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Correa Celebrates Victory In Constitutional Referendum
QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa celebrated victory Monday after winning what he said was a "crushing victory" in a constitutional referendum aimed at broadening his powers.
A supporter of Ecuador's President Rafael Correa shows a new Ecuadorean constitution autographed by Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Sept.28, 2008. Ecuadoreans voted Sept. 28 to approve a new constitution that guarantees free education through university, widens social security benefits and significantly expands Correa's powers, allowing him to run for two more consecutive terms. (AP Photo/Patricio Realpe) Initial official returns, reflecting just five percent of the ballot, indicated 65-percent popular backing for the new basic law. But they were supported by unofficial exit polls showing that Correa's proposal had won between 66 percent and 70 percent of the vote.
"The new constitution has had a crushing victory," Correa said in opposition stronghold Guayaquil, on the Pacific coast. "It's a historic moment that transcends by far the people who by luck or accident have been involved in this process."
Organization of American States General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza, in a statement, congratulated Correa "on very strong support granted by Ecuadoran people."
In a bid to avert unrest, Correa asked the opposition and all "no" voters to remain calm and issued a called to unity.
"We extend them our hand. Let them acknowledge defeat and let's strike out together in the new direction the great majority of Ecuadorans, as well as all Latin America, are setting: a society with more justice, much more equality and without so much ... misery."
Correa earlier had voiced hope for a solid "yes" vote, as he strives for what he calls a "21st century socialism" to more closely align Ecuador with leftist allies Venezuela and Bolivia, making it the latest South American country to chart a leftward course.
Passed by a Constitutional Assembly on July 24, the new Basic Law would strengthen the government's hold on the economy of this small nation of 13.9 million people -- half of whom live in poverty -- which is based chiefly on oil exports and money sent home by its emigrants.
The proposed constitution is inspired by the leftist majorities in power in Venezuela and Bolivia and their repudiation of the neoliberal policies of the 1990s, but falls short of nationalizing the country's national resources as Bolivia and Venezuela have done.
Its 444 articles expand presidential powers in an attempt to end political instability in a country that in the last 10 years has sent three presidents packing before their terms were up.
The new constitution would allow the president to run for two consecutive four-year terms, dissolve Congress and call early elections.
Correa, 45, has already announced his intention to run for reelection in February 2009, if it is approved, in which case early elections would be convened by the Constitutional Assembly.
The new constitution would also close down all foreign military bases in Ecuador, forcing the United States to move its regional anti-drug operations, run for nearly 10 years from an air base in the port city of Manta.
Opposition leader and Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nebot has railed against the new constitution he says would create a centralized form of government that would threaten private property and which has already proven to be inefficient.
"Do you think we can model ourselves after Venezuela, a country swimming in oil money but whose people have to line up to get food, or Bolivia, a country split down the middle because its government doesn't understand?" Nebot recently told AFP.
The Roman Catholic Church, a major player in this predominantly Catholic nation, has also criticized the new constitution, especially the articles it says will lead to the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage.
Correa addressed those doubts in his victory speech to supporters.
"Let's see if the new constitution is pro-abortion, centralist, hyperpresidentialist, a harbinger of dictatorship. Let's see if all that is true."
He called on all sectors in Ecuador to join forces to move the country forward, but warned: "Not a single step backwards. All the progress we've made we'll not give up. We can only look to the future.
"Let's move forward together, but on the path of change, of the future."
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5 Comments so far
Show AllThe United States would do well to emulate these Latin American countries that are genuinely trying to structure their economies to benefit ALL of their citizens, not just the wealthy and powerful.
Complete agree, like Venezuela with Hugo Chavez and Bolivia with Evo Morales.
Finally The Dream of "CHE" will be done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This victory culminates the efforts of Indigenous movements, trade unions, the Liberation Church, and a host of social organizations to free themselves from domination by oligarchs, the International Monetary Fund, and a corrupt “partitocracia” that have kept Ecuador dependent, divided, and poor for decades.
It shows how popular movements can combine agitation, education, and electoral politics to overcome the kinds of economic madness that has now brought the United States to its knees. At the same time, it is important to understand the limitations of Rafael Correa’s government. For better or worse, Correa is pursuing not so much “socialism in the 21st Century,” the purported goal of his electoral alliance, as a recalibration of the balance between capitalism and the state.
For recent dispatches about Ecuador in the run-up to this referendum, see www.phillipbannowsky.com. Also see the novel by this writer, The Mother Earth Inn, about a U. S. entrepreneur who works with Ecuador’s Indigenous and struggles to disentangle himself from neoliberalism and disaster capitalism in the age of Bill Clinton.
They just did what the US has never done: had a referendum of the entire citizenry on a constitution. We've never done that for a single question, not even a vote for our own president. The Electoral College only lets us vote for "electors."
Where is a new constitutional convention when we need one? We've had over 200 of them in the States. But only one since the Articles of Confederation passed. It is high time we do again what we did in 1787 when the second and current US Constitution was drafted. We need to improve ours, especially Article V which prevents change by allowing 13 states representing less than five percent of the citizens from blocking any amendment or convention.
We have much to learn from more modern, innovative, democratic democracies like Ecuador.
RCC, [ROMAN]'s Catholic Church, the empire church, the church which abandoned the order from Jesus, who said to ensure to always maintain the [separation] of church and state! That church?! Of course it's that church. Why does it constantly stick its nose where it has NO belonging?! Maybe the following interview with ex- and excomm'd Jesuit Fr Malachi Martin provides a "hint". It's actually just an audio with a graphic image, but listed as video.
"Malachi Martin On Who Controls Vatican", (3:26 min.), Aug 8 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptHRUrqH78Y
I'm not sure if that's actually why these wrongful, lying, apostate, ... church "leaders" act as described in the article on the vote in Ecuador, or as happened in Spain over the past few years or so, the fascist, extremist, ... RCs there; but maybe there is this relationship. It's certainly plausible and likely (enough) anyway.
They must know that this meddling they just committed in Ecuadorians' affairs will, f.e., remind some of us of Pope JP II and his top theologian, who's the present pope, i.e., Bennie XVI, ordered the excellent Archbishop Oscar Romero to cease his necessary activism against state hellishness against the general population!
The "elites" of the church have this weird affection for hell reigning on Earth; the rotten "elites", that is. What they just did in Ecuador is diabolical, devil work, trying to get their wicked fearmongering to have real and significant influence in this country! They must surely know it's fearmongering and damn WRONGFUL.
Bush also pretends that abortion is an important issue to him and that it should be for everyone. It is for me, but not in fanatical terms. I definitely wouldn't use fearmongering to express my view on abortion and, therefore, the [lives] of the [littlest ones]. Instead, I'll just present my reasoning, and complement it with analogies that really do fit; only people want to do howwever they whimsically choose and therefore reject real, sane, and responsible [reason]. No need for fearmongering, to get my view across; reason's always the best way, as well as the only one that is [honest].
That's not the way of the rotten "leadership" in the church(es), though. They work for state; and I mean [for]. They are of the league of their evil counterparts who diabolically supported and aided extreme fascist Gen. Franco, who, some people say, was an inspiration to Hitler and Mussolini, and was supported by the U.S., Vatican, and so on.
Ecuadorians must stand strong with President Correa.