George Byrne, Quito
Green Left Weekly, 22 January 2010
Since 1993, oil giant Texaco, owned by Chevron since 2001, has been fighting an ongoing legal and publicity battle against an unlikely adversary.
Thirty thousand indigenous people of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest have accused the oil giant of massive and intentional environmental devastation from 1964-1990, leading to elevated cancer levels, unusually high numbers of birth defects and miscarriages, and many other health issues.
In the face of an impending verdict, Chevron continues to use increasingly manipulative tactics to delay, if not avoid, paying up to US$27 billion in reparations.
During almost 30 years of exploration and extraction in the Oriente region of Ecuador, Texaco built 916 open-air, unlined waste pits in the forest floor and dumped billions of gallons of toxic, highly saline waters into rivers, systematically exposing communities to toxins from a variety of sources on a daily basis.
Yet, Chevron is not attempting to rectify the damage. Instead, company lawyers and spokespeople deny that the risk of cancer has risen in oil-producing areas. It attributes other health issues to “poor sanitation”.
Now, in a small court in the jungle town of Nueva Loja, Judge Nicolas Augusto Zambrano Lozada is painstakingly reviewing 16 years of evidence in the biggest environmental lawsuit an oil company has ever faced.
Throughout the trial, Chevron has claimed a $40 million clean-up agreement, made between the government and Texaco in 1998, released them from liability. This “remediation” was little more than a whitewash, covering toxic waste pits with soil and claiming others had been “remediated” when, in reality, they had not been touched.
The fraudulent clean-up has led to the indictment of seven government officials who worked closely with Texaco during the remediation.
As traditional legal strategies have failed, Chevron has used a less conventional approach, promising the plaintiffs a “lifetime of litigation”.
The corporation began a major lobbying effort in Washington, pushing Congress and the US Trade Representative to threaten Ecuador's trade preferences under the Andean Trade Preferences Act, in the hope that the Ecuadorian government, headed by leftist President Rafael Correa, would intervene in the private lawsuit.
In an uncharacteristic admission, Chevron representative Kent Robertson said, “If we were able to call a timeout and make the lawsuit disappear, then this entire issue disappears”, according to Chevrontoxico.com.
The lobbying has been accompanied by an equally aggressive and suspicious internet-based media campaign.
Despite being the second-largest oil company in the US and spending millions of dollars every year on public relations, Chevron has become more and more reliant on bloggers and social networking sites as propaganda tools.
As well as paying for bloggers to visit Ecuador and taking them on tours of carefully selected “remediated” sites, Chevron has also used the internet to cast doubt on the legal system of Ecuador, despite having insisted the case be transferred there from New York in 2003.
In August 2009, a few months before the verdict was expected, Chevron released a collection of hidden camera videos, filmed in June, showing Judge Juan Nunez in meetings with two men, one Ecuadorian and one from the US.
In the tapes, Nunez is explaining the judicial system of Ecuador to the two men and Chevron claims that at one point he is asked by the US man if Chevron is guilty. Nunez responds off-camera “Si, senor” — yes sir. Those defending Nunez claim that it is unclear what he is responding to, due to the other man’s broken Spanish.
According to Amazonpost.com on August 31, Chevron executive vice president Charles James has said: “No judge who has participated in meetings of the type shown on these tapes could possibly deliver a legitimate decision.” Nunez claimed it was a trap on the part of Chevron, but he was forced to resign, delaying the verdict by at least three months.
Chevron denies any connection to the video, but it has been revealed that the Ecuadorian man appearing in the tapes, Diego Borja, has been connected to, and employed by, the company. The Ecuadorian government is investigating both the allegations of corruption and the legality of the video tapes themselves.
Whatever the outcome, Chevron has achieved its goal of buying time and delaying a verdict.
Now, in the build-up to the final hearing before a verdict is passed, Chevron is attempting to file a parallel international arbitration case in the Hague, Holland. The allegation that Ecuador’s judicial system cannot fairly adjudicate the long-running oil pollution litigation is another attempt to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the case brought against Chevron.
[For more information, or to sign a petition demanding Chevron deals appropriately with the situation, visit Chevrontoxico.com.]
Monday, January 25, 2010
Ecuador’s Correa condemns right-wing coup plot
Stuart Munckton
Green Left Weekly, 22 January 2010
Left-wing Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that a conspiracy to destabilise his country, funded by the right-wing factions in the United States, has been uncovered, a January 4 Juventud Rebelde article said.
During a television broadcast, Correa said: “Since they know they cannot beat us at the polls and that if tomorrow we were to hold an election we would win again … they are trying to confuse the military and police to turn them against the
government.”
Correa was first elected in 2006 on a platform of carrying out a pro-poor “citizen’s revolution”. Since then, the government has created anti-poverty social missions, increased the minimum wage, increased taxes on large oil companies, defaulted on Ecuador’s illegitimate foreign debt and, through an elected constituent assembly, created a new constitution approved by a referendum that extends the rights of the oppressed.
Last year, Ecuador also joined the anti-imperialist Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas political and trading bloc, which was formed by the revolutionary Venezuelan and Cuban governments.
In June last year, the elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, whose government had joined ALBA and implemented some pro-poor reforms, was overthrown in a coup led by US-trained military officers.
Correa said that certain sectors of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces are implicated in the
conspiracy to carry-out what he called a “Honduran-style” coup.
Green Left Weekly, 22 January 2010
Left-wing Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that a conspiracy to destabilise his country, funded by the right-wing factions in the United States, has been uncovered, a January 4 Juventud Rebelde article said.
During a television broadcast, Correa said: “Since they know they cannot beat us at the polls and that if tomorrow we were to hold an election we would win again … they are trying to confuse the military and police to turn them against the
government.”
Correa was first elected in 2006 on a platform of carrying out a pro-poor “citizen’s revolution”. Since then, the government has created anti-poverty social missions, increased the minimum wage, increased taxes on large oil companies, defaulted on Ecuador’s illegitimate foreign debt and, through an elected constituent assembly, created a new constitution approved by a referendum that extends the rights of the oppressed.
Last year, Ecuador also joined the anti-imperialist Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas political and trading bloc, which was formed by the revolutionary Venezuelan and Cuban governments.
In June last year, the elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, whose government had joined ALBA and implemented some pro-poor reforms, was overthrown in a coup led by US-trained military officers.
Correa said that certain sectors of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces are implicated in the
conspiracy to carry-out what he called a “Honduran-style” coup.
Ecuador: Victims of big oil speak
Green Left Weekly, 22 January 2010
Emergildo Criollo, 51, is a community leader of the indigenous Cofan nationality and has lived in Dureno since his small community was displaced from their ancestral lands. Since a massive oil spill in the 1960s contaminated the Aguarico River, his family and community have suffered untold side affects.
Two of his children have died. One never developed physically or mentally and died after six months. The other swam in the river the day a toxic pit nearby was cleaned out. He began to vomit black liquid and died less than 24 hours later.
Criollo’s wife has had her uterus removed due to cancer and is still sick; his aunt died of mouth cancer. He wants Chevron to take responsibility for Texaco’s actions and clean the contamination of the rivers and land. Without clean air and water, his community may not survive another generation.
Flor Tangoyo is a member of the indigenous Siona nationality and part of a small community near the Aguarico River, the biggest river in the Sucumbios province. The territory of the Siona has been dramatically reduced by oil exploration and extraction.
The land they have managed to keep has become contaminated with oil and waste products from the industry and their people are suffering from many illnesses. Tangoyo said the resulting social problems have particularly hurt women. Many women of her community have suffered sexual assaults from oil workers.
Women of the region have also suffered from severe reproductive problems including spontaneous miscarriage, reproductive cancers and birth defects in their children.
Servio Curipoma is a farm worker or campesino from the village of San Carlos in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has suffered enormously due to oil contamination caused by Texaco. The smell of crude oil on his land is unmistakable.
As our guide, also a plaintiff against Chevron, dug into the soil, the thick, black liquid began to seep from the ground. I was all too aware of what this meant to Curipoma. After all, this is his land, where he and his family have lived.
His father died from cancer on the day Curipoma’s son was born, and he later lost his mother, also to cancer. His family bought the land unaware it had been used as a waste pit and simply covered by soil when it was “remediated”.
He said he believed he also had cancer, but was too afraid to be tested. He does not want his children to experience the pain he endured watching his parents die.
Emergildo Criollo, 51, is a community leader of the indigenous Cofan nationality and has lived in Dureno since his small community was displaced from their ancestral lands. Since a massive oil spill in the 1960s contaminated the Aguarico River, his family and community have suffered untold side affects.
Two of his children have died. One never developed physically or mentally and died after six months. The other swam in the river the day a toxic pit nearby was cleaned out. He began to vomit black liquid and died less than 24 hours later.
Criollo’s wife has had her uterus removed due to cancer and is still sick; his aunt died of mouth cancer. He wants Chevron to take responsibility for Texaco’s actions and clean the contamination of the rivers and land. Without clean air and water, his community may not survive another generation.
Flor Tangoyo is a member of the indigenous Siona nationality and part of a small community near the Aguarico River, the biggest river in the Sucumbios province. The territory of the Siona has been dramatically reduced by oil exploration and extraction.
The land they have managed to keep has become contaminated with oil and waste products from the industry and their people are suffering from many illnesses. Tangoyo said the resulting social problems have particularly hurt women. Many women of her community have suffered sexual assaults from oil workers.
Women of the region have also suffered from severe reproductive problems including spontaneous miscarriage, reproductive cancers and birth defects in their children.
Servio Curipoma is a farm worker or campesino from the village of San Carlos in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has suffered enormously due to oil contamination caused by Texaco. The smell of crude oil on his land is unmistakable.
As our guide, also a plaintiff against Chevron, dug into the soil, the thick, black liquid began to seep from the ground. I was all too aware of what this meant to Curipoma. After all, this is his land, where he and his family have lived.
His father died from cancer on the day Curipoma’s son was born, and he later lost his mother, also to cancer. His family bought the land unaware it had been used as a waste pit and simply covered by soil when it was “remediated”.
He said he believed he also had cancer, but was too afraid to be tested. He does not want his children to experience the pain he endured watching his parents die.
Ecuador Rules Out Joint Military Operations with Colombia
QUITO Jan 23, 2010 – The Ecuadorian government said its armed forces have not carried out and have no plans for joint military operations with Colombia, though the two countries do share intelligence to avoid mistakes caused by “misinformation.”Security Minister Miguel Carvajal made the remarks on Friday, adding that Ecuadorian soldiers have the sovereign mission of ensuring national security, especially along the border with Colombia.
His comments were in response to a statement this week by Colombian Defense Minister Miguel Silva, who hailed the nations’ military cooperation after Ecuadorian soldiers repelled a group of Colombian FARC leftist rebels during a clash on Monday.
Silva said earlier this week that Carvajal had informed him that Ecuadorian troops killed three insurgents and dismantled a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia camp on Ecuador’s side of the border.
The slain guerrillas belonged to the FARC front that had been responsible for providing security to Raul Reyes, a top rebel commander who was killed in early 2008 in a Colombian military airstrike on his clandestine camp in Ecuador.
Silva also said the Ecuadorian action facilitated a Colombian military operation early Wednesday in which nine rebels from that same front were killed and six more were captured.
“It’s very important here to highlight the cooperation, the collaboration between our two countries, because both nations are victims of narco-terrorism,” Silva said.
But Carvajal told the Ecuadorinmediato news portal that “Ecuador is not conducting and won’t conduct joint or combined operations with the Colombian armed forces, not before and much less now.”
He said the Ecuadorian military was fulfilling its obligations in a sovereign manner, although he noted there is a mechanism in place to ensure the two armies’ operations are in sync, which is the Bi-National Border Commission, or Combifron.
That commission, made up of high-ranking military officers from both countries, “allows (the scheduling of) regular meetings, intelligence-sharing about military operations in each of the two countries to avoid any misinformation,” Carvajal added.
He said that before March 1, 2008 – when the Colombian military bombed a clandestine FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory without prior authorization, killing Reyes and 25 others – Bogota had thanked Quito for not tolerating Colombian guerrilla activity within its borders.
“After the bombing, that situation changed” and the Ecuadorian government was even accused of having ties with the FARC, and “now there’s once again this statement” of thanks, Carvajal said.
He was referring to accusations stemming from videos and other information Colombian authorities found on Reyes’ laptop computers, which were discovered after the airstrike.He stressed that the Ecuadorian government merely wants to make it clear that it will not tolerate “under any circumstances any activity by any illegal armed group” in Ecuadorian territory.
Ecuador has repeatedly urged Colombia to strengthen its military control over its side of the border to prevent illegal armed groups from crossing the frontier.
Bogota and Quito began talks last September aimed at restoring diplomatic ties, which Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s leftist government had severed following the March 2008 bombing of Reyes’ camp.
Most of the 720 kilometer (447 mile) border between Ecuador and Colombia runs through dense Amazon jungles stalked by Colombian guerrillas, militias and drug smugglers.
The FARC is on both the U.S. and EU lists of terrorist groups and depends on drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom as the main means of financing its operations.
Separately, security cooperation between Ecuador and Colombia resulted in the rescue of an 8-year-old girl who had been held hostage for 11 days, it was reported Friday in Bogota.
The girl was reportedly freed thanks to an operation carried out by an Ecuadorian anti-kidnapping unit with assistance from Colombian police experts.
Defense Minister Silva said in a statement that “in less than a week we’ve dealt two crushing blows to crime and terrorism thanks to bi-national cooperation.”The documents said the support of two Colombian experts in anti-kidnapping operations “was requested by the government of the neighboring country.”
The daughter of a wealthy Ecuadorian family, the girl was kidnapped in Quito on Jan. 11 and her captors had demanded a $2 million ransom.
The minor was abducted as she was heading home from school in Quito’s affluent La Escondida neighborhood.
In the operation, police arrested a 23-year-old suspect who allegedly belonged to a kidnapping gang in Ecuador.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Nature-for-oil plan in Ecuador in jeopardy
QUITO — A plan to leave major oil reserves in Ecuador's Amazon basin untouched in return for a major international donation was in jeopardy Thursday after Foreign Minister Fander Falconi resigned.
Falconi spearheaded the 3.5-billion-dollar initiative until President Rafael Correa on Saturday called the payment conditions he was negotiating with the United Nations "outrageous."
Correa even threatened to start drilling for oil in June at the ITT camp in Yasuni National Park unless conditions changed.
Last month, the president said the nature-for-oil plan would be called off in June, instead of at the end of this year, if Ecuador did not get the promised funds -- half the value of the 850 million barrels of oil the ITT camp is estimated to hold.
"We will not submit. Let them know that this country is nobody's colony. We won't accept shameful conditions. Keep your money," Correa said late Tuesday after Falconi resigned.
Correa, however, made it clear negotiations had not failed.
Falconi said Wednesday the six-month deadline for the initiative was tantamount to killing it, but predicted the clauses stipulating payment conditions would be signed in two weeks.
He also cited pressure to begin drilling for oil.
"I can't give you any names," he said, but mentioned that in 2007, state-run Petroecuador "had a unit ready to exploit the camp for a few years."
The countries behind the money offer in the nature-for-oil deal were not involved in the negotiations between Ecuador and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Falconi said.
"They're not demanding that the conditions be this way or that way. That really would be outrageous," he added.
Roque Sevilla, who headed the technical commission behind the plan that resigned en masse along with Falconi, told AFP that between 1.5 and 1.7 billion dollars have been pledged so far, with Germany (910 million) and Spain (241.8 million) leading the pack that included France, Sweden and Switzerland.
Sevilla also said the conservation projects the donations are intended to support "have been sovereignly chosen by Ecuador."
The former official also confirmed Petroecuador's interest in seeing the deal fall through.
"Petroecuador feels very uncomfortable about losing 20 percent of Ecuador's oil reserves under the deal," he said, adding that the company has plans to pump the oil from the ITT camp to a new refinery it will start building with Venezuela on the coast in June.
Sevilla was quick to note that Caracas had no part in the deal under discussion and that extracting oil from the untouched reserves would take a few years at best.
Correa came up with the initiative in 2007 and plans to use it as leverage in global warming deals, such as the carbon-emission quotas included in the Kyoto Protocol.
The president says that by preserving the Yasuni National Park home to several nomadic Indian tribes, Ecuador will spare the Earth some 410 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that contribute to global warming.
Ecuador to push Amazon oil proposal with "dignity"
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa will keep promoting his initiative to protect the country's Amazon region by refraining from drilling for oil, but warned on Thursday that his government will negotiate the deal hard.
Under the Yasuni initiative, OPEC-member Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil, worth $6 billion, underground in the Amazon as a contribution to countering climate change.
In return for not extracting the oil, Ecuador is looking to donor countries to pay it $350 million a year. Negotiations with potential donors -- such as Germany, Belgium and Spain -- have been difficult.
"We will keep pushing for the success of the Yasuni initiative, which was drawn up by my office, but without threatening the dignity and sovereignty of the country," Correa said during a public address.
Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fander Falconi, who had been in charge of the negotiations, quit on Tuesday after Correa accused him of mishandling the administration of the project and allowing donor countries to impose conditions.
Ecuador says not touching the oil would avoid creating 410 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Ecuadorian president celebrates 3 years in office
QUITO, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Friday marked Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's three years in office, a day which witnessed both celebrations and protests as the foreign minister resigned only three days ago.
Commenting on announced demonstrations against his administration, Correa played down the moves by some indigenous organizations.
"The indigenous people are with us," he asserted.
"With them, we are invincible, and a great part of them is joining the 'civil revolution' project. The indigenous masses are with us," he said during a television interview with local Ecuador TV.
According to Security Minister Miguel Carvajal, "in a democratic government, like ours, the different opinions and criteria will always be guaranteed, being from the parliamentarians or leaders."
In the past three years, Correa's ruling Country Alliance Movement won six consecutive elections since November 2006.
The government also approved a New Constitution, which took effect in October 2008 and is considered a major triumph.
Policy Coordination Minister Ricardo Patino said that the extensive participation of citizens was an achievement by the leftist project, which was aimed at consolidating "the socialism of the 21st century."
"Never a Constitution, ever, was discussed, worked, (or) widely analyzed in such a long time, with thousands of people, (and) hundreds of organizations from all sectors," Patino said.
Fernando Cordero, head of the Ecuadorian Assembly, said that the approval of the new Constitution was one of the most important achievements of the first three years of Correa's government.
He added that the enforcement of the constitution requires joint efforts from the Ecuadorian society.
According to Correa, 32 new laws had been written from October 2008 to June 2009.
Following these changes in laws, the challenge aheads for Correa's government lies in encouraging more participation from social sectors.
However, Correa is losing popular support as separate polls this week showed that his approval rating fell to around 40 percent, down from the 72 percent when he took office in January 2007.
Ecuador's Correa Starts Year Facing Widespread Protests
QUITO (Dow Jones)--President Rafael Correa begins his fourth year in office facing widespread discontent and protests against his policies.
Correa, a left-leaning economist, came to office early in 2007 with plans to shake up Ecuador's economy and political structure.
That has led to steady confrontations, and the president now faces a backlash from various sectors, including from powerful indigenous groups who protested last year over water use and the development of mining projects.
This year, the groups have announced more protests and blockades of highways, in part in protest against the government-ordered closing of Arutam, a local radio station operated by the Shuar native group--showing how much Correa's support has slipped among his former allies.
Teachers, representatives from the transportation sector, students and public sector workers have also announced protests for a variety of reasons, including union demands for an increase in the minimum monthly salary to at least $320 from the current level of $240.
The protests could signal a year of tension and social conflicts and are expected to show how much Correa's support has slipped among his former allies.
Correa started a four-year term in 2007. However, after a constitutional change he was elected again last year and could now stay in office until 2017 if he wins re-election in 2013.
However, Correa's high popularity levels are slipping.
Pollster Cedatos-Gallup International said that Correa's approval level fell to 41% in January, from 73% soon after he took office in 2007.
"The president still has strong support, but there are clear signs of a decrease among his supporters, especially from the middle class," said Simon Pachano, a professor of Political Sciences with the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Quito. "We can also see a loss of control over the legislative majority, which will be a problem in the future."
Recently, Correa said opposition groups are conspiring against his government and attempting to destabilize it, adding that some are financed by foreign foundations and military agents. He has also blamed elements of the Ecuadorian armed forces linked to former President Lucio Gutierrez.
Analysts said that Correa may be able to recover some support by increasing social programs and subsidies. Yet, they also said that more confrontations will hurt his popularity and could spawn a solid opposition movement.
Those groups "see the president as a type of despot who is concentrating power," said political analyst Teodoro Bustamante.
Bustamante added that Correa's political party, Alianza Pais, is showing signs of splintering.
"A leftist opposition has been born. We can see the possible formation of a new political group, with people who left the government or who've been excluded from the political project that they supported in the electoral campaigns," Bustamante said.
The nascent opposition to Correa may also have new allies: ecologists, who disagree with Correa's announcement that in June the government may allow the controversial development of the huge Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil block.
Ecuador Creates Movement to Perpetuate Revolution
QUITO - Ecuadorian Minister for Politics Coordination Ricardo Patiño announced the creation of a political movement of socialist nature, aimed at the continuation of the People's Revolution.
The process started with the arrival in power of Rafael Correa, and now in the construction of the political movement an initial process has begun, with the discussion of documents, Patiño added.
The also poli-buro member of the Alianza Pais Movement noted the strategy is to discuss the project, elaborate it and make it known to everybody, to be later approved.
The official explained they are creating different secretariats, and a team of the Political Bureau is following those processes.
"We have been very careful to differentiate the functions of the party being created and those of the government. The resources of the movement belong to the movement, and those of the State belong to the State," he clarified.
The process started with the arrival in power of Rafael Correa, and now in the construction of the political movement an initial process has begun, with the discussion of documents, Patiño added.
The also poli-buro member of the Alianza Pais Movement noted the strategy is to discuss the project, elaborate it and make it known to everybody, to be later approved.
The official explained they are creating different secretariats, and a team of the Political Bureau is following those processes.
"We have been very careful to differentiate the functions of the party being created and those of the government. The resources of the movement belong to the movement, and those of the State belong to the State," he clarified.
Ecuador President: Ricardo Patino Will Be Foreign Minister
QUITO (Dow Jones)--Ecuador President Rafael Correa said Thursday that Ricardo Patino, a former finance minister and now the minister in charge of coordinating policies, will become Ecuador's new foreign affairs minister.
Former foreign affairs minister Fander Falconi resigned last week in a dispute with Correa over developing oil resources.
"We need a person who has high levels of loyalty, not to Rafael Correa, but to the political project. Ricardo Patino meets these conditions," Correa said in a TV interview, according the state online newspaper El Ciudadano.
Patino, a close ally of Correa, will be the fourth minister of foreign affairs in the current administration.
Patino was also previously president of the debt audit commission that recommended that Ecuador suspend servicing some of its sovereign debt.
Ecuador’s rainforest protection scheme in jeopardy
In no other nature reserve in the world is there so much plant and animal diversity as in YasuniNational Park, in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, according to a new scientific study published in the journal “PLoS ONE.”
“These rainforests are extremely bio-diverse…scientists have counted more than 600 different tree species in just one hectare. It’s also the homeland of indigenous people,” Klaus Schenck of the German organization Rainforest Rescue told Deutsche Welle.
But now its future appears to be in jeopardy after Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Fander Falconi – the man charged with the difficult task of protecting it – quit on Tuesday.
Falconi had been spearheading a 2.5 billion-euro (3.5 billion-dollar) initiative, whereby wealthy countries would pay Ecuador not to drill for oil in the nature reserve.
The idea of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, which stands for the Yasuni-Ishpingo, Tampococha and Tiputini region, is to offset lost oil revenues while sparing 407 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.
The Ecuadorian government has requested from donor countries a total of 249 million euros every year for 10 years.
Donations – with strings attached
“I think it’s very important that the oil stays in the ground. It’s an extremely important international project - not only for climate protection - but to have an ideal for other projects in the world,” Dr. Claudia Kemfert, professor of energy and economics at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, told Deutsche Welle. “If we have some first project where we show that this is feasible to find an agreement to leave the oil in the ground…I think it would be really worth it to do whatever is necessary to make it happen.”
And the proposal and campaign to rally international support appeared to start off well, with several countries, such as Germany, expressing enthusiasm for the idea.
However, President Rafael Correa is accusing Falconi of not being tough enough in negotiations with potential donors; of allowing countries supportive of the project to set their own rules.
“We will not submit. Let them know that this country is nobody’s colony. We won’t accept shameful conditions. Keep your money,” Correa said late Tuesday after Falconi resigned.
According to Ecuador, five European countries have already pledged their support: Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. However, Correa said it was “unacceptable” and “embarrassing” that potential donors are stipulating that they have a say in how the money is spent.
Klaus Schenck said he understood why donor countries are wary about giving such a large sum ofmoney to Ecuador without setting conditions, but concluded that such a project would never be devoid of risk.
“The problem is that this is a new initiative. There aren’t other cases in other parts of the world or in Ecuador [that serve as a model] for how to handle an initiative like this,” he said. “It’s clear that international organizations and governments will not give such a huge amount of money without clear conditions and contracts – some security that the money will be handled in the correct way and given for the right projects, and to make sure, for example, that a future president in the next election won’t say ‘I didn’t sign this contract and I will ignore it and do what I want’.”
But time to negotiate is running out.
Prior to Falconi’s resignation, President Correa had warned the committee in charge of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative that it had until June to close a deal or the government would begin exploiting the oil reserves. In his resignation statement, Falconi opposed that deadline.
A “fantastic project” to combat global warming
“The Yasuni-ITT initiative will continue and we will double our efforts to make it a success,” Correa said during his weekly media address.
Just last month, Falconi and Marie Ferdinand Espinosa, Ecuador’s minister of Natural Cultural Heritage, launched a new multi-donor trust fund with the UN Development Program in Copenhagen.
“Yasuni National Park is a fantastic project and a big contribution to save our climate,” said Helen Clark, administrator of the UNDP and former New Zealand prime minister, at a news conference announcing their joint partnership.
President Correa first dreamed up the Yasuni Initiative in 2007 as a way to reconcile the OPEC country’s conflicting aims of growing its economy and preserving a national treasure.
Below Yasuni National Park’s surfaces lies an estimated 850 million untapped barrels of oil worth 4.3 billion euros.
(Source: Deutsche Welle)
Ecuador: Power Cuts Caused $250 Million in Lost Sales
QUITO – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Thursday that a power-rationing program in place from November until Jan. 15 resulted in an estimated $250 million in losses for the commercial sector.“We’ve estimated that sales probably were reduced by $250 million due to the rationing,” according to the leftist president, who announced plans to reimburse consumers through discounts on their electric bills.
“In the February, March and April (electric bills), we’re going to return 10 percent to the residential sector (and) 20 percent to the commercial sector for losses” incurred, the president said, adding that the measure is “symbolic” but “at least the government is now assuming responsibility for not having efficiently provided basic services.”
In an interview with Canal Uno television, Correa, who holds a doctorate in economics, said government figures indicate Ecuador invested around $260 million to resolve the electricity crisis.
Correa praised the Ecuadorian people for adapting to the power rationing regime and said those efforts, together with steps to bring thermo-electric plants into operation, made it possible to halt the electricity cuts.
Nationwide rolling blackouts were prompted by critically low water levels at the Paute Dam, Ecuador’s largest hydroelectric plant.
The decision to suspend the cuts was taken after a thorough analysis of the national electricity grid, the current water situation and the status of the country’s thermo-electric power plants.
Ecuador’s acting electricity minister, Miguel Calahorrano, said a drop in the water levels of the Paute River could make it necessary to ration power once again, but he described that eventuality as “quite unlikely.”
Ecuador relaunches Amazon protection talks
* Yasuni initiative aimed at countering climate change
* Correa says will not let donor nations dictate terms
QUITO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Ecuador is toughening its stance in talks aimed at protecting its Amazon region through a deal under which rich countries would pay the government to refrain from drilling for oil, an official said on Friday.
Under the Yasuni initiative, OPEC-member Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil underground in the Amazon as a way to fight climate change.
Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fander Falconi, who had been in charge of the negotiations, quit this month after leftist President Rafael Correa accused him of mishandling the project and allowing potential donor countries to impose conditions.
"This is a strong relaunching of the the Yasuni initiative ... under a new structure outlined by the president," Maria Espinosa, the government minister in charge of coordinating the use of natural resources, told reporters.
Ecuador says not touching the oil would avoid creating 410 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The government is looking to donor countries such as Germany, Belgium and Spain to pay it $350 million a year.
Correa’s Approval Rating Stagnates in Ecuador
January 23, 2010
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The popularity of Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa remains on the negative side, according to a poll by Cedatos/Gallup. 41 per cent of respondents approve of Correa’s performance, while 51 per cent disapprove of it, essentially unchanged since November.
Correa, a former finance minister, ran for president as an independent leftist under the Alliance Country (AP) banner. In November 2006, Correa won a run-off with 56.69 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Ecuador’s head of state in January 2007. Correa’s party nominated no candidates to the National Congress.
In September 2008, Ecuadorian voters ratified a new constitution in a nationwide referendum. The draft was approved by the pro-government majority in the Constituent Assembly. Under the terms of the new constitution, Ecuador held a presidential election in April 2009. Final results gave Correa 51.95 per cent of the vote. For the first time in 30 years, the Ecuadorian presidential election did not require a run-off.
Earlier this month, Ecuadorian foreign affairs minister Fánder Falconí stepped down after Correa accused him of mishandling negotiations related to the development of oil resources.
On Jan. 21, Correa appointed Ricardo Patiño as the new head of foreign affairs, saying, "We need a person who has high levels of loyalty, not to Rafael Correa, but to the political project. Ricardo Patiño meets these conditions."
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Rafael Correa’s performance as president?
| Jan. 2010 | Nov. 2009 | Oct. 2009 |
Approve | 41% | 42% | 44% |
Disapprove | 51% | 50% | 49% |
Source: Cedatos/Gallup
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 2,120 Ecuadorian adults, conducted from Jan. 7 to Jan. 12, 2010. Margin of error is 3.2 per cent.
Interview -- President Rafael Correa discusses `Citizens' Revolution', socialism for the 21st century
In April 2009, Rafael Correa was elected to his second term as president of Ecuador with 51% of the vote. This gave him a mandate to continue and deepen the program of reforms and structural changes initiated since he first became president in November 2006. In three years Correa’s government has introduced unprecedented social and economic reforms – known as the Citizens’ Revolution – to reverse the poverty and exploitation suffered by the majority of the population in a country which has been ravaged by neoliberalism.
Correa has announced that Ecuador is building socialism for the 21st century and joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). In late October 2009, he made a brief trip to London, speaking at universities and to over 1000 Ecuadorians living and working in London, en route to a formal state visit to Russia. On December 13, 2009, Helen Yaffehad the privilege of interviewing President Correa during a boat trip on the River Thames and a translation appears here. [This interview first appeared in socialist newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, #212, December 2009/January 2010. It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission.]
Helen Yaffe: In what way is ALBA distinct from previous attempts by Latin American countries to develop mutually beneficial trade and investment strategies?
Rafael Correa: In every way because it is integration based on fraternal solidarity, not between competitors, which has been the great mistake in the past. The integration that we have sought, above all in recent years, has been orientated towards trade, to having larger markets and competing between us. In ALBA we don’t talk about competition, we speak of coordination in energy, finances and even in defence, but coordination, not competition.
In 1965, Che Guevara said, "there should be no more talk about developing mutually beneficial trade based on prices imposed on the backward countries by the law of value and the international relations of unequal exchange that result from the law of value… We have to prepare conditions so that our brethren can directly and consciously take the path of the complete abolition of exploitation …" How does ALBA trade and the formation of supranational companies achieve this – constraining commercial exchanges based on profit - particularly given that, with the exception of Cuba, the means of production in the ALBA states are predominantly in private hands?
The question of value is perhaps the most difficult and complex economic problem. It is clearly very difficult to remove the question of monetary prices when large parts of the means of production are in private hands. But with ALBA we are experimenting with other forms of exchange, not necessarily based on market prices but on mutual compensation, collaboration and bi-national enterprises. For example, since the beginning of my government I have sent crude oil [to
So, Che was right, and you are right, it is difficult to remove the law of value, basically monetary prices imposed by the market, when the means of production are in private hands and are guided by the logic of capitalism, the logic of profit. But at the level of countries something can and is being done. For example, Chavez has a lot of experience with petrol in the area of the
Let me state something clearly, Marxism has not overcome this question of value either. It is very difficult. Sometimes you can remove monetary prices set by the market, other times you cannot. You have to try to prevent speculation and the power of the market.
There is the problem of what value is, and the problem of utility also – the markets try to respond through supply and demand. Supply expresses the costs of production and the social costs of producing; demand expresses preferences, the usefulness to the consumer, but in practice with an unequal distribution of income, price represents anything, not the intensity of preference. So the problem is there and no-one has been able to convincingly solve it. In its trade the
There are alternative proposals, like the one for equivalent values presented by Heinz Dietrich who works on socialism for the 21st century, but all these alternatives are insufficient and inapplicable.
This term "socialism for the 21st century" is sometimes used as a way of rejecting all the antecedents, all previous struggles …
There are things which should be superseded – I have spoken with Raul and Fidel about
It is also difficult if you permit small private production. What controls are there to prevent the accumulation of capital or speculation?
This is easier than directly managing everything.
Announcing the plan for land distribution,
This is important. There are things which are not commodities – the earth, water – that have to be under state control – their exchange has to be controlled. We are introducing a law where the state has to authorise the sale and purchase of land to avoid what has occurred in the past – peasants cheated and left without land. But the land is going to be theirs and the communes’; it is not going to belong to the state. Under control of the state – that’s another matter.
It is similar to the new campaign in
Yes. We are also going to distribute 130,000 hectares of state land and we are drawing up an inventory of all the unproductive private lands to distribute – around one and a half million hectares. This is why they are desperate to destabilise us so quickly.
Che Guevara believed in using the technological advances and managerial methods of capitalism but with different social objectives… You were trained in economics in the
What Che did was commonsense. Technology cannot be the patrimony of capitalism – there is no capitalist technology, just technology. Of course it uses the human resources formed by capitalism. The Cuban Revolution benefited from the human resources formed by the Soviet Union,
Public education in
The development of revolutionary consciousness and commitment depends on various factors. I believe that part of this education is about social commitment, without it being partisan. I also believe that when leaders are seen to have enthusiasm and a real desire to change the country, people support this desire for change. The future professionals, who will be trained because of this change, are going to have this revolutionary consciousness. With this dynamic period Ecuadorian society is living through – along with the opportunities that we are creating – we believe that all these new professionals who are receiving scholarships, who go abroad to train, will develop this revolutionary consciousness. But you are probably right that we have to work more directly on this. We are already training people, but what you said about revolutionary consciousness is more difficult to achieve. We have political education schools, but we lack structure in the Movimiento País [the political organisation which Correa heads], we lack consolidation and this is perhaps the great challenge that we face.
The next question is about the
It is very easy, we are going to start pilot operations to test it. It is a system of compensation. It is for commercial or private trade. It will not be pegged to the dollar. We are going to create an electronic currency and we won’t have to use any [
If the aim of the
No. We are minimising the need for dollars. Unfortunately,
How can the ALBA countries defend themselves against the kind of reaction seen with the coup in
Well, there is no infallible defence, but, for example, [the media organisation] Telesur is a great assistance – in providing information – imagine, before that the news came from CNN – as is having strong relations between countries for mutual support. But there is nothing that guarantees that this cannot happen in
Recently you spoke about socialism for the 21st century in
Socialism for the 21st century is a process of construction which tries to take the best of traditional socialism, but also of other socialisms that have existed, like Andean socialism, agrarian socialism and also, at least in
Socialism for the 21st century seeks this change through democratic processes and the vote, we have became accustomed to this in Latin America, it is no longer through armed struggle. There are things in traditional socialism which we agree with; the primacy of human labour above capital, the need for collective action, the need for planning, the role of the state in the economy, the search for justice in all its dimensions, social justice, gender justice, ethnic justice, international justice. But we are obliged to reject some elements of traditional socialism which are not feasible or desirable; class struggle, violent change and dialectical materialism itself. This will grate with you as a Marxist, but any attempt to explain processes as complex as the advance of human society with simple or simplistic laws will fail. Just as it is simplistic to say that the motor for the advance of society is individualism, abstracted from culture, the community, etc, it is also a simplification to say that it is class struggle, the opposition of forces within the productive system.
A technological revolution can create more social changes in the revolutions in production than by supposed dialectical materialism, the conflict between oppositional forces. Not only this, dialectics takes as an infallible law thesis, anti-thesis and a synthesis which emerges and is better than what you began with. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can have a thesis that is true, you present an antithesis that is erroneous, and the synthesis can be worse than the thesis. This is the reality we have lived in
Doesn’t what happened in
We completely agree that the great challenge in our countries is to change the relation of forces and pass from a state which is captured by certain powers to a state that represents popular power. This is the first step in
For example,
Perhaps the greatest error that traditional socialism made was in not disputing the notion of development proposed by capitalism. They sought the same, via a faster and supposedly more just route, but the same, in the
To what extent can we say that the welfare-based development model of socialist
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