BBC report

that the majority of Ecuadoreans believe there was a US/CIA-sponsored coup against Correa?

[ljm2002]

44. I have no way to verify that...

...so perhaps you could back up your assertions rather than wave your hands and expect me to accept your authority on the topic.

[Monkie]

65. so pray tell, what were you doing in Ecuador for the past 2 decades?

you paint the democratically elected leader of Ecuador as a stalinist.
you deny the history of the CIA's destabilization of that nation.
so what exactly were you doing there, growing roses?
because i cant think of many good reasons that a historical revisionist who hates democratically elected politicians has for being in ecuador...

[Zorro]

68. I like Ecuador and the Ecuadoreans

You should go there someday. You might get a clearer picture of the situation.

Although I recognize that Correa is quite popular, I also recognize he's a tempermental hothead with an adversarial attitude towards the US. I also think I understand why he harbors such hostility.

Here's a clue: his father reportedly was incarcerated in the US for several years on drug smuggling charges, and also reportedly committed suicide in Rafael's presence. It's something probably not too many DU posters know. Especially the OP.

[Monkie]

72. i think i now know enough to judge the value of your statements, thank you.

you are one of those "friends of the people" with purely benevolent motives for being there.
so is it reportedly or really so?
because "reportedly" saying something, that is just weasel words, was he or was he not incarcerated, did he or did he not commit suicide?
why are you making these kinds of claims?

[Zorro]

75. You could always ask an Ecuadorean friend about those reports

Ha.

Or if you weren't so lazy you could easily google "Correa father suicide" for reports about Correa's father's suicide and answer your own questions.

[cali]

35. Correa is enormously popular with the people of Ecuador

True, this is from a year and a half ago, but I can find nothing that suggests that they believe the shit YOU are making up. Google is not your friend because it can be used to expose lies.

President Rafael Correa's approval ratings are in excess of 70%

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/19/ecuador-radical-exciting-place

oops, I'm wrong. his approval rating is now 90%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22662200

Your posts in this thread are not only contemptible. They are fucking pathetic.

[Zorro]

38. Yes Correa's reported popularity is reaching Stalinesque proportions

And you're still uninformed about Ecuadorean attitudes about the US.

[cali]

40. horseshit, honey. but keep looking silly here. fine with me.

[Zorro]

43. You admit you have never been to Ecuador

Don't get so upset by your lack of knowledge about the country and people.

[Puglover]

47. I live in Ecuador.

Otavalo. And judging your posts you must know a very very narrow crowd of people here.

[Zorro]

51. I don't find much anti-US hostility and resentment in Ecuador

Do you?

[Puglover]

56. Nope Ecuadorians are generally fond of Americans.

But Ecuadorians as a whole are friendly and mellow folks. And feelings for President Correa vary just as feelings about President Obama do in the US. However in my neck of the woods (Ibarra Canton) if you called Rafael a "narcissistic drama queen" it would not go over well.

[Zorro]

60. Yes I know he's relatively popular

There's been significant road improvements between Guayaquil and Riobamba since he was elected, and I know there's also been some recent improvements to the rolling stock between Bucay and Aluasi to cater to the tourists wanting to travel up la Nariz del Diablo.

Nevertheless, my experience is that he is a bit of a polarizing figure, and it's quite interesting to hear the remarks about him from various members of the Ecuadorean social strata.

BTW, are the leather goods at Cotacachi still a bargain? I tend to remain south of Quito when I'm there.

[Puglover]

61. Yeah I just bought my niece

as purse for her birthday much nicer then a Coach bag and it was 29.00.

The new 4 lane road between Otavalo and Ibarra is stunning. The Ecuadorians up here are really proud of improvements to their infrastructure like this and credit Correa.

Another edit: It will be very interesting to see how he handles the Yasuni and oil companies. He is totally between a rock and a hard place on this one. I don't envy him.

[mhatrw]

71. It depends on where you go, who you talk to and what you are doing there.

Where do you go in Ecuador, who do you talk to, and what do you do there?

[cali]

48. Not upset, but I don't believe for a minute that you've ever been there or that you know

anything about it.

I've posted facts with links, hon. You? Not so much, just blathering on and making shit up.

[Zorro]

57. Where's the link that supports your assertion

that the majority of Ecuadoreans believe there was a US/CIA-sponsored coup attempt against Correa?

You're the one that made up that phony claim.

[Beacool]

78. That's more likely than the over thinking done by the OP.

His own brother ran against him. I have quite a few friends from Ecuador. None of them can stand him. He's another Chavez wannabe, who was a Castro wannabe.

[UTUSN]

4. Fine. So why would SNOWDEN defy the United States?!1 n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. K&R #5. Chickens coming home. We still owe a geat debt for a century of bad faith

and criminality. Sooner of later, it will be paid.

[bvar22]

23. Those chickens ARE coming home.

Bush's obsession with Iraq/Middle East forced them to Take Their Eye Off the Ball in South America long enough for the people of many countries to elect Representative Democratic Governments.

The persistence of the Obama Administration in following the Bush Policies of demonizing these emerging democracies,
and supporting the few remaining Right Wing Police States like Colombia
has forced these new democracies [font size=3] and their emerging markets [/font] straight into the welcoming arms of China, Iran, and Russia.

Apparently, the Obama Administration is still holding on to the stupid dream of installing a US Friendly Neo-Liberal Puppet in Venezuela,
and is a great admirer of the Secret Security/Surveillance Police State in Colombia.
Colombia has shown such competence at keeping their hungry peasants In-Line,
and suppressing any emerging protests and insurgent Labor Organizers that the current administration is modeling OUR Security/Surveillance State after them.

The pure ARROGANCE of ANY US Administration having the audacity to question the open, transparent, internationally verifiable elections in Venezuela
after the SHAM our "elections" have become is beyond hypocrisy.

You would think that a country that pays so much Lip Service to "freedom" and "democracy" would have more respect for the real thing.

Our neighbors in Latin America have give us a Blue Print for "Change".

VIVA Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon!

[alsame]

13. Ecuador bashing threads will begin

shortly.

We've gone from Greenwald bashing threads to Snowden bashing threads. Ecuador is next.

[Progressive dog]

22. Truth is not bashing

The OP helps most of us understand why Ecuadorians might be receptive to giving Snowden asylum.
As far as I am concerned, they are welcome to him.

[alsame]

27. Sorry, I wasn't clear at all. I didn't mean this OP

was bashing, I was referring to the countless Greenwald/Snowden threads that were about the people involved, not the issues. When I read this OP, I just assumed we'd start to see threads bashing Ecuador now.

Sorry for the confusion.

[FarCenter]

16. Because they're pissed that Assange is still sleeping in their London Embassy

The UK and the US have been unwilling to give Ecuador assurances that Assange will not be arrested if he leaves the Ecuadoran Embassy.

So to maintain their dignity and honor, they have had to continue sheltering Assange.

[Harmony Blue]

18. Good researched post cali

some need to read up on the blowback that happening around the world because of past U.S. actions.

[Catherina]

21. +1 n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Because they're ingrates who don't fully appreciate the help given them by the CIA.

[PufPuf23]

24. Maybe one reason is because the USA bombed FARC hostages release negotiators within Ecuador in talks

sponsored by Colombia, Venezuela, and France and the USA did this from an airbase we then (but not now, Ecuador cancelled the DoD base contract after the event) had within Ecuador at Manta?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x347440

Did U.S. Mercenaries Bomb the FARC Encampment in Ecuador?

As diplomatic and military fallout from the March 1 Colombian raid into Ecuador escalate regional tensions, allegations from Ecuadorean sources link the unprovoked attack to the U.S. Manta airbase and charge the American mercenary firm DynCorp with piloting the planes that killed FARC commander Raúl Reyes and 24 others.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3237617

ECUADOR: Manta Air Base Tied to Colombian Raid on FARC Camp

MANTA, Ecuador, Mar 21 (IPS) - Military and diplomatic sources see a link between the Manta air base, operated by the United States in Ecuadorean territory, and this month’s bombing raid by Colombia on a FARC guerrilla camp in Ecuador.

[Zorro]

31. Did you attend some current events class taught by John Belushi?

[PufPuf23]

45. Evidently not; the event I noted was in March 2009. Belushi was dead.

The links were to DU2 posts and one could find similar posts exceeding 100.

My education is fine if one has faith in the UC system (Cal); BS highest honors and Haas MBA plus PhD Natural Resource Economics dropout from Oregon State for financial reasons.

Did you attend how to be an ass-hat lessons an Animal House?

[Zorro]

49. So why promote the false "USA bombed FARC hostages release negotiators" meme

if you are such an educated savant?

[PufPuf23]

50. Document that the event was false.

[Zorro]

52. Prove a negative?

You've obviously never taken a course in logic.

[PufPuf23]

54. Find a single link on the internet claiming that the

FARC hostage negotiation camp within Ecuador was not bombed by a US mercenary contractor out of Manta AFB.

Find one example of another perpetuator of the aerial assault.

Bet you can't find one link.

[Zorro]

63. You're kidding, aren't you?

If not, then you should sue your educational institutions.

Of course you could always google "Ecuador FARC bombing" and find a slew of articles that contradict your assertion.

And here's one just to make your head spin:

http://colombiareports.com/ecuador-involved-in-farc-camp-bombing-commission-president/

[PufPuf23]

67. Ecuadoreans found to be complicit traitors by an Ecuador review commission.

Colombian troops ventured on the ground in the attack into Ecuador; the hostage negotiation camp was attacked from the air from Manta AFB.

[Zorro]

69. Hmmm...

You obviously have a reading comprehension problem to boot.

[geek tragedy]

29. I said from the beginning that Ecuador or Venezuela were the logical

destinations for him.

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Don't forget the US oil company Chevron

This was a mess

http://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?topic=5009.0



http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-20/down-the-rabbit-hole-in-the-chevron-pollution-case

[iemitsu]

33. I have many siblings, among them a brother, who

defended right wing causes and philosophy his entire youth and young adulthood. Then he married an Ecuadorian woman. He has lived in Pifo, outside of Quito for the last 17 years. Whatever the truth about American involvement in Ecuador, and the rest of Latin America, his experiences there have reformed his political and economic thinking completely. He is now a strong supporter of left wing, progressive, community centered ideas and legislation and he actively participates in local community events and ventures.
His wife is a pretty right winged character herself and is not the source of his transformation.
This brother and I exchange e-mails daily (I think the transcripts are available at the NSAarchives.gov). Which, in itself is remarkable, as much of our lives I could barely stand to talk to him.
Though e-mails, and occasional visits, I have witnessed his metamorphosis. Correa's government, and the positive social and economic results of his legislative programs, transformed a Reagan supporting jerk into a soft-hearted, generous, community organizer and social activist.

[Recursion]

37. 90% of Ecuadorans weren't born yet in 1960

I'd say our agriculture policy has more to do with it.

[polly7]

39. Great post, Cali.

Also, why good capitalists who view the world's resources as their own despise Correa:

- unflinching support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution;

- his stand against the so-called "war on drugs" run by the US in Colombia;

- his robust response and condemnation of the Colombian government when it carried out the cross-border missile attack on a FARC military camp inside Ecuador on March 1, 2008;

- closing of the US Manta Air Base in Ecuador in September, 2009;

- his $19 Billion law suit against petroleum giant Chevron for polluting the indigenous lands of Ecuador culminating earlier this year;

- nationalization of Ecuador's oil and gas reserves, notably the Amistad oilfield, U.S. Noble Energy Company's Energy Development Company in 2011, placing them under the state oil company, Petroecuador, and the Electricity Corporation of Ecuador (Celec).

- his plan to nationalize the country's banana export industry

- granting of political asylum to Julian Assange in 2012 when the US tried to engineer bogus rape charges against Assange for extradition from England to Sweden and from there to the U.S. where he would have been imprisoned and possibly been executed for revealing U.S. state secrets through Wikileaks.

- recent passing of a law to raise taxes on the bankers & financial sector before the February election to help raise the standard of living for the poor. Coincidentally, Guillermo Lasso, an entrenched banker from Guayaquil was the foremost opposition candidate running against him.

Correa is loved by the poor and lower middle class. He has made education and health care more accessible, built and improved 7,820 kilometers (4,870 miles) of , roads and highways, consructed a new airport adding many new routes, an, the government says, creating 95,400 jobs in the past four years. This despite the CIA attempts to assasinate him.

US and corporate backecd Lasso promised he would create a government that was far more user friendly to US imperialism, lower taxes on the so-called job-creating companies and a roll back elements of what Correa calls his “21st century socialism,” such as a 5 percent tax on capital removed from Ecuador. But Lasso and imperialism failed. Now a block in South America has been secured with Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina, all good news for those struggling to get out from under the yoke of US imperialism and capital exploitation.

Correa has eroded the influence of opposition parties, the cult known as the Roman Catholic Church and the news media and used criminal libel laws to try to silence opposition propagandists who call themselves journalists, but are really little more than stenographers for capitalism and financiers. Capitalist critics decry Correa’s packing of courts with friendly judges and the government’s prosecution of indigenous leaders for organizing protests against Correa’s opening up of Ecuador to large-scale mining without their consent. The issue of indigneous rights has become one of the greatest issues here in Ecuador. As to packing courts, one only has to look at the US Supreme Court for so-called court packing. At least in Ecuador people can vote. Voting started at five in the morning on Sunday and stopped at five at night. No alohol was allowed to be sold for three days leading up to the election. This, unlike former dictator Somoza in Nicaragua who handed out liquor on election day with the help of the US. As to suppression of the vote like in the US– voting is mandatory in Ecuador.

Petroleum accounts for more than half of Ecuador’s export earnings and have allowed it to lead the region in 2011 in public spending as a portion of gross domestic product at 11.1 percent, according to the United Nations. Bolivia was second with 10.8 percent. Correa wants to dispose of the petrol economy but has had a hard time doing so. The second largest export for Ecuador is cut flowers. Correa had asked so-called developed nations to belly up 7.2 billion dollars to allow his economyy to grow so as to avoid mining and oil exploitation. At first developing nations agreed, but witth pressure from the US, they backed out. This, an attempt to strangle the economy, is what Correa will have tto deal with in the future. Eco tourism and a haven for retirees and economic refugees fleeing the US has strenghtened the economy as civil life in both the US and Europe deliquesces like the the Wizard of Oz’s wicked witch of the west.

http://www.dailycensored.com/rafael-correa-slam-dunks-presidental-elections-in-ecuador/

[Ichingcarpenter]

53. I read up on the improvements

they are making

great post...needs to be read you hit all the notes, I read on it.

[HardTimes99]

42. Bravo! (Brava!?) - nt

[Cleita]

46. Because Reagan hasn't indicated he will invade them. Oops that was Grenada.

Fidel Castro managed to defy us for decades. It has emboldened other nations in South America to fight off the yoke of the Monroe Doctrine that we operate under as our foreign policy in South America. If we get a President Christie or another President Bush, you might see an invasion of any South American country regarded as a rogue country by those Presidents in the future. Especially, Bush. He has ties to the elitists in the Latin American community through his wife and they like American hegemony because it's very profitable for them.

[mitchtv]

59. and by the way the monroe doctrine apparently does not include

las islas malvinas
.Taken by force after it was written

[malaise]

58. Defy?

You're talking about sovereign states who also have their own constitutions.
Who appointed the US as imperial power of the planet?

[cali]

62. yes, defy. as in defy the request for extradition

and how do you operate with such a bifurcated thing going on? You defend President Obama over everything and yet you see the injustices and wrongs which his administration carries out?

[polly7]

64. Great point! nt.

[Octafish]

66. Cocaine Coup led by Klaus Barbie and his fellow escaped NAZI war criminals in Ecuador.

And as long as the NAZIs were OUR -- as in Reagan and Bush's -- NAZIs, it was OK.

The story, from a blog:

NEO-NAZIS AND THE COCAINE COUP

by Kieran McGrath
October 31, 2012

On July 17th 1980, the Bolivian General Luis García Meza seized power in what has become known as the “Cocaine Coup”. Meza ruled for three years in a regime fueled by corruption, narcotrafficking and the relentless persecution of anyone who opposed him. The tortures, rapes and abductions that came to define Meza’s violent reign have been well documented: It is thought that over 1,000 people were murdered in the first year of the dictatorship. Meza also recruited the German Nazi, Klaus Barbie, to orchestrate his government’s systematic and ruthless wave of terror. Barbie – who was a former SS Captain, notorious for the slaughtering of 26,000 Jews in Lyon and the murder of Jean Moulin; a French Resistance leader – had been active in South America since 1957 making his living as a consultant and “specialist interrogator” for the military dictatorships in Argentina, Peru and Bolivia where his reputation preceded him, making him the apotheosis of neo-Nazism.

Along with Barbie’s role as chief torturer and interrogator in the Meza regime, he was also responsible for recruiting a number of high-profile European neo-Fascists to aid the dictatorship. The Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie – who, in 1983, was one of the CIA’s most wanted men – was enlisted by Barbie, as was the Spanish neo-Nazi Ernesto Milá Rodríguez. Delle Chiaie earned his infamy after being implicated in a number of bombings in Italy as well as his establishing of the “Avanguardia Nazionale”; a movement of young neo-Nazis who wanted to subvert Italian democracy and return the country to fascism. Milá was also a high-profile fascist accused of a series of bombings in Catalonia during the 1970s as well as the 1980 Copernicus Street Synagogue bombing in Paris.

It is easy to see why this tripartite alliance of Barbie, Delle Chiaie and Milá would have been attracted to the opportunity the Meza regime presented them with: It not only financed their activities whilst granting them sanctuary, but it also allowed them to experiment with their terrorist strategies in a country that had become deeply susceptible to them. Before Meza took power, Bolivia had been under military rule for the best part of two decades. During this period every attempt at establishing democracy had been mired in the kind of chaotic instability that, throughout the twentieth century the world over, gave rise to fear, violence and hatred. Bolivia, a country that has always struggled to stabalise its precarious economy with the tensions generated by its racial diversity, fell prey to the myths of fascism in this period and Meza, who was already in awe of Barbie´s sadistic expertise, must have been seduced by the hierarchical, traditional and nationalist fantasies that Barbie´s history, ideology and very survival represented.

It is tempting to see this strange hybrid of post-colonial European arrogance and resurgent Nazism as a demonic fugitive from the aftermath of the Second World War, as though fascism was – like the monster in some Hollywood b-movie – kept alive after Hitler´s fall by a cult of dignitaries, united by their vaguely esoteric ideals and the mysterious channels that connected them. This crude interpretation of history is a dangerous one because it fails to address the complexity of the crisis in Bolivia, the acquiescence of the US and the basic fact that, although it may have been forced underground, fascism has never left modern societies, whether they be European or American.

CONTINUED...

http://luchaporley2640.com/2012/10/31/neo-nazis-and-the-cocaine-coup-3/

A complicated story that continues...

[Catherina]

73. Juan Cole: Why Correa might give Snowden Asylum: All the Horrible things the US has done to Ecuador

Why Correa might give Snowden Asylum: All the Horrible things the US has done to Ecuador

Posted on 06/23/2013 by Juan Cole

Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who won a third term this year, has significantly improved the lives of his people, reducing poverty rates and building out infrastructure. Correa, an economist trained at the University of Illinois, has a nuanced view of the US, but he has had significant frictions with the behemoth of the North, which has often thrown its weight around on behalf of US corporate interests in the South American country. Correa complains of continual US push-back against policies that benefit the people, saying that Washington has been ‘Historically Antagonistic’ to progressive change in Latin America. Since most Americans can’t find Ecuador on the map and have no idea of the history of the US corporations with that country, we could review a few little blemishes on our record that might make Correa willing to offer asylum to US whistleblowers:

According to the Christian Science Monitor, an Ecuadoran court found Texas oil giant Texaco (now part of Chevron) guilty dumping “18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and 17 million gallons of crude oil” in the Amazon basin in the northeast of the country. It was found guilty of “polluting an estimated 1,700 square miles of rain forest – an area the size of Rhode Island.” Further legal proceedings are ongoing in the case, even in the US.



The US, in pursuing its wrong-headed “war on drugs,” set up an air force base in Ecuador, which President Rafael Correa became convinced was also an intelligence operation. He closed the base in 2009 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1779434,00.html>. The “war on drugs” appears to have been a policy lobbied for by US pharmaceutical and liquor corporations, which artificially raised the price of other recreational drugs and created black markets and criminal cartels to fill the demand, ravaging much of Latin America.

US and other banks had indebted Ecuador to the tune of over $3 billion. President Rafael Correa argued that much of this debt was “odious,” contracted by corrupt governments and given under unfair terms, and he managed to have half that sum revoked.

The State Department, in cahoots with US pharmaceutical corporations, actively lobbied to undermine Correa’s policy of improving public access to medicines and reducing drug costs.

...

REad more: http://www.juancole.com/2013/06/snowden-horrible-ecuador.html

[Thinkingabout]

76. Their next check could arrive after Snowden is extradited to the US delayed by

The number if days the process took. No Snowden no money.

[MADem]

77. Maybe they don't want to renew their trade agreement next month?

I hope the Chinese have a market for lots and lots of exported roses, if that's the case.

If they hate us so much, why do they use the US dollar as their currency, I wonder? Maybe they'd be happier with Yuan?

I don't mean "an equivalent to the US dollar," either. I mean the Washingtons, Lincolns, Jacksons, Franklins, etc. It's one of the few places in the world where you need a passport to get there, but even your spare change is good.

[on point]

80. Why would the bullied defy the bully? Just desserts perhaps?