Ecuador aligns itself with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba

El Mundo ( Bolivia ) ^ | January 15, 2007 | AP wire service in Spanish ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

Hey BunnySlippers, nice to see you. :-)

I've been away for a while, so it's my fault.

[marron]

"the neoliberal night is coming to its end."

"Neo-liberal" is Chavist-speak for "private enterprise". Correa's immediate predecessor was also a Chavist, who was thrown out of office. He seems to have made everyone mad, too much of a Chavist for some, but not enough to satisfy his backers. In the end everyone wanted him gone, though perhaps not all for the same reasons.

The closest thing to a "neo-liberal" they have had ever was Jamil Mahuad, and efforts to overthow him began the first week of his presidency. They culminated in a Chavist revolt led by Gutierrez. The important thing to know is that none of Mahuad's policies were reversed after his exit from power, neither by his immediate successor nor by Gutierrez himself when he assumed office.

This is, in part, why Chavist Gutierrez himself was later thrown out of office.

The key Mahuad policies that provoked revolt were the implementation of the US dollar as the legal currency of Ecuador; the building of a key pipeline by private investment, and limited private investment in the power grid. Those policies continue in place to the present. However, Occidental Oil was recently kicked out of the country, for reasons that make little sense but seem to have more to do with politicians trying to out-Chavez Chavez. Occidental was their number one foreign investor, so it remains to be seen how that affects future investment in the country. Since Correa is even more-Chavist-than-thou, he may be thinking he can make up for investment shortfalls with Venezuelan and Chinese money. And he may be right, who knows.

[Brilliant]

Dang. I thought it was the 3 Stooges at first.

[RetiredArmy]

South and Latin America is becoming the old Eastern European Communist block's replacement. Before long, an iron curtain will be built down there somewhere so they can say they have their own Berlin Wall.

[Ben Ficklin]

Hello SJ, hadn't seen you for a while.

Anywho, you might be interested in this article and source.

South American Integration-or Disintegration?

[Sword_Svalbardt]

Three communists.

[buccaneer81]

Ecuador aligns itself with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba

They have chosen... poorly.

[A. Pole]

In a speech before a multitude congregated in the central plaza, Correa emphasized that "[Latin] America has awakened," and saluted the governments of Chavez, Castro, and Morales, as well as those of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brazil; Nestor Kirchner, in Argentina, Tabare Vazquez, in Uruguay; Michelle Bachelet, in Chile, and Daniel Ortega, in Nicaragua.

Bump

[StJacques]

"Hello SJ, hadn't seen you for a while."

Yes; I've been on hiatus since early December. Part of that was work, part of it was an extended vacation I thought I needed, and part of it was that I began to enjoy being lazy for a change. LOL!

I'm going to look over the article link you have provided a little later on tonight. I saw a very short excerpt from Correa's inaugural speech on Univision this evening and he was talking about the unification of Latin America into a single entity -- this is Chavez's Bolivarianismo in practice -- so I regard the topic as imminently current. I know I'm going to be looking into this more closely in the near future.

So thank you for the link.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

They're building a newer, improved ash heap of history.

[M. Espinola]

Terrorists enemies at our backdoor.

[Kenny Bunk]

El sueño de Bolívar como pesadilla.

[Alia]

Good to see you, StJacques. :) And read your insightful commentary, once again.

[supremedoctrine]

"----yes, Mexico has done a lot to stand up to the Left recently".

---

well, that's one way to look at it. Another way would be that the (provisionally at least) winning party is the same party that has exported millions of its own citizens illegally into the US, as if it is their RIGHT to do so, thereby getting rid of a festering source of its own social and economic problems. With less and less of a population to worry about, with less political, social and ethical problems to consider, WHOEVER is in power in Mexico, Left or Farther-Left, will only tend to get more corrupt, and less accountable. Mexico is basically doing the same thing Saudi Arabia does in its exporting of Wahhabism, but it is not Mexico that is picking up the check for its "foreign agents", it is US. As I'm sure you know, money sent back to Mexico in the form of remittances, makes up a nearly equal part of the Mexican economy as does the revenues from Pemex. Our economy is keeping Mexico alive, (if you call that living).

[sgtbono2002]

Its isnt only Bush. It seeems that both parties are more interested inthe His[anic vote than in the welfare of our country. Some of it has to do with labor for their big Lobbyists but I dont know what this open border crap is?

We are losing our country to these people and our politicians of both parties are helping them to take it.

Its insane.

[StJacques]

". . . Another way would be that the (provisionally at least) winning party is the same party that has exported millions of its own citizens illegally into the US . . ."

First of all; Mexico has a serious problem in the way it addresses the problem of illegal immigration. We hear all sorts of invective from Mexicans of all political stripes about how the U.S. treats illegal Mexican immigrants while Mexico's record of handling illegal immigrants into their own country from Central America makes us look like saints by comparison.

Treatment of Illegal Central American Immigrants in Ixtepec, Oaxaca

But beyond that it would be wrong to say that "the winning party" (the PAN party) has exported them here. The overwhelming majority of illegal Mexican immigrants now residing in the U.S. are PAN Party supporters, as every voting analysis and poll has shown, and their presence in the U.S. cost the PAN Party over 2 million net votes in last year's presidential election by most estimates. The mere size of that number points out just how serious the immigration problem is ... 2 million! And that's just the net loss. When you consider that the PAN Party won the election by less than 240,000 votes, it becomes easy to see that the arithmetic works against the PAN Party in Mexican politics. The PAN Party needs those votes (they actually have been trying to get their voters to come home) and the leftist PRD nearly won the presidency because of the out-migration of PAN Party supporters.

One of the biggest problems the U.S. and Mexico face with regard to illegal immigration is that the issue has become a unifying force within Mexican national politics, with the right, center, and left all uniting to bash the evil gringos to the north for not permitting a wholesale contravention of American immigration law. Mexico needs to grow up in a big way -- I favor building the wall to help them mature -- and take a closer look at their own house, which is in no way clean on illegal immigration. They are the far greater sinners on this issue and yet they are the ones casting stones.

[Thunder90]

The other common thread is that these leftists immediately go to Putin and the "Former" USSR for weapons and assistance.