Ecuadoran President Celebrates Victory After Reform Vote
QUITO - Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa celebrated victory Monday after claiming that his ruling coalition had won a solid majority in a newly elected assembly that will rewrite the country’s constitution.
“The projections are clear: the victory of the citizens is unquestionable,” Correa told a news conference, predicting that his government would win 80 out of the 130 seats up for grabs on the future Constituent Assembly.
Initial exit polls from Sunday’s elections gave his camp between 70 and 79 assembly seats, according to pollsters and independent observers. But Correa insisted he would win 80 and seize control of the assembly, which is to be tasked with drafting a new constitution.
However, opposition leader Gilmar Gutierrez refused to accept defeat, saying that it was necessary to wait for officials results from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
The opposition will control between 23 and 30 seats with the rest going to centrist and indigenous groups, according to exit polls.
Voters had to choose from among more than 3,000 candidates vying for 130 regional delegate spots.
Correa was hoping for an assembly that will dissolve the unicameral Congress, which he has called “corrupt and incompetent.”
A US and European-educated former finance minister, Correa says the Constituent Assembly will stem political instability in Ecuador despite warnings his proposed economic reforms could scare off foreign investors.
The new assembly will start work on October 31 and will have 180 days to write a draft constitution, which then must be ratified by a national referendum in 2008.
The most prominent of the 3,229 candidates in Sunday’s election was Correa’s nemesis, right-wing billionaire Alvaro Noboa, who was defeated in the November presidential election.
Ecuador’s wealthiest man, and a folksy politician, Noboa has vowed to defeat Correa, whom he calls “the communist devil.”
“Correa has become a tyrant who keeps you in poverty, the tyrant who keeps you sick, the tyrant who keeps you without a home or health care. But I am here, Ecuadorans,” Noboa said during his last electoral rally.
Critics say Correa is following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez, who in 1999 successfully pushed for the election of a constituent assembly packed with his supporters.
They say that like Chavez, Correa would use the assembly to concentrate his own power and that this would scare off foreign investors.
He has proposed a constitution that would strengthen state control of the economy and cut back Congress’s power to dismiss presidents.
Correa denied however that he would pursue a “totalitarian” or “foreign” track. “We are good people,” he said after Sunday’s voting. “There are no hidden agendas and the international community knows it.”
“We are looking for a state model that guarantees everyone equal access to the conditions for progress,” he said. “The people has won the mother of all battles and has done so in an incredible and convincing way.”
Controversy over the proposed constitutional reforms sparked a deep political crisis earlier this year when a court fired half the 100 members of Congress for seeking to block the project.
Correa has called the assembly a key component of the “citizens’ revolution” he says will make a more just country of Ecuador, where 40 percent of wealth is held by 10 percent of the 13 million-strong population.
He says the new constitution will help regulate the economy and end the political volatility in a country that has seen seven presidents come and go in the past decade, including three who left office amid tumultuous uprisings.
“We accept this triumph with extreme humility and total responsibility,” Correa said, adding that he would “sit down to talk with all the groups that sincerely want to keep the country going.”
© 2007 Agence France Presse
We are witnessing a substantial political change in our neighbors to the South - a change that is deeper and more progressive than any we’ll see here in America for years. South America will now lead the way to democracy in the Americas. Our grandchildren will attend their universities to study the lost art of politics…It’s only the beginning too.
All can say to begin this thread is: good. One more South American country is ready to free itself of 500 years of abuse by the wealthy land owners.
The foriegn investors will be back, they just won’t be able to get as big a slice of the pie as they used to.
Good for Correa and the Ecuadorian people. I observed a series of Indigenous and popular “levantimientos” in Ecuador from 1992, the Quincentennial of the Spanish invasion, until 2001 (See my article in NACLA Report on the Americas, March April 2001). Each one showed an increasing sophistication, militancy, and organization. While each seemed to fall short of dislodging the oligarchy or binding them to solid agreements, each succeeded in building the intellectual and political infrastructure leading to the triumphs of the current era. Meanwhile, the politics at the top—of the oligarchs, the bananeros, the Congress, the Presidency, and the oil companies—stumbled on, as if no amount of corruption or incompetence could ever undermine the whole juggernaut.
I remember how President Abdullah Bucaram’s short regime so outraged Ecuadorian sensibilities that they termed in the “payasado” or clown show before they deposed him. Notwithstanding, a U. S. Embassy official, one whom I thought to be fairly progressive, said that Bucaram had been going in the right direction, because he was beginning to implement the neoliberal program. I satirize this in my book, The Mother Earth Inn (See http://www.phillipbannowsky.com/Motherearth.htm).
Ama shua! Ama quella! Ama llulla! Carajo!
Mr. Correa gave a spirited progressive talk towards the end of the day on Wed. 26 September that can be seen here:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/62/
The talks given by the representatives of these nations are very progressive too:
Nicaragua-
Iran -
Cuba -
Bolivia -
————
This one is sure to be good:
Venezuela (will be given late afternoon on Mon Oct 1)
—————————-
The American Empire is a monster that selfishly bloats itself, while millions barely get by or starve in poverty.
It’s time for the empire to be dismantled!
Excellent interview with him in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001042.html
“Ecuador’s new left-leaning president, Rafael Correa, studied economics in the United States, but the U.S. way of governing does not seem to have rubbed off on him. He appears set on following the example set by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Last week Correa sat down with Newsweek-Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth.” I think the US way of governing did rub off on him and then he rubbed it out for a better way.
why is anyone afraid of scaring off foreign investors? Aren’t they the problem?
My wishes have been granted — one more South American country freeing itself from U.S. control. Yeah!!
“. . .despite warnings his proposed economic reforms could scare off foreign investors.”
A typical hollow threat from the right wing, which never mentions that corporate greed takes care of this. If the natural resources are there, the multinationals will be all over them like flies on shit.
“Correa has called the assembly a key component of the “citizens’ revolution” …where 40 percent of wealth is held by 10 percent of the 13 million-strong population.”
Gee…I can remember when only 40% of our wealth was held by the top 10%…”those were the days!”
THE MARCH OF REVOLUTION IN LATIN AMERICA
CUBA All guided by the brillian light
VENEZUELA of ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana
BOLIVIA para Las Americas)which will bur-
NICARAGUA ry the barbaric neoliberal “free”
EQUADOR markets of imperialism.
AND MANY MORE TO JOIN BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF THEIR PEOPLE WANT IT.
VIVA LA REVOLUCION !!
When Bush/Cheney are done with the ME, I fully expect them to restart Regan’s gastly progrom of South American terrorism
Right. And just look at his picture. He looks exactly like Bush giving his evil salute.
So now they’ll have a commie dictator rather than a fascist one. What a change. What progress.
Nazi Progressives of the world unite!
“Correa has become a tyrant who keeps you in poverty, the tyrant who keeps you sick, the tyrant who keeps you without a home or health care. But I am here, Ecuadorans,” Noboa said during his last electoral rally.
The capitalist’s folksy line, “come to daddy” works in the USA, so why not in Ecuador too?
We’ll see if he is incorruptable. “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abe Lincoln
Who cares if foregin investors are scared away? Ecuador has its own two feet to stand on. They can do quite nicely running their own show.
“We are witnessing a substantial political change in our neighbors to the South - a change that is deeper and more progressive than any we’ll see here in America for years.”
When the changes come to the US, they wil be sudden & overwhelming, a dam burst of fury.
“So now they’ll have a commie dictator rather than a fascist one. What a change. What progress.
Nazi Progressives of the world unite!”
I just love people who use the word “commie” — they must wear Dan’l Boone coonskin caps inherited from their braindead papas and grandpapas. “Only good injun’s a daid injun.”
The only reason foreign investors (read the United States, Australia, and the UK possibly) are scared away by his perceived “concentration of power” is because they will no longer be given the red carpet to go in and mutilate the local economies of this country for the betterment of nobody there and many elsewhere.
Congratulations to Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil (though we seem to be gaining undue favor there), Argentina, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, etc. Viva the Bolivarian Revolotion!
As far as I’m concerned we need as many revolutionaries as we can get everywhere in the world, so that we can eventually revolutionize this horribly corrupt country! Down with the free market! Down with the neocons and neolibs!
I just love people who use the word “commie” — they must wear Dan’l Boone coonskin caps inherited from their braindead papas and grandpapas. “Only good injun’s a daid injun.”
Wonderful! hahahaha
Several years ago, the emergence of a democratic South America independent of the US economic order would have been unthinkable. Through the tried and true methods of economic threats, assassination and coups, death squads and support for fascist regimes, and direct military intervention, the US would have sucessfully nipped this in the bud in most of the affected countries of Latin America. What changed? How and why did the US lose Latin America in less than a decade?
Part of the answer involves oil and natural gas. The US is so committed to securing control of the oil in the Gulf and the pipelines of Afghanistan/Central Asia that it is overextended militarily. At the same time, the high price levels of crude and gas in recent years combined with the strong democratic pressures give some Latin American countries a measure of independence. The prominent failures of the Washington consensus economic policies of the IMF/World Bank in places like Argentina revealed that “free markets” alone are not the way. US demonizing and the 2002 US-supported coup attempt against Venezuela proved insufficient to stop it. If the US were not overextended militarily in the Middle East some sabor rattling, threats, and covert action could be mounted. So it seems the US is loosing Iraq and much of Latin America. Who ever said baby Bush was such a bad president?
Right on, CRCox..
Nazi Progressives of the world unite! Keep tootin’ that idiot horn.
dlnelson7, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is showing himself to be the dictator that he truly is. I love the way he stifles dissent, for instance.
MaxheMust, “The American Empire is a monster that selfishly bloats itself, while millions barely get by or starve in poverty. It’s time for the empire to be dismantled!”
All the woes of the world are America’s fault, isn’t that right, MaxiPad?
How about this? You come into my country and try to break it down and “dismantle it”. I’ll blow your fucking head off.
“I’ll blow your fucking head off”
Oooh. Scary big man with gun. Oooh. Scaaarrryyyy. . .
CRCox, how about this, “Only good My Space user’s a daid My Space user.
Europe, now South America… two major continents have turned Left. Meanwhile “free trade” (a better term would be subjugated trade) hasn’t exactly worked out in Africa. Africa and the middeast is their last hope though. Though we’re tryin oh so hard to dominate the middeast, but we all know how well that’s turning out.
What is it about every empire failing miserably, but more importantly not learning the lessons of the previous empires who simply could NOT conquer Babylon and Persia? And moreover, if you look at the Greeks, and some could argue the Romans, this was their downfall. Even a united Christian Europe in the middle-ages couldn’t make it past Syria. I tell ya, the crooks in office and their shadow government may want empire, but they sure know very little about attaining or maintaining one. Granted, they have played the information, propoganda, and brainwashing portion of the game very well, but that might just be because most people lack critical thought and analytical thinking skills, so I only give them only limited credit there. A dog owner with ball in hand can pump fake throwing the ball, and the dog will go on and chase; not suprisingly a few moments later the owner can pump fake again, and the dog will go on and chase again. This is why nearly half the country is going to be brainwashed and manipulated into the next war with Iran. Like the Dog with the IQ of 6, they’re going to forget how they were once previously fooled.
But this logic also applies to the brainwashed voters on the left too, who, like dogs themselves, will nominate and elect Hillary, Obama or Edwards. But I digress.
Once the empire fails in the middeast, with the walls closing in all around it, i think WWIII will begin with significant operations in South America targeted at nations like Venezuela for instance. More strikingly, I fear a much more substantial false flag attack on America, possibly using Nuclear Weapons or radiation of some sort to frighten us cold, and perpetuate a police/military state.
Dichterfreund, the only scary thing here are you and all the other ‘progressive’ Nazi air heads.
This character mookie too, cares so much about human rights, he might want to look at the other oppressive regimes which Bush keeps as close friends, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan to name a few. Not to mention the Columbian Guerillas (terrorists by his definition) that they launder taxpayer money to.
Him and the Neocons are real champions of Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights eh? Why are they so mum and hush on these regimes, which rank significantly lower on the Human Development Index, while Venezuela is way above?
“this logic also applies to the braindead sheep on the left” who..well, all the brain dead sheep on the left. Nuff said.
Communism is dead, Che Guevaras of the left. It died years ago. Give it up already. As for most of you that are coincidentally also of the Nazi right..quack, quack, quack.
Not quite, mastershake, this character detests Bush. He’s a neo-fascist moron puppet for a huge greedy corporation.. The current United States of AmeriKKKa.
Because I hate what my country has become, does not mean that I hate my country. I hate what the fascists have done to it. I also hate what the socialists have done to it.
I remain patriotic to it. That means I don’t hesitate to tell any of these totalitarian goons or supporters where to stick it. Any of them.
Alright Mook, fair enough.
“Dichterfreund, the only scary thing here are you and all the other ‘progressive’ Nazi air heads.”
Even as we watch the growth of actual fascism, it’s fun to be on the left and draw the threats of the cybertoughs and freepers and limbaughists and billo-ites — like Bill O’Reilly, wanting to strangle journalists but afraid he’d go to jail or hell or threatening to ‘come after’ journalists in their homes . . . “I’m gonna, I’m gonna . . . ”
Congrats again President Correa, and President Ortega, and President Chavez, the true democratic lights of the hemisphere!!
Dichterfreund, yay, democracy, true democracy. Chavez is a dissent squashing dictator.
Are you seriously comparing me to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly? You might actually read my posts next time.
“CRCox, how about this, “Only good My Space user’s a daid My Space user.”
What? Come on man, tell us the truth. You are sitting in a wooden shit house in a back yard in swamp somwhere, aren’t you?
Look: If you actually look around right now, noticing that this country has gone to shit (which it seems you have noticed) and actually think it is because of what the “socialists” did to it, you are way more batshit crazy than I thought you were. You say you also “hate what the fascists have done to it.” Who are they? Are you actually taking the bold step to recognize the nutjobs in the White House for what they actually are? If so, good on ya’ kid.
If not, who do you suppose are the fascists? And finally, who do you actually think you are arming yourself to protect against? Oh, you mean the imaginary terrorists?
mastershake: “Europe, now South America … two major continents turning left.”
South America for sure. Europe now has Merkel in Germany, the privatizer Gordon Brown in Great Britain, and whatever Sarkozy may be (sometimes he seems Bushlike, at other times very responsive to people’s real needs, so I cannot guess if he is Right or Left) in France.
Since 2005, Europe has had its own version of the Project for a New American Century, the organization that gave us the neocons with their plan for world “peace.” Europe’s is called The Committee for a Strong Europe, and it was established by PNAP. Both it and PNAP stopped adding any writings to their web sites in 2005. Truly weird.
No, CRCox, you just never hear what I’m saying.
The fascists are the Bushes and (now Hillaries, etc). The socialists are the Woodrow Wilsons and Franklin Delano Roosevelts and all the nutjobs that made laws like the one in NYC. The one where restaurant owners are compelled to not cook with trans-fatty acids. (Rather than giving us the option of eating or not eating trans-fatty acids, they force the issue through law.)
We can take care of ourselves. We’re not the idiots that they, and apparently you, think we are.
Governments and control freaks are all the same. They assume that we are morons when we are not. They assume that we are evil when we are not. They assume that we are irresponsible children who need to be cared for and controlled. We are not.
This goes not only for the right. It also applies to the left.
mookie, the problem with your characterization of new Latin leftists as “control freaks” is the incredibly democratic nature of the new movement. Having spent time in Venezuela, I learned the one thing people agree on is the amount of direct participation now taking place by poor people once politically marginalized. This is what you and your fellow “libertarians” need to work towards here in the US.
Sure foreign companies love when they can run roughshod over a country with no regulation and reap maximum profits as long as they make sure they line the pockets of the few in power, but if Ecuador has the natural resources they will come, don’t worry about it. A stable country with fairly contented people ends up actually making it a more attractive place for investors AND tourists.
“Critics say Correa is following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez, who in 1999 successfully pushed for the election of a constituent assembly packed with his supporters.
They say that like Chavez, Correa would use the assembly to concentrate his own power and that this would scare off foreign investors.”
Quite funny how some people still keep on claiming that corporations and ‘foreign investors’ have society’s best interest at heart. The loss of democracy would scare off investors ? Ha, that sounds indeed very funny !!
Mookie:
Thank you for educating me. What would I have done if you hadn’t laid that out Captain Obvious? So, you are a libertarian, which means nothing but a classical conservative with socially liberal values, and economic liberal economic beliefs. You feel the role of government is merely to protect us from foreign enemies and to enforce the laws, as long as the laws don’t include anything that prohibits our rights to have guns, drugs, and entitlement to basically all of our money earned. Perhaps you are for a national sales tax? Would not surprise me a bit.
The problem with this is that if the government is good for nothing but so-called protection and enforcement of laws, you have a defacto military regime. This is what drives me crazy about you anti-regulationists. You all love to bitch, but have no proposition that has any roots in reality or political science.
“Governments and control freaks are all the same. They assume that we are morons when we are not. They assume that we are evil when we are not. They assume that we are irresponsible children who need to be cared for and controlled. We are not.
This goes not only for the right. It also applies to the left.”
So, what do you propose? Anarchy? Everyone but you folks, who claim to own the middle - which, frankly is the weakest part of your argument - are the only ones who know what’s going on and the rest of us all sheep who have been led astray. Instead of taking a scientific approach to the argument of the role of government - meaning, you take what makes sense and use it to help build a better philosophy, instead of throwing out entire ideologies simultaneously - you insist on something completely new that has no historical basis in reality.
Look, the American government has every right to assume we are idiots! Every single time we have gotten something right in this country politicaly, which frankly isn’t very often, we fall asleep in front of the television and dumb-shit fascists like George W. Bush come in and fuck it all up again. Then, folks like you say we have to have MORE individualism, so that we can live to our full potential. If the population of this country was much more highly educated, knew how to read the media, could debate intelligently, and were brought up with the notion that participation in our democracy actually mattered, then MAYBE your view would hold water. Unfortunately, I cannot - and I’m sure I’m not alone on this one - in good conscience concede the writing of laws and regulations to the back woods, gun-totin’, gay hatin’, Bible-thumpin’ freaks who would be speak for me in the case of further decentralization and mob rule. That’s why Gravel will forever flounder. That’s also why Ron Paul will flounder. People are in love with this guy because he is one of the only conservatives with enough balls to speak truth to power, something that progressives have been doing in this country from the get-go!
Mark my words: INDIVIDUALISM IS COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY, AND A REVOLUTION IS NOTHING SHORT OF WHAT WE NEED IN THIS COUNTRY!
To many people and deminishing resorces means trouble to capiltalism….The people of the capiltalist nations must constantly seek war to take resorces, and eliminate people that might need to use these resorces.At some point this will come to an end either in a positive manner, or negatively which might be the end of the earth as we know it. One thing is clear it will be settled one way or another. viva socialism
I dig Grappa, I dig.
mookie wrote: far too much troll-bait.
Don’t feed the trolls, folks. Conflict cannot exist without your participation.
Last I checked, this is supposed to be a progressive website. Trolls like mookie have just one goal in posting here — to goad progressives. They are not interested in civil discourse in finding solutions.
If mookie and his ilk gets your blood up, don’t encourage them; follow their lead and go post on Fox’s or Limbaugh’s website. That will do more good than inviting them to post their hate and violence filled vituperative here.
Very good point. Meet cha’ over at Rush’s place! hahaha
– “What would I have done if you hadn’t laid that out Captain Obvious?”
If it’s so obvious, why do you still not get it?
– “So, you are a libertarian”
Yes, I am. I’m also a passionate environmentalist.
– “The problem with this is that if the government is good for nothing but so-called protection and enforcement of laws, you have a defacto military regime.”
No. You have the US government while the Jeffersonians were still running the show.
– “This is what drives me crazy about you anti-regulationists. You all love to bitch, but have no proposition that has any roots in reality or political science.”
No. You have the US government while the Jeffersonians were still running the show.
– “So, what do you propose? Anarchy?”
Actually, I am an anarchist at heart, but a practical one. I know as long as states have nuclear weapons an anarchism would not have a chance of survival past day one. I propose a truly libertarian, minimalist government, like the US government while the Jeffersonians were still running the show.
– “Everyone but you folks, who claim to own the middle - which, frankly is the weakest part of your argument - are the only ones who know what’s going on and the rest of us all sheep who have been led astray.”
I’m not a middle of the roader by any stretch of the imagination. “The only thing in the middle of the road is yellow lines and dead skunks.” Jim Hightower. Because I don’t like the way the modern left has gone, does not make me a middle of the roader. The old left were the Anti-federalists. The right were the Federalists. Then, I would have been a liberal or left-winger in a heart beat.
– “Instead of taking a scientific approach to the argument of the role of government - meaning, you take what makes sense and use it to help build a better philosophy, instead of throwing out entire ideologies simultaneously - you insist on something completely new that has no historical basis in reality.”
It does have a basis in reality and it did exist..the US government while the Jeffersonians were still running the show.
– “Look, the American government has every right to assume we are idiots! Every single time we have gotten something right in this country politicaly, which frankly isn’t very often, we fall asleep in front of the television and dumb-shit fascists like George W. Bush come in and fuck it all up again.”
For once I agree with you. But let’s not forget the left-wingers who fucked it up just as royally. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And you were saying..the left is better than the right?
Stalin was probably worse than Hitler, if that’s possible.
– “Unfortunately, I cannot - and I’m sure I’m not alone on this one - in good conscience concede the writing of laws and regulations to the back woods, gun-totin’, gay hatin’, Bible-thumpin’ freaks who would be speak for me in the case of further decentralization and mob rule.”
You’re then, by definition, a snob and an elitist. I thought communists were the ones who cared so much for the poor and the uneducated. Anyway, what percentage of this country do you think is comprised of bible thumpers? What percentage by liberals and progressives?
– “That’s why Gravel will forever flounder. That’s also why Ron Paul will flounder. People are in love with this guy because he is one of the only conservatives with enough balls to speak truth to power, something that progressives have been doing in this country from the get-go!”
What progressives would that be? Margaret Sanger, for instance, buddy of Prescott Bush? The one who wanted to perform eugenics on the poor, mostly black population in the US? Nazi Germany got their ethnic cleansing idea from the US, who had started it, pushed into legislation by Margaret Sanger.
– “Mark my words: INDIVIDUALISM IS COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY, AND A REVOLUTION IS NOTHING SHORT OF WHAT WE NEED IN THIS COUNTRY!”
I agree with you that we need a revolution. But we need a third American Revolution, not a Mao or Chavez one. Individualism is not counter-revolutionary.
Troutsky, “This is what you and your fellow “libertarians” need to work towards here in the US.” Maybe this is what you need to be working on in the US.
Mookie is right. He does look like Bush giving his evil salute.
In Venezuela the aristocrats are upset with Chavez because he has the support of the “masses.” They brought it on themselves by their neglect and repression of those same poor people and are screaming because Chavez is championing their interests. In Bolivia the petroleum industry was nationalized because they had been too greedy and had left the country with practically nothing. Since nationalization the income from gas has increased from somewhere around 5% of GDP to 15% of GDP. Now in Ecuador the greed of the elite has led to their overthrow. When will people learn that you don’t get ahead by making everyone else suffer?
“I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own — and if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the “haves” refuse to share with the “have-nots” by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans. “: — General David M. Shoup - Commandant of the Marine Corps 1960-63, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor
“Correa has become a tyrant who keeps you in poverty, the tyrant who keeps you sick, the tyrant who keeps you without a home or health care. But I am here, Ecuadorans,” Noboa said during his last electoral rally.
Considering that Noboa and his compadres are the ones responsible for the poverty and its manifestations in the first place, it strikes me as illogical that anyone could possibly take him seriously. He didn’t get to be a billionaire by caring about the well-being of the vast majority of the Ecuadorans.