Ecuador as a banana republic

By Jerry Mazza
October 23, 2006.

That is the question for the Ecuadorian people, as paradigm for Mexican, South and Central Americans and Americans themselves, as Ecuadorians face a runoff election between the populist Chavez-leaning Rafael Correa and Alvaro Noboa, conservative banking and banana magnate.

The trouble that the magnetic economist and obscure university professor Rafeal Carrrea is already facing is an unexpected weak showing in the first round of voting for president on Sunday, Oct. 13, as reported by the NY Times’ Early Returns Point to Runoffs in Ecuador. The trouble with run-offs is that they generally run into a sharp right turn and stay there after some period of heated protest from the left, just like they have in the good old USA.

Correa finds himself in the same hot water leftist reformers in other Latin American elections have this year, reported the New York Times a day later. That is, defending their link to President Huge Chavez of Venezuela, one of the few outspoken detractors of Bush and his march to World Hegemony, including Other People’s Resources (and Money) on behalf of the Empire of the Landed. Even the usually pro-left workers seem tamed, if indeed their votes were correctly counted and not hacked in some back room as they were in America for the last three elections.

Correa is also against negotiating a free trade treaty with the United States, which generally leaves nations prey to multi-national American corporations looking for slave labor and/or appropriation of said natural resources. Again, Chavez has been rebelling against that trend, particularly concerning Venezuela’s vast oil stores, which give him potent international leverage. Ecuador has oil, but not in such great quantity. Nevertheless Correa and Chavez are friends, just as Chavez is with Daniel Ortega, front-runner in Nicaragua’s presidential election next month, though Ortega has downplayed that friendship a bit.

Unfortunately, Peru’s Alan Garcia, who, despite his first term ending in hyperinflation, made a comeback this year to beat Ollanta Humana, an ultranationalist and former army officer endorsed by Mr. Chavez. Nevertheless, President Evo Morales of Bolivia remains an ardent supporter of energy nationalization and Hugo Chavez’s closest ally in the Andes.

Rafael Correa would also like to renegotiate Ecuador’s foreign debt. Lastly, he wishes to terminate the US military use of an air base in Manta, on the Pacific Coast, for drug “surveillance,” which generally means drug “involvement.” This is the Correa trifecta of discontent and rightly so, which naturally sent shock waves through Wall Street banks.

And guess what? As of Tuesday, October 17, Noboa won about 27 percent of the vote and Correa 22 percent, about 70 perfect of the votes counted on Monday. But Correa challenged the results and claimed fraud could have shaved the count, which was hurt by delays. Moreover, election officials tossed out a contract with the Brazilian company “overseeing” (or overriding) electronic tabulations. By any chance, aside from the US, does this sound like the July/August election in Mexico? Let me refresh your memory.

From Wikepedia comes this summary, “The results of the Mexican general election of July 2, 2006, were controversial and contested. According to Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the initial "Quick Count" was too close to call and when the 'Official Count' was complete, Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) had won by a difference of 243,934 votes (or 0.58%). The runner-up, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-of-center Alliance for the Good of All (PRD, PT, Convergence), immediately challenged the results and has led massive marches, protests, and acts of civil disobedience in Mexico City.

“On August 9, while protests continued to expand, a partial recount was undertaken by election officials after being ordered to do so by the country's Federal Electoral Court (TEPJF). TEPJF is also frequently referred to in the media by the acronym of its predecessor, the TRIFE. The court found 'sufficient evidence of reported irregularities at about nine per cent of the polling stations' to justify re-opening the polling station paperwork.

“After having made a partial recount, the same court decided that the election was fair and ruled that Felipe Calderón is President Elect.” Does that echo the US Supreme Court blowing the whistle on vote-counting and handing the election to George Bush in 2000? At the very least, Calderon’s shady victory has not earned him Chavez’s friendship.

But whether Correa of Ecuador loses or wins (by some strange turn), the process of vote-tampering, à la the USA, continues to be an attack on democracy. In addition, Noboa had his own trifecta against Correa. The first New York Times article describes Noboa “calling Mr. Correa a ‘friend of terrorists, a friend of Chavez, a friend of Cuba,” (read communists). Aptly Mr. Correa responded, “Mr. Noboa would rule Ecuador like a 'banana plantation.'”

But then Alvaro Noboa is a “Swiss-educated billionaire scion of an elite family in Guayaquil,” a conservative banker who, in addition to bananas, controls more than 100 companies in Ecuador and other countries. He has said he would end diplomatic relations with Venezuela and Cuba if elected. He stumped as a bible-thumping, God-fearing businessman, who promised cheap housing and free wheelchairs to the poor and handicapped, a Pat Robertson gone south.

Present as Past, Past as Present

So the battle for hearts and minds continues, the stack being stacked as we go. Should a right-wing victory occur, we can expect Noboa to call in the World Bank and/or IMF and take out some huge loans at outrageous interest rates for “public works projects” and begin summarily looting the country in the name of modernizing for democracy, à la Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins.

In fact in the first paragraph of Perkins’ preface, he writes “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign 'aid' organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know. I was an EHM.”

Actually in Chapter 24, page 165 of Confessions, “Ecuador’s President Battles Big Oil,” Perkins takes us back to the late 1960s when, “the serious exploitation of oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin began . . . and it resulted in a buying spree in which the small club of families who ran Ecuador played into the hands of the international banks. They saddled their country with huge amounts of debt, backed by the promise of oil revenues. Roads and industrial parks, hydroelectric dams, transmission and distributing systems, and other power projects sprang up all over the country. International engineering and construction companies struck it rich -- once again.”

And again Perkins writes, “One man whose rising over this Andean country was the exception to the rule of political corruption and complicity with the corporatocracy [Perkins word for fascism] . . . was Jaimie Roldos, again a university professor and attorney in his late thirties . . . charismatic and charming. . . . He had established a reputation as a populist and a nationalist, a person who believed strongly in the rights of the poor and in the responsibility of politicians to use a country’s natural resources prudently.”

In short, Roldos like Chavez had captured the attention of the world, bucking the status quo and going after the oil companies. He accused the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), an “evangelical missionary group from the US” of collusion with the oil companies. In fact, as Perkins points out the SIL, according to sources, received funding from Rockefeller charities. John D. Rockefeller, the family scion was the founder of Standard Oil, which later split into the majors, including Chevron, Exxon and Mobil, when the US Supreme Court, on May 15, 1911, declared it a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Roldos took them on and Texaco as well.

Suffice it to say, Roldos fought through the Carter administration and the beginning of Reagan’s, and only weeks after expelling the SIL missionaries, Roldos died in a fiery airplane crash, on May 24, 1981.

Of course, “the world was shocked. Latin Americans were outraged. Newspapers through[out] the hemisphere blazed, ‘CIA Assassination.’” The fact is, at the last moment before his flight, “one of his security officers had convinced him to board the decoy airplane. It had blown up.”

Do we think the “security officer” was a CIA or government operative or a greedy man who took a pocket full of money? Hardly makes a difference. Osvaldo Hurtado took over as Ecuador’s president and SIL members were granted special visas. And Osvaldo, “launched an ambitious program to increase oil drilling by Texaco and other foreign companies in the Gulf of Guayaquil and the Amazon basin.” So it goes.

I suggest, beyond the newspaper reports of elections, you read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, which in a way is the extension of the excellent Killing Hope -- U.S. Military And C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II by William Blum. Blum gives you a panoramic look back at our intervention not only in Ecuador (chapter 25, p. 153) with all its machinations, but those of some 50 plus nations and locales around the world.

The march to Hegemony you will find did not originate with our present administration, though it received a renewed and resounding push. Unfortunately, this urge to control and own the world seems woven into our history, along with the greed of the Euro/Anglo and American elites, the conquistadors of old, who first massacred the indigenous populations, to rule in their indecent purity the mixed descendants and survivors of each group.

Thus the struggle against them by those who would be free should be considered an integral part of our lives in a “democratic” society. Behind the flags, you will always find the long-fanged faces, vampires of reaction ready to pounce on figures of reform ready to chase the moneylenders and their lot from the Temple of this world, trying to prevent them from turning still one more piece of it into a banana republic.

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York City. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.

From Online Journal

ECUADOR: Correa claims fraud

Duroyan Fertl

On October 15 Ecuador went to the polls. Having seen eight presidents in 10 years, three of whom were overthrown by a population frustrated by the corruption, ineptitude and nepotism that characterise Ecuador’s elite, the chances of any government lasting out its mandate seem pretty slim. However, the challenge could be in getting one of the pool of 13 presidential candidates even legitimately elected.

First counts showed the radical left-wing economist, Rafael Correa, and two-time runner-up, billionaire banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, neck-and-neck with around 25% each — until the voting machines, supplied by Brazilian company E-Vote, broke down.

When E-Vote declared that it was unable to count the last thirty percent of votes, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) rescinded its contract, and Correa, who had been polling well over 30% immediately before the election, claimed that a fraud had been perpetrated. Many of the other parties have echoed his claims.

A subsequent recount by the TSE confirmed a margin of 26% to 23% in favour of Noboa. However, Correa’s party, Alianza Pais (“Country Alliance”) has produced what it claims is evidence of systematic fraud, including photographs of members of Noboa’s PRIAN (Renovador Institucional) party at polling booths marking and removing hundreds of ballots.

Prensa Latina reported that up to 10% of votes are missing in Guayas Province, and that altered ballots have been discovered. The TSE and other electoral tribunals are presided over by members of PRIAN and the right-wing Social Christian Party.

The current election, which will now go into a second round run-off on November 26, has polarised Ecuador’s 13 million inhabitants, over half of whom still live in poverty, despite Ecuador’s formidable oil industry.

Correa, a friend of Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez and a critic of Washington (calling US President George Bush a “dimwit”), is running on a platform that would give the president the power to dissolve Congress (an institution that recent polls indicate over 90% of Ecuadorians have no trust in, regarding it to be a tool of the traditional parties rather than an effective parliament), and convoke a constituent assembly to “re-found” the country.

A former finance minister, Correa also wants to rewrite oil contracts with foreign companies in order to prioritise social and infrastructure spending over paying off the country’s US$10 billion foreign debt. When he attempted this last year, strong opposition from the right-wing congress and lack of support from the president led to his resignation as a minister.

His main campaign slogan — “dale correa” (“give them a belting”) taps into the widespread discontent with the traditional parties. He is opposed to a free-trade agreement with the US, which would endanger Ecuador’s struggling agricultural sector, and has proposed program of national development for the country and a regional currency to strengthen the Latin American market in relation to the US.

Correa has already initiated a campaign for a referendum to convoke a constituent assembly. He has made a call for unity among progressive forces, to organise for a resounding victory in the second round.

Noboa could not be more different. A supporter of “free trade”, he has been traversing the country with a bible under his arm, evangelising, handing out money, wheelchairs, computers and medicine, and promising to create employment. He claims that God has sent him to become president.

Human Rights Watch has criticised Noboa’s extensive banana plantations for the use of child-labour and violent union-busting tactics.

Noboa has attacked Correa’s friendship with Chavez and support for building a “socialism for the 21st century”, accusing him of being a “communist devil”. He has also promised to cut off diplomatic ties with Venezuela and Cuba if elected.

From Green Left Weekly, October 25, 2006.

Ecuador Elections in Doubt Due to Fraud

Quito, Oct 18 (Prensa Latina) Evidence of significant irregularities in Ecuador´s elections Sunday cast doubt on the official results declaring millionaire Alvaro Noboa of PRIAN (Renovador Institucional) leading with 26.24 percent.

With 79.72 percent of the votes counted, Rafael Correa of Alianza Pais, frontrunner in all the pre-election polls, was accounted 23.03 percent, Gilmar Gutierrez (Sociedad Patriotica) 17.72 and Leon Roldos (14.91).

Irregularities include the announced failure of the rapid count by E-VOTE company, the discovery of altered and as many as 10 percent missing ballots in Guayas Province , and photographic evidence of PRIAN members with marked ballots at voting stations.

Ricardo Patillo (Alianza Pais) denounced that Social Christian Alcer Villas, head of TSE planning, had plotted the fraud in secret meetings with executives of E-VOTE, the company hired to make the rapid vote count.

Patillo said their count gave Correa a half point lead over Noboa, and that this was done to snatch votes from Correa to go to the Nov 26 runoffs.

They even pushed for secret scanning but shifted to justify the fraud claiming a collapsed system, denounced congressional candidate Marta Roldos, sister of a presidential candidate, noting that the TSE has not announced the new members of Parliament and called for open-box, manual, transparent count.

From Prensa Latina.

Ecuador’s Economy minister quits

Oct 18, 2006

Ecuador's Economy Minister Armando Rodas resigned after disagreements with President Alfredo Palacio over the country's economic plan in the three months left in his term, ministry sources told Reuters late on Tuesday.

"Yes, minister Armando Rodas has resigned his post," a high ranking economy ministry official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Another ministry source said the resignation of Rodas, who took office in July, followed disagreements with Palacio over the economic plan before he leaves office in January.

Ecuadoreans will choose their next president in a Nov. 26 run-off between leftist Rafael Correa and conservative Alvaro Noboa after a tight Sunday election.

Rodas was the country's fourth economy minister since Palacio came to power on April of last year after his predecessor Lucio Gutierrez was toppled by popular turmoil.

Rodas was the author of a bill to create a special trust fund for revenues from the oil fields once operated by U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.

The fund, which Ecuador's Congress is debating, would use the cash to invest in the country's weakening energy sector. The ministry expects the country to receive up to $1.3 billion every year from the sale of crude extracted from Occidental's former fields.

Ecuador, one of South America's largest oil producers, terminated its contract Occidental and took over the company's fields in May after a long-running legal dispute.

From Reuters.

Count failure mires Ecuador election

Tuesday 17 October 2006

The probable candidates in Ecuador's presidential runoff vote have begun trading blows, but the collapse of the electoral counting system means some votes are yet to be counted and has angered voters.

Alvaro Noboa, a billionaire banana magnate, had won 26.7 per cent of the votes counted from Sunday's vote and will likely face Rafael Correa, a left-wing former economy minister who won 22.5 per cent, in a second round vote on November 26.

However, counting had to be suspended on Sunday with only 70 per cent of the ballots counted, after a vote-counting system that cost $5m broke down.

On Monday, election officials sacked E-Vote, the Brazilian company responsible for the system.

Correa had been leading in the early count before the computers crashed. Once counting resumed, Correa found himself behind and cried foul.

Chavez criticism

"We won," he said, accusing his rival and election authorities of fraud. "The people are being cheated".

Hundreds of protesters gathered and chanted outside the election tribunal's offices, some demanding a new election.

Meanwhile, the conservative Noboa said Correa's ties with Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, and Cuba would lead to his defeat.

"The people have just given the biggest lashing you can give to a friend of terrorism, a friend of Chavez, a friend of Cuba," Noboa said.

Policy tactic

A candidate must earn 40 per cent of the ballots with a 10-point lead over the runner-up to win the contest in the first round.

However, Santiago Nieto, a local political analyst, said Noboa may have pulled ahead by launching specific proposals.

"While Correa was making confrontational statements, Noboa, who is the richest man in Ecuador, was able to come up with specific ideas about creating jobs and solving problems in education and housing," Nieto said.

Rafael Bielsa, head of an Organisation of American States observer team, said Sunday he had seen "no irregularity" in the polling.

From Aljazeera.

According to the first official numbers, Correa wins

17 of October 2006

After the scrutiny of 20% of votes, the members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), have announced that Rafael Correa holds first place with 25,61% of the valid votes.

The votes correspond in their majority to Azuay, Carchi, Imbabura, and Morona Santiago provinces, and a certain percentage from other provinces. Alvaro Noboa occupies second place with 24%.

This data was released in a press conference that representatives of the TSE gave at 19:30pm from within the building of that organisation, although two hundred demonstrators were outside demanding their resignation.

In order to enter the press conference, the representatives had to evade the demonstrators and, afterwards, had to remain for more than an hour on the premises. The representatives could only leave the building by hiding their identity.

According to the president of TSE, Xavier Cazar, from yesterday citizens should concern themselves only with official data from the Supreme Tribunal, because the contract with the company E-VOTE, who had promised quick results, was cancelled.

The representatives declared that the scrutiny of votes by the president and vice-president he would be 100% ready by the morning. They called for Ecuadorians to remain calm, declaring that the data provided up until yesterday by E-VOTE must be ignored.

Cazar declared that none of the members of the Tribunal have presented their resignation and that, in addition, they count on the support of the president of the Republic and the Armed Forces.

Translated from La Hora.

Noboa, Correa Head To Runoff In Ecuador

16 October, 2006

Quito, Ecuador — A banana magnate who portrays himself as a friend of the poor and a young economist close to Venezuela's mercurial president, Hugo Chavez, were statistically tied after voters in this chronically unstable country cast ballots Sunday, according to exit polls. The presidential candidates now appear headed to a runoff on Nov. 26.

Exit polls after voting ended showed that Alvaro Noboa, 55, one of the wealthiest men in Latin America, had finished slightly ahead of Rafael Correa, 43, a charismatic former finance minister who has sharply criticized the Bush administration. The difference between the candidates in two exit polls, however, was fewer than 2 percentage points — a virtual dead heat.

The surveys showed that no candidate in the field of 13 came close to obtaining the 40 percent necessary to avoid a second round.

The election in this tiny, mountainous country of 13 million has attracted widespread attention beyond its borders because of the rapid rise of Correa, an economist who promises to overturn Ecuador's old economic order and calls for a constitutional assembly that could dissolve Congress.

Calling himself a friend of Chavez, who has become Washington's leading antagonist in Latin America, Correa says his government would shutter a U.S. military base in Ecuador, crack down on foreign multinationals and possibly declare a moratorium on payment of the country's $10 billion foreign debt. If he wins next month, he would join a growing list of left-leaning leaders elected since 2002.

“He's prepared, and we need someone who knows how to run things,” said Fanny Ceron, 38, a nurse, moments after casting her ballot for Correa. “We need someone who comes from the people. The others are just moneyed people. They want power. They have the money, but no ideas.”

Correa, though, would face a furious challenge from Noboa, who has spent $2.5 million on his campaign to cast himself as a populist, far more than any other candidate. At campaign rallies, Noboa gives away T-shirts, wheelchairs and even cash. He pays for mobile medical clinics run by his wife, Anabella Azin, a physician who also has political aspirations.

And his campaign ads have attacked Correa as a dangerous extremist who would align Ecuador with Venezuela and Fidel Castro's Cuba, bringing more instability to a country that has had seven presidents in a decade.

“Correa is selling hope,” said Blasco Penaherrera, a businessman and president of the Quito Chamber of Commerce who does not support Correa. “I'm sure his opponents are going to sell panic.”

Noboa surged in the past three weeks. He was a distant fourth as recently as Sept. 20, according to the Cedatos-Gallup polling firm in Quito. But Noboa, who falls to his knees before supporters invoking the word of God, quickly gained and in recent days surpassed Leon Roldos, a former vice president who had led but began a fast slide last month.

Sunday afternoon, after the televised release of exit polls, Noboa charged that Ecuador would become another Cuba under Correa. “Rafael Correa's posture is communist, dictatorial,” he said on Ecuadoran television.

The campaign has resonated with people such as Jorge Teran, 46, a technician who is fed up with how backward Ecuador is. He said he likes Noboa's plans to increase the state oil company's production and his promise to build affordable housing and create jobs. Teran also said he feels Noboa might benefit from divine intervention.

“I think he brings up God so often that he must have sensibilities in his soul,” Teran said.

Correa has appealed to Ecuadorans who are tired of a chaotic and corruption-riddled political system. Three presidents have been toppled since 1997, the last one, Lucio Gutierrez, just last year after a bloc of Congress voted him out. Fistfights are not uncommon in Congress, nor is scandal.

And even though Ecuador is the continent's second-largest exporter of oil to the United States, after Venezuela, most of its people are poor and underemployed.

“We've had lots of populists here,” said Vladimir Pena, 33, an accountant. “And what happens is they last six months, and that's it.”

He invalidated his ballot.

From The Day.

The “Ecuadorian Chávez” - Will Correa mobilise the masses to defeat the fraud?

By: Cesar Zelada

14/10/2006)

This Sunday October 15, the Ecuadorian elections are being celebrated and surveys are favouring the leftist Rafael Correa with 37% of the votes, while the social-democrat Roldós and the right-wing multi-millionaire Noboa have 19% and 18% respectively (according to Cedatos surveys). This ex-Minister of Economy began to monopolize world attention by his declarations of support for Hugo Chavez and his support for a Socialism of the 21^st Century, producing hysteria within the forces of the Right and Imperialism.

The international press is discussing ways to prevent a victory for the Ecuadorian Chávez. The IMF has begun legal intimidation of the Palacio administration over the contract renegotiations with OXY. Because of this, Correa, leader of Movimiento Alianza Pais (Country Alliance Movement - MAP), has anounced that there is a pro-Imperialist electoral fraud being organised to prevent his victory.

But why has Correa, and not Macas or Larrea (of the Bolivarian Alfarist Alternative), become the popular alternative? Probably because the indigenous movement was weakened by its involvement in a nationalist-indigenous coalition government with Gutiérrez. But also because Correa, a product of the pressure of the masses, has learnt to unite with the political sentiment of the people.

Ecuador has been undergoing a revolutionary process since 2000 when the nationalist-indigenous insurrection overthrew Mahuad and raised the question of political power. In truth, the power was in the hands of the natives and workers for 7 hours. From then until the present time, several presidents have fallen before the “forajido" ('outlaw') insurrection that finished with Gutiérrez in April of 2005. Vice-president Palacio assumed the mandate to direct the present elections. In Ecuador, political instability is the norm.

It is because of this situation of a deep systemic crisis that the outsider Correa, who is a bourgeois democrat, has radicalized his speech, declaring that he will not sign the Free Trade Agreement with the USA, that he will expel the Yankee base from Manta, place a moratorium of the external debt, etc. In addition, he is running for the presidency without running candidates for Parliament (this institution is rejected by 97% of population), because he argues that his government his will convoke a plenipotentiary Constituent Assembly; that is to say - he will dissolve the Parliament.

In a recent speech, echoing Chávez’ speech in the UN, he said that to call Bush the Devil is an insult to the Devil because the Devil is intelligent. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider that Ecuadorian support for Chávez is strong. This is due to contracts signed with Palacio to refine petroleum. “If Ecuador exported 500,000 barrels of processed oil this would mean 10.5 million dollars per day, that is 3,700 million per year, almost 50 percent of the budget of Ecuador.” stated Chavez in when he was in Quito in June of this year.

On the other hand, Rafael Correa also said that the FARC are a group of guerrillas and not terrorists.

In another speech in the town Latacunga he declared, “the elites have robbed us of everything for a long time, now it is time for us to recover everything, we are going to recover our petroleum, our country, our future."

This is why the hairs of the Ecuadorian oligarchy and Imperialism are standing on end. They understand that a government of Correa would be, like that of Evo Morales, very susceptible to popular pressure, creating better conditions for political organisation, mobilisation and education. This will stimulate the workers to conduct revolutionary activities, paving the way for social revolution. For that reason they have indicated the need to prevent his electoral victory by organising a fraud like they did against Humala in Peru or Lopez Obrador in Mexico.

In fact, the events in the land of Emiliano Zapata and all of Latin America also exert a leftwards pressure on the “Ecuadorian Chávez”. A victory for Correa, would imply, dialectically, a political demoralization of the right and the empire. Equally, an electoral victory for the counterevolution would empower it to consolidate its 'anti-chavista' front, and to overthrow the bolivarian and indigenous leaders.

According to the rules of electoral game, the future president of Ecuador needs to obtain 40% plus one of valid votes and to have a 10% lead over the candidate in second place. If these rules are respected, then, most probably, the “forajido” Correa will be the next chief executive in the land of Alfaro.

For now, we must wait until the 15 of October to see if the reformist candidate Rafael Correa has learned the lessons of democratic anger from Lopez Obrador in Mexico and mobilises the masses to overcome the electoral fraud and become the new president of the liberal Republic of Ecuador, or if he prefers the obscurity, conciliation and inconsequentiality of Ollanta Humala in Peru.

Translated from Argenpress.

Partial results: Ecuador to hold runoff

Monty Hayes

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's presidential election heads to a second round after a banana tycoon who favors strong relations with the U.S. narrowly defeated a leftist admirer of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in the first round on Sunday.

With 60 percent of the ballots counted, Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man, surprised many political analysts by leading with 26.8 percent of Sunday's vote, compared to 22.3 percent for Rafael Correa, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. Correa had topped the latest polls before the election.

A Nov. 26 runoff had been expected as none of the 13 candidates appeared likely to win outright in recent weeks. The winner needed 50 percent, or at least 40 percent of the valid vote and a 10-point lead over the rest of the field to avoid a runoff.

Correa, 43, a tall and charismatic firebrand, urged his followers to keep a close watch on the official vote count, warning that if he doesn't win, "it means fraud and grave irregularities."

"We have to win by such a wide margin in the second round ... that they can't deny the citizens' victory," he said at a news conference, insisting that his vote total was at least 10 percentage points higher.

Noboa, 55, countered that Correa was acting like a "spoiled brat" because voters had given him "a whipping." The businessman, making his third run for the presidency, had moved up quickly in the polls in recent days.

"In the second round there are two clearly defined options," Noboa said. "The people will have to choose between Rafael Correa's position, a communist, dictatorial position like that of Cuba, where people earn $12 a month, and my position, which is that of Spain, Chile, the United States, Italy, where there is liberty and democracy."

Earlier Sunday, Correa had demanded that the Organization of American States remove the head of its election observation team, accusing him of failing to recognize irregularities in the vote. The chief observer, former Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, denied he was biased and said Ecuador was meeting international standards for a clean election.

Correa has also accused the U.S. of meddling in the election.

Both U.S. and Venezuelan officials - apparently wary of tilting the race with ill-advised comments, as both have done in recent Latin American elections - have been studiously silent about the rise of Correa, who last month called President Bush "tremendously dimwitted."

Correa had surged toward the end of the campaign by pledging to mount a "citizens' revolution" against the discredited political system. That resonated with Ecuadoreans, who forced the last three elected presidents from power.

A victory by him would further push Latin America to the left, with Ecuador joining left-leaning governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

Correa, who has a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois, is new to politics. He served just 106 days last year as finance minister under interim President Alfredo Palacio, who replaced Lucio Gutierrez in the midst of street protests in April 2005.

Correa has said he opposes a free-trade pact with the U.S. and would not renew in 2009 an agreement that allows the U.S. to use an Ecuadorean military base for drug surveillance flights.

He also vowed to renegotiate contracts with oil companies to secure more profits for his country's coffers. Although a relatively small producer, Ecuador's 535,000 barrels a day account for 43 percent of the national budget.

Noboa, who drove a red Mercedes Benz to a polling station to vote, thanked Ecuador's poor for their support and said he would keep his promises.

Noboa, who owns 110 companies and says he's Ecuador's biggest investor, has pledged to use his business skills to bring Ecuador's poor into the middle class. Many Ecuadoreans have been attracted to his promises to provide cheap housing and create a million jobs in this small Andean nation of 13.4 million people, 76 percent of whom are poor, according to UNICEF.

Public opinion analyst Luis Eladio Proano said the "rise of Alvaro Noboa in the preferences is due to his concrete offers. He touched the principle needs of the Ecuadorean people."

With a Bible under his arm and frequent references to God in his speeches, Noboa had crisscrossed Ecuador, handing out computers, medicine and money.

Standing in line to vote in a school patio in Quito's colonial center, Julio Lopez, a 55-year-old tailor, said he planned cast his ballot for Correa.

"If he governs well, perfect. But if he doesn't, we'll use the same belt he used for his campaign to run him out of office," he said. During the race Correa brandished a belt and promised to "give the lash" to the country's corrupt politicians.

But Carmen Ibarra, a 42-year-old housewife, said her vote was for Noboa because "he knows a lot about business and that will help a lot in government."

Associated Press

Ecuador's Elections: Winds of Change?

October 10, 2006

Orlando Oramas Leon

With a string of seven presidents over the last turbulent decade, Ecuador is gearing up for elections on Sunday with a big field and three candidates topping the polls; two of them are promising stability, and the leader, Rafael Correa, proposes peaceful revolution towards socialism of the 21st Century.

In his speeches, Correa contrasts '21st century socialism' with capitalism

Rafael Correa, 43, has several advantages over his closest rivals, former vice president Leon Roldos, from the Red Democratica- Izquierda Democratica Alliance, tycoon Alvaro Novoa, and Cynthia Viteri, from the Social Christian Party, with only a few days remaining before the October 15 vote.

Also in the race is Luis Macas, leader of the activist Indigenous Nationalities Confederation, reorganized after the betrayal by former president Lucio Gutierrez.

A second round runoff election will be held in November if no candidate wins more than half the vote or at least 40 percent with a 10-percent advantage over the nearest challenger.

Correa, who briefly held the post of Minister of Treasury (Economy), lost his job after he suggested the funnelling of foreign debt payments to fund urgent social programs. His idea was not well received by the international financial bodies, but he still upholds it today.

This is precisely why Wall Street is concerned about Correa and his Alianza Pais (County Alliance) coalition leading the polls. The candidate has said that, if he is elected, he will stop making debt payments if there is a substantial drop in oil prices, an important source of revenue for the Ecuadorian economy.

Ecuador currently pays more to cover interest on its debt than what it budgets for education. Despite its oil wealth, the overwhelming majority of its indigenous population live below the poverty line, with widespread unemployment and marginalization.

Correa has also voiced support for the revision of contracts with foreign oil corporations, which, like in Bolivia's case, are taking away the lion's share of revenues.

The presidential candidate is critical of neoliberalism and defends a lead role for the state in the country's economic and social life. He has vowed to oppose the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and turn the country's monetary reserves into an instrument of national investment.

Correa sees Latin American integration as urgent and as a counterweight to any Free Trade Agreement with the United States. In contrasting socialism with neoliberalism, he proposes a Constitutional Assembly to rewrite the nation's constitution to strengthen the country's institutions and give the citizenry more power.

'We have to leave the lies of neoliberalism behind and search for what in Latin America is known as the Socialism of the 21st Century,' said Correa recently at a news conference in which he voiced support for a 'radical, profound and quick' change.

His relationship with Washington will not be easy, most of all with respect to the future of the military base that the US maintains in Manta under the pretext of fighting drug-trafficking.

Correa does not hide his ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with whom he shares an open friendship and coincidences on several political ideas.

It does not come as a surprise then to see his political adversaries accusing him of receiving Venezuelan financing, the very same tactic that was used against presidential candidates Shafick Handal in El Salvador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Ollanta Humala in Peru.

Notwithstanding the results of the forthcoming elections, which are likely to be decided in a runoff, the progress of the positions being defended by Correa come as part and parcel of the tendencies that are prevailing in the continent and are likely to surface in other upcoming elections as well.

From Granma.

Ecuador election reveals deep social divisions

By Hal Weitzman
10/10/2006

Ecuador is no stranger to political confrontation. When Lucio Gutiérrez, the country's last elected president, stepped down in April 2005 in the face of violent protests in Quito, he became the third head of state in eight years to be forced from office early. In recent months, the Andean country has been hit with unrest in the eastern jungle region aimed at foreign investors in the oil sector and demonstrations in the highlands against a trade pact with the US.

But as Ecuador approaches general elections on Sunday, there are fears of a new wave of social conflict in one of the region's most divided societies. Rafael Correa, a radical nationalist closely linked to Hugo Chávez, the anti-American firebrand president of Venezuela, looks set to top the poll, although he is forecast to fall short of the 40 per cent mark needed to avoid a second round in November.

Whomever Mr Correa faces in that second round, it will pit his "citizens' revolution" against the country's traditional political forces. Mr Correa's candidacy has been negative from its inception – promising to take on the power of vested interests. Advisers to León Roldós, the centre-leftist opinion polls say is most likely to meet him in the November 26 run-off, are already planning to intensify their negative campaign against Mr Correa.

That sets up more than a month of bitter electoral warfare in what is already a sharply divisive presidential race. In a country whose recent political history has been marked by instability, it is a prospect that many fear could lead to conflict.

"We are being threatened with more of the same – with more violence, chaos, insecurity and instability," Cynthia Viteri, one of Mr Correa's conservative rivals, said last week.

Polibio Córdova, a former central bank president who runs Cedatos, a polling organisation in Quito, says that since the country returned to democracy in 1979, Ecuadorians have "never seen such a great confrontation between two models of government, economic management and style of leadership".

In recent speeches across the country, Mr Correa has repeatedly told his supporters to brace themselves for electoral fraud. "Correa's using that accusation to make a larger point about the establishment being against him," says Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington. "This can only heighten the risk of real confrontation and instability. It's hard to envisage a scenario in which that confrontation is reduced – at least in the short term."

Many in Ecuador fear that should Mr Correa lose in the second round, he would imitate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist who narrowly lost Mexico's presidential election in July and has staged street protests ever since. "What has happened in Mexico could certainly set a precedent," says John Crabtree of the Latin American Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford University.

That could be very unsettling in a country beset by divisions and in which presidents have been toppled by relatively small street demonstrations. Mr Crabtree notes that even in the turbulent Andean context, Ecuador is a very fractured country, with deep social, economic, ethnic and geographical differences.

But should Mr Correa ultimately triumph, social peace also seems remote. His Allianza País party is not putting forward any candidates for Congress, which is widely seen as a discredited and corrupt institution. If he wins, Mr Correa has vowed to convene a constituent assembly to undermine the legislature. That would be likely to provoke a drawn-out war between Mr Correa and the traditional parties, fought between the branches of government themselves.

"The Congress that will be elected on October 15 will by definition be anti-Correa," says Mr Córdova. "He says that sovereignty comes from the citizens and if it tries to block him, he will mobilise the people against Congress. That will make political instability worse."

There is general agreement on the need to reform a system that has contributed to so much political turmoil, but, in the words of César Montúfar, a columnist at the El Comercio daily in Quito, "the problem of political reform is not so much the what as the how". That thorny question seems certain to provoke conflict between Mr Correa and the political establishment.

The candidate himself does not deny that his approach is combative, but argues that social divisions are natural in a system that has not worked for the underprivileged.

"Polarisation springs from the difference between rich and poor," he says.

From Euro2day.

An Axis of Outcasts?

By Paul Henry,
Posted on Tue Oct 10th, 2006 at 07:23:55 PM EST

During a 2 hour flight delay Friday I was roaming around the George Bush Intercontinental Airport looking for something to read since I had finished the novel I had brought with me from Ecuador and was traveling on a NarcoNews type budget and could not afford a newspaper. I found an abandoned copy of the Friday, October 6th Wall Street Journal and sat down to pass some time. I found a column in the opinion pages titled "Will Ecuador Join the Axis of Outcasts?" by Mary Anastasia O'Grady.

The column turned out to be a hysterical bashing of the popular presidential candidate Rafael Correa. My thought upon finishing the column was; Has this woman ever been to Ecuador or spoken to an Ecuadorian? I don't have the time or resources to fact check all of her wild claims, but will comment on a few statements that clashed badly with common sense or with my experience as a resident of Ecuador.

She states:

If he makes it to the seat of power in Quito, he has made it clear that Ecuador will join the Latin American axis of outcasts-Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina-and make the U.S. an official enemy.

O'Grady's characterization of the growing list of Latin American countries that have chosen paths not prescribed by Washington as outcasts rings more hollow as the list gets longer. I wondered why she
omitted Brazil. President Lula certainly has strayed from the Washington script. Could it be that including Brazil would have made the "outcasts" represent the majority of the population of South America, hardly
fitting the definition of outcast. The bit about making the U.S. an official enemy is just silly.

She follows that gem with:

A Correa presidency would be a negative for Colombia too, which would have to deal with hostile states on two borders along with home-grown narcoterrorism.

Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia certainly have not broken down to open hostilities while I was not paying attention, have they? The only thing that I can think of that Ecuadorians agree on
almost unanimously, is their desire to not get involved in Colombia's violence. The unraveling of the Gutierrez presidency began with the embracing of Bush and Uribe. Ecuadorians were terrified by Lucio's statement that he would be Bush's "mejor aliado en la region." I can't imagine Correa would be either hostile or overly friendly with Uribe. My spell check has rightly underlined narcoterrorism as a figment of Ms. O'Grady's imagination.

It just gets better:

Yet what is most troubling is Mr. Correa's pledge to raze the political system and rebuild it to insure his long-term agenda. . . . . . . If some Ecuadorians are frightened by Mr. Correa, it's
because he has made clear his intention to follow Mr. Chávez's path to unchecked power.

From what I have heard from Correa's campaign, he is promising to deliver the popular referendum and the constituent assembly that the social movements have been demanding for years. I guess what O'Grady
means by following Chávez's path to unchecked power is that Correa intends to gain the popular support of a majority of the electorate. I'm sure some Ecuadorians (his political opponents) are frightened by that plan because it seems to be working. Authentic democracy does seem to scare the hell out of the oligarchs.

After O'Grady finishes trying to label Correa as a scary Chávez political clone, she switches to dire warnings about his economic policies. I don't have the expertise, the facts, or the patience to critique all of her claims, but a few statements certainly got my attention.

She writes:

Dollarization, which brought inflation down to 3.1% from persistent double-digit levels in the 1990's, is so popular--70% of Ecuadorans [sic] love it-- . . . . Yet all his other policies, which are designed to choke off foreign investment, close down international commerce . . . .

I lived through dollarization, it was no picnic. The first year brought 100% inflation at a time when the Ecuadorian economy was suffering a banking crisis, and many people had just lost all their savings. A full 10% of the population abandoned the country to seek work abroad. 70% of Ms. O'Grady's Ecuadorian friends may love dollarization, but I have yet to meet a single Ecuadorian who does. I don't know what policies were designed to "choke off foreign investment" and "close down international commerce", she doesn't specify exactly how Mr. Correa intends to do these things, and I must have missed the speech in which he laid out his plans for the destruction of Ecuador's economy.

Basically Correa has tapped the anti-establishment sentiment that is strong among Ecuadorians. He has captured the attention of the people with his promise to "Dale Correa" (whip) the political establishment
and their corruption. Of course all presidential candidates in Ecuador claim they will end corruption. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the corporate press will follow O'Grady's lead, and treat Mr. Correa as they have President Chávez. If the U.S. government relations with a Correa presidency follow the path they have with President Chávez, things could get very interesting since the U.S. has a military presence in Ecuador.

From The NarcoSphere.

Ecuador looks to the left as election looms

October 6, 2006.

Rafael Correa is three hours late, and the 4,000 people in the shabby square of Latacunga, a poor highland town some 120km south of Quito, are starting to look bored.

They listen politely while a nine-year-old boy wails bolero standards precociously into a microphone.

"We have waited all our lives for this revolution," pleads one of the organisers between songs. "Please, let's wait a few minutes more."

The crowd, more bemused than excited, has gathered to see the radical leftwing frontrunner in the race to be Ecuador's next president.

Mr Correa, a former finance minister, has promised to shut the US military base in Ecuador, restructure the country's external debt and renegotiate contracts with foreign investors in the oil industry such as Repsol of Spain, Brazil's Petrobras, Andes Petroleum of China and Perenco of France.

While his policy platform has endeared him to voters, it has worried Wall Street and Washington - the price of Ecuador's dollar bonds has been falling with each new rise in his popularity.

Merrill Lynch downgraded the country's weighting in its model portfolio last week for the second time in a month, citing Mr Correa's growing lead in the polls.

When Mr Correa eventually arrives in Latacunga, he is wildy energetic: he bounds on to the stage wearing a broad grin and clad in his campaign colours of lime green and blue.

Rock music blares and he dances and waves, pausing to accept flowers, fruit and a striped poncho.

"The political and economic elites have stolen everything from us, but they cannot steal our hope," he begins, in Quichua, the indigenous language of the highlands. "We will take back our oil, our country, our future."

With less than two weeks to go until the October 15 elections, Mr Correa's support has risen quickly to 33 per cent, against 22 per cent for León Roldós, the centre-leftwinger who is his nearest rival, according to Cedatos, a respected local pollster.

Mr Correa needs 40 per cent of the vote to win outright and avoid a second round run-off in November.

It is a tall order: no pre-sidential candidate has ever won more than 35 per cent in the first round. To doit, he will need to winmore votes in rural areas from among the 40 per cent of voters who are still un-decided. Unlike other allies of Hugo Chávez, the bombastic Venezuelan leader, his support is largely urban.

His visit to Latacunga is aimed at improving his showing in the countryside.

On the stump, Mr Correa is charming, enthusiastic and confident. He is also blessed with poor opposition: Mr Roldós is a wooden and awkward campaigner.

After leading the polls for many months, Mr Roldós has been steadily dropping a point a week since the start of last month.

Mr Correa has also run a well-crafted campaign that has tapped into Ecuadoreans' hostility both to their own political class and to the US administration of President George W. Bush.

Ecuador's Congress, dominated by traditional parties, is widely loathed, and Mr Correa has declared war on its corrupt "partidocracy".

His Allianza País party is not fielding any Congressional candidates, leaving him free to focus on his own campaign. In office Mr Correa has promised to call an assembly to rewrite the constitution, undermining the power of the legislature.

By contrast, Mr Roldós always appears in election posters with his party'scongressional candidates, reinforcing his connection with the discredited institution.

Mr Correa has also successfully tapped into anti-US sentiment. Polls show a slim majority of voters agree with both his opposition to restarting derailed trade talks with the US and his demand that Manta, Washington's only military base in South America, be shut.

"George W. Bush is a terrorist and a warmonger who wants to impose his will on the rest of the world," Lenin Moreno, Mr Correa's vice-presidential candidate, told the Financial Times.

Mr Correa said last week that Mr Chávez's comparison of Mr Bush with Satan was unfair to the devil.

The Roldós camp is still confident it can force a second round, in which it hopes to emulate Alan García's presidential election victory this year in Peru by attacking Mr Correa's connection with Mr Chávez.

But attitudes towards the Venezuelan leader in Ecuador are very different from Peru. In a continent-wide survey this year by Cima, a regional pollster, 86 per cent of Ecuadorean respondents expressed admiration for Mr Chávez - a higher figure than in Venezuela itself.

The Chávez factor may not come into play if Mr Correa can win outright next week.

Back in Latacunga, Rodrigo Vizuete, a toothless man whose breath smells of alcohol, is unconvinced. "They all lie. They say they'll help us and they never do," he slurs. "But Correa's still better than the others."

Zmag.

Ecuador Election Frontrunners Would Keep Dollarisation

Friday October 6th, 2006

The debate was heated, with Correa and Noboa in particular trading barbs.

The four candidates offered more transparency in awarding government contracts and fighting corruption, as well as legal security to attract foreign investment.

Correa said he would prevent inflows of short-term speculative capital but would encourage productive investments.

He said he aimed to develop local production and employment and, in a swipe at globalization, said he wouldn't have anything to do with "silly opening" of the economy.

The candidates were divided over a proposed free trade agreement with the U.S. Correa said he would not sign any trade deal, while Noboa and Viteri said they would, and Roldos said he would put the deal to a referendum.

Correa ruled out any need to nationalize Ecuador's oil industry, saying that the law already determines that hydrocarbon reserves belong to the state.

Roldos said he would draw up new laws to encourage local and international investments, while Noboa promised less state intervention in the business sector as a way promoting investments.
Viteri said she would seek to reduce the violence, instability and poverty that have pushed millions of Ecuadoreans to migrate abroad.

Correa said he would seek ties with other Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In an oblique reference to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, however, Correa did say that he would use Bolivarian ideals "not to build a great trade agreement but to build a great nation." Chavez has based much of his ideology on the Latin American integration dream of independence-era leader Simon Bolivar.

Noboa said he would not have anything to do with Cuba and Venezuela while Roldos said he would seek further ties with other Andean countries and the Mercosur trade bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

From EasyBourse actualité.

Ecuador Elections Enter Final Stage

Quito, Oct 6 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadorian candidates are fine-tuning their final campaigns for the October 15 presidential elections in important cities and provinces, hoping to convince the undecided.

Most of the candidates have planned their last rallies in Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca and Manabi, with their significant number of potential votes.

Leon Roldos (Red Democratica), with most of his support from people over 50 and with little to offer except governing without confrontation, seems unlikely to make it to a second round. Roldos will be campaigning in Quito at the same time as Ramiro Gonzalez (Izquierda Democratica Coalition).

Rafael Correa (leftist Alianza Pais), favored in the polls, calls for profound changes to end neoliberalism and join South American integration.

The ex economy minister enjoys support from young people, including university students, as well as the social and popular movements that helped topple President Lucio Gutierrez in April 2005.

His radical stand frightens the conservative forces, who are considered to have become rich at the expense of the workers.

Local analysts say the conservatives plan to vote for millionaire businessman Alvaro Noboa, due to the declining popularity of Social Christian Cynthia Viteri, if Noboa reaches the runoff.

Noboa (Renovador Institucional Party-Prian), has won support by touring the slums with gifts, handouts and fantastic promises to create one million jobs.

The conservatives are already working to prevent Correa"s win and if the Prian reaches the runoff, it will enjoy broad support from the business sectors.

From Prensa Latina.

Ecuador Leftist Sees Merits of Alliance with Chavez

October 4, 2006

By Alonso Soto

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuadorean presidential frontrunner Rafael Correa, sensing the poor majority relishes anti-U.S. rhetoric, is reaping the rewards of an alliance with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in the run-up to the October 15 election.

Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro have already formed a left-wing triumvirate with Chavez's protege Bolivian President Evo Morales, and Wall Street is worried that Correa could bring Ecuador into the anti-U.S. club.

After Chavez labeled President Bush "the devil" at last month's U.N. General Assembly, Correa quipped that Satan should feel insulted by being compared to an intellectual inferior.

Such jibes play well in Quito where walls are scrawled with anti-U.S. graffiti and murals of Uncle Sam vomiting fire. The heavily fortified U.S. embassy is a hotspot for protests.

"I really like Chavez because he is the only leader who is able to stand up to U.S. imperialism, " said 23-year-old accounting student Marco Benitez.

Correa is daring to invoke Chavez although the Venezuelan president's vocal interference in the Mexican and Peruvian elections jinxed leftists leading the polls.

Emulating Chavez appears to be paying dividends with Correa pulling his way up from third place in polls as his rhetoric hots up.

An Informe Confidencial poll on Tuesday gave U.S-educated Correa 27 percent support in the presidential race, a lead of 10 points over his center-left rival Leon Roldos.

Many Ecuadoreans see U.S. oil companies as plundering their natural resources. Correa has made election pledges to increase state control over energy and restructure the foreign debt burden, running at 26 percent of gross domestic product.

ENDING FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

Such moves follow Chavez, who has won huge support at home by stripping foreign firms of controlling stakes in oil projects and increasing duties on the majors.

Correa parades his friendship with Chavez and his rhetoric often echoes that of the pugnacious Venezuelan orator, praising Chavez's hero, 19th-century commander Simon Bolivar, and his vision of a united Latin America.

"A place has emerged for anti-imperialistic radicalism that can work in your favor in the election," said Felipe Burbano, a sociology professor at Quito's Latin American Facility of Social Sciences.

"This anti-U.S. message and nationalist posture has proved really successful over the last two years... Ecuadoreans like charismatic leadership like that of Chavez," he added.

Caracas has flown sick Ecuadoreans to Venezuela for treatment by Cuban doctors. Correa's opponents have accused him of taking campaign funds from Chavez, a charge Correa rejects.

Although Correa knows the merits of associating himself with Chavez, the Venezuelan president has remained uncharacteristicall y taciturn in his support for Correa.

"A direct intervention in the campaign like in Peru or Mexico could affect Correa," said Burbano.

Several people on the streets of Quito said Ecuador could not emulate Venezuela's high-spending revolution.

"I think Correa could be a great leader like Chavez, but you have to understand the two countries are very different," said 52-year-old salesman Fabian Salazar.

Chavez has managed to fund his massive social spending with oil exports of comfortably over two million barrels per day (bpd). Ecuador, with a population half that of Venezuela, exports something over a humble 300,000 bpd.

From Reuters.

Rafael Correa in Cuba, Feb 9, 2006 - "'Free trade' means inequality in Latin America"

February 9, 2006.

José A. de la Osa
delaosa@granma.cip.cu

The idea that the free trade is always beneficial, and benefits all, is simply a deceit or extreme naivety and does not stand up to a deep theoretical, empirical or historical analysis, maintained Dr Rafael Correa, former Ecuadorian Finance Minister, yesterday, on the third day of VIII International Encounter of Economists on Globalisation and Problems of Development that closes tomorrow in Havana. He indicated that while suitable specialization and commerce between countries with similar levels of development can be of great mutual benefit, trade liberalisation between economies with greater differentiation in productivity and competitiveness poses serious risks for less developed countries.

It can even destroy the productive base, destroying jobs while remaining unable to create new ones, a situation constituting “a true social explosion”.

In the case of Latin America, for example, evidence already exists that the “opening-up” of trade has produced de-industrialisation in the region and greater difficulty in generating jobs in manufacturing. Correa, in his contribution on the topic “The Sophistry of Free Trade”, clarified that in a book that he is writing he will replace the term “sophistry” by the one of “deceit” because it is more in tune with reality, and pointed out that wherever there was more evidence of free trade and “opening-up”, all across Latin America in recent years, poverty has not been reduced and inequality has increased.

They want to take us deeper into a model that has been tremendously harmful for the region and that is extrapolated from the supposed competence of the markets, which is already quite questionable concerning economic factors inside a country, and is an absurdity between countries.

The plenary session began yesterday with a contribution from Osvaldo Kacef, official in charge of the Economic Development Division of CEPAL, who spoke of the perspectives for growth in Latin America and presented the challenges that face the economies of our countries.

Better, sustained, distribution aids growth, and it has been demonstrated that a more equitable society grows more also.

Increased expenditure on education and health increases human capital and allows, therefore, an increase in the productivity of lower income sectors and the incorporation of more available resources for meeting growth targets.

In reference to the growth cited by Kacef in his contribution on the area, a Bolivian delegate asked, why, if economic growth had taken place in the region, was there so much poverty, so much misery in Latin America and the world?, and he recalled that one hundred thousand children die every seven seconds of hunger and disease because the so-called “Washington consensus” denies them the right to the food.

The plenary session also included a panel on multilateral commercial negotiations being put before problems of development, in which Jaime Estay, of Mexico, and Gladys Hernández, of Cuba, castigated the recent agreements of the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), carried out in Hong Kong, that clearly accelerate the process of liberalisation that the WTO is promoting the creation of on a planetary scale.

Translated from Granma.Cubaweb.