Once again, a piece on Ecuador filled with anonymous sources and innuendo, about a request for a bill that hasnāt even been written yet. The āoppositionā in Ecuador mainly consists of the former governing plutocracy and its representatives who dominate the media. This piece is a hit piece, plain and simple. This quote says much:
We donāt know whatās going to happen, but the president has a grip on the congress so itās likely going to become law,ā said one activist who wished to remain anonymous.
So we have to take the word of an anonymous āactivistā claiming the president has a āgripā on congress as if he is a third world dictator instead of an elected president who actually represents the will of the masses of the poor who elected him.
Here is an open letter to the media on its biased and distorted coverage of socialist southern nations from a large and impressive list of professors and journalists:
And here is Bill Black on Ecuador:
Ecuador poses existential threats to Heritageās index and ideology. First, President Correa is a top economist whose policies are based on the view that Heritageās proposed policies are self-destructive, immoral, and economically illiterate. Correaās policies are working brilliantly and are exceptionally popular in Ecuador. Better education, health, and infrastructure are essential to spur economic growth, but they are also steps that dramatically reduce human misery and powerlessness and expand freedom. Polls showed Correa had the highest approval rating of any head of state in the Americas.
Iām not sure why we keep seeing the same tone coming from BoingBoing on these issues, surely its time to reach beyond the mainstream media and its trojan horses like Buzzfeed for information on Central and South America. FYI, Buzzfeedās editor in chief is Ben Smith of Politico, another wonderfully dubious source of slanted and outright lying coverage of Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
Iām not sure how Ecuadorās system works, but in parliamentary systems (UK, Canada, Australia), a Prime Minister with a majority government who doesnāt have a grip on Parliament has really screwed up.
āThe South American country has been in the news recently for providing shelter to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London, and for offering a travel document to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.ā
This is very confusing. Did the same president who wants to make publishing classified documents illegal also responsible for the actions in the above paragraph?
Thatās the million-dollar question. The book on Correa for a long time was that he was a kinder and gentler socialist than Hugo Chavez, with similar economic views but a greater appreciation for civil liberties and freedom of the press. Of course, all we know now is that the head of Ecuadorās intelligence agency asked for this law. We donāt know whether Correa is on board with this or if the intelligence director went rogue. Not being intimately familiar with the Correa administration, I donāt know about the internal dynamics there.
Iād just assume ALL heads of intelligence services everywhere ask for batshit stuff like this all the time. Hopefully Correaās job is to say, āAre you fucking kidding me? No, of course not. Now get the hell out of hereā.
I think most BB readers would dismiss the Heritage Foundations views on a lot of the world. Human Rights Watch, not so much, though you may feel itās biased. Itās not impossible that Correa wonāt abuse the powers requested, but it wouldnāt surprise me if he did.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/12/ecuador-clampdown-civil-society
If he doesnāt abuse these powers, his successor will, or someone lower in the hierarchy will abuse them and not be held accountable (because they were acting within the law) while their superiors arenāt to blame either (because they can plausibly deny knowing about it).
This ALWAYS happens, without exception. If a law can be abused, it surely will be.
If thatās true then why write it? Also, Ecuador doesnāt have a parliamentary system. And I would argue that its a facile argument anyway, because there are opposition parties in parliaments. I wouldnāt describe Cameron as having a grip on the UK parliament, though I might describe Putinās control that way.
It clearly written to paint Correa as some sort of many-tentacled despot.
Here is an interesting portion of the letter to the press I linked in my original comment:
Even JosĆ© Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch ā a fierce critic of Venezuela ā has said that ālack of renewal of the contract[broadcast license in Ecuador], per se, is not a free speech issue.ā Also rarely mentioned in U.S. reporting on the RCTV case is that the channel and its owner actively and openly supported the short-
lived coup dāetat against the democratically-elected government in 2002.
I think that ANY US-based organization can be corrupted or biased on certain issues. Human Rights Watch may be great on certain topics and certain regions, while not being so great on others. And many may receive favors, donations or access for favored causes by performing hit jobs on specific targets. Iām not saying HRW is doing this, but really, why is HRW a āfierceā critic of Venezuela while giving the US a pass for its mass surveillance?
The southern socialist experiments are very sensitive and fragile ā the US, over the past hundred years or so, has systematically robbed these people of their right to self-determination under the guise of ādollar diplomacyā and making these nations āsafeā for United Fruit and other American conglomerates to basically own these nations by installing a tiny, corrupt oligarchy at the top and training and equipping the oligarchās armies to violently suppress the democratic/socialist aspirations of the people. If you havenāt read the history of the āSchool of the Americasā then you canāt know what goes on in Central and South America, to this day. So nations like Ecuador are basically under non-stop attack, both via threats of direct military coup as well as constant propaganda assault both from inside and outside the countries. This includes Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and now also Argentina (because they defaulted on the western loans that were given to prior, corrupt military governments). When you watch this space you have to read EVERYTHING coming from the US media, including NGOās like HRW, with wary skepticism.
Iām not trying to claim these nations are perfect specimens of social democracy, but who the hell is? Oh, and this law that the intelligence service wants passed in Ecuador ā the UK already has such a law, so why isnāt Buzzfeed reporting on that?
Of course itās written that way. Ecuador is the enemy now. Everything they do is to be interpreted in the worst light possible.
President Correa of Ecuador did not propose the legislation that is the subject of the Buzzfeed piece. And yes, Ecuador has been giving asylum in its London embassy to Julian Assange.
HRW didnāt give the US a pass on surveillance, they met with Snowden and have been supportive of whistleblowers, and condemned the NSA program:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/11/us-urgent-need-surveillance-reforms
USSR, Communist China and Reign of Terror era France also used the āsensivitive/fragile new superior form of government opposed by enemiesā excuse to carry out severe repression, several orders of magnitude worse than anything that Iām aware of in Ecuador. Not comparing the regimes, just saying itās āsensitive and fragileā is not a legit excuse.
" think that ANY human organization can be corrupted or biased on certain issues."
Fixed that for you.
Thanks for the info!
Parliamentary systems usually have greater party discipline than presidential-congressional systems. Of course, Cameron has less of an iron grip than the typical British PM these days because his party is in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. If the LibDems get pissed off and leave the coalition, they could force a whole new elections (since Iām assuming Labor has no interest in forming a coalition with the Conservatives).
