Ecuador's New Government Talks Default on Debt: Latin America's New Reality

Peru's President Alan Garcia (L) and Ecuador's President-elect Rafael Correa raise their hands for the media at the government palace in Lima December 9, 2006. Correa was in Peru for a one day visit. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares(PERU)

By Mark Weisbrot

Huffington Post

December 24, 2006

Unless you are following Latin America closely, you may not have noticed that Ecuador's bonds plunged last week on the statements from the new President, Rafael Correa, and finance minister, Ricardo Patino, indicating that they are willing to pursue an "Argentine-style" default on the country's foreign debt.

"If our moral duty to provide health, education and housing to our people impedes us from paying debt, we won't hesitate two seconds," Correa said at a news conference with Venezuela's Chavez. "We don't rule out a unilateral moratorium on our external debt."

This development is significant for several reasons. First, it is a reversal of the usual pattern where politicians campaign on a promise to put the people's interest first, and then cave to creditors. Or as a Goldman Sachs Latin America economist said of the new Ecuadorian government last week, "Slowly the market is starting to realize that they mean what they say."

(click here to view entire report)

The Year in Review: 7 Highlights from 2006

A fan of Chilean soccer club Colo Colo wears the death mask used typically by demonstrators opposed to former dictator Augusto Pinochet, in the tribune of the National Stadium before the start of the Copa Sudamericana final against Mexican club Pachuca CF, in Santiago December 13, 2006. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Seven Oaks

December 31, 2006

Excerpt from report:

6) Augusto Pinochet and Milton Friedman croak within weeks of each other. Twin heads of the neo-liberal monster, they left this world at the ages of 91 and 94 respectively, proving conclusively that only the good die young. Friedman and his “Chicago School” of corporate fundamentalism wreaked havoc on the lives of millions over the last decades of the twentieth century. Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile provided a testing ground for Friedman’s economic prescriptions, implemented over the blood and bones of the thousands tortured or killed following the Setpember 11, 1973 coup against the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende. The “pink tide” sweeping Latin America, and especially the strident anti-imperialism of the Cuban-Venezuelan-Bolivian “axis of good,” should keep Pinochet and Friedman spinning in their graves...

(click here to view entire report)

The new song of Santiago

Artists shake off a dark time, and a South American culture—its poetry, music and dance—reawakens.

By Agustin Gurza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 2, 2007

Santiago, Chile — FOR Chileans, Sept. 11, 1973 was the day the music died.

The long, narrow South American country, home to this capital of 5.5 million, once was an international center for Latin pop music, with groups in the vanguard of the rock en español revolution and the New Song movement, a politically charged folk revival then sweeping Latin America.

Then came Chile's 9/11. Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende, whose populist ideals had galvanized artists. Thousands were killed, including singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, the Chilean Bob Dylan. Thousands more went into exile.

During the next decade of dictatorship, Chile went dark...

(click here to view entire report)

What Gerald Ford really stood for

No one should get pleasure from the death of another, but workers have no reason to mourn the passing of Gerald Ford

U.S. President Gerald Ford shakes hands with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet

By Richard Mellor, AFSCME Local 444 (retired)

Bay Area Indymedia

December 30, 2006

In California, a working class man or woman who steals a piece of pizza and already has two felonies on their record can receive from the judge a twenty five year stint in one of the state’s many “correctional” institutions.

While doing his time it is unlikely that the prisoner (quite possibly a Vietnam or increasingly more so, Iraq war veteran) will have the privilege of bumping in to former heads of state, especially presidents of the United States.

As the imbecile Bush continues to wreak havoc on the workers of the world without fear of retribution, including workers here in the US, we are supposed to bow our heads in reverence to Gerald Ford, a former US President who died December 26th. The San Francisco Chronicle published numerous nauseating letters to the editor December 30th describing Ford as, “hard working and simple” and “a good man” as “decent” and as a person who doesn’t “prevaricate.” I had to head to the dictionary to check on prevaricate as I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with how we chew our food, but it turns out it means someone who doesn’t lie or avoids giving straight, honest answers; it’s the polite way the educated upper classes call each other liars.

Now every worker knows you couldn’t be president of the United States if you gave honest answers. But aside from that, Ford, like Ronald Reagan and all these representatives of the capitalist class, have blood on their hands, and no thinking worker would consider them honest and decent people.

Gerald Ford was a political representative of the US ruling class and global capitalism. Like Bush, his base was “…the haves ... and the have-mores.” (1) Unlike Bush, he wasn’t stupid enough to say it publicly. As the Encyclopedia Americana informs us, “Ford consistently opposed federal aid to education, including funds for school construction, emergency school aid, and increased appropriations for higher education. In other domestic areas he voted for greater curbs on labor union practices and for more restrictive increases in the minimum wage.” (2). In the course of two years in office he vetoed more than 50 pieces of legislation that, in his view, increased spending. Naturally this fiscal restraint didn’t include the Pentagon, Ford had supported an aggressive approach in Vietnam that killed a couple of million Vietnamese and some 57,000 American workers and youth.

Ford supported the dictator Pinochet who, with US support, overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile assassinating its leader. Prior to the coup, the constitutionalist general, Rene Schneider was also assassinated with the tacit approval of Kissinger and the US government. Schneider was no supporter of Chile’s new leader, Salvador Allende, but he was a staunch constitutionalist and considered it his duty to defend the results of a democratic election. Pinochet had thousands murdered and suppressed trade union and democratic rights...

(click here to view entire report)

Let's Toast to Ten Good Things About 2006

(L-R bottom row ) President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, President of Bolivia Evo Morales, President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, (L-R top row) Secretary for South American Affairs of Mexico Jorge Chen, Representative of Surinam Robby Ramlakhan, Vice-president of Argentina Daniel Scioli and Foreign Minister of Colombia Consuelo Araujo pose for an official photo at the South American Community of Nations summit in Cochabamba December 9, 2006. (Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

By Medea Benjamin

Huffington Post

December 28, 2006

Excerpt from report:

Across Latin America, elections have continued to bring a wave of progressive leadership to power. With the victories of Daniel Ortega and Rafael Correa, Nicaragua and Ecuador join Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil as governments committed to improving the lives of the majority. As a sign of the radical changes in the region, Bolivia's Evo Morales marked May 1 by nationalizing the country's oil and gas resources. "After today," he declared, "the hydrocarbons will belong to all Bolivians. Never again will they be in the hands of transnational corporations. Today the country - la patria - stands up."

(click here to view entire report)

Hypocrisy of US exposed by death of despots

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet shaking hands with Henry Kissinger in 1976.

By John Fitzgerald Callan

Letter to the Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

One could almost visualise the US administration, fine upholders of democracy and freedom, dancing around the White House singing Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead, when they heard Saddam had been hanged.

The Wicked Witch of the East ceased to be a friend of America when he invaded oil-rich Kuwait and imperilled US interests.

Before that, even when Saddam was slaughtering Iranians and gassing Kurds, he was firmly on the side of the Stars and Stripes.

So, the administration that authorised an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq can afford to crow about the televised killing of a former friend and ally who refused to play ball anymore.

It was, of course, a different matter a few weeks ago when another tyrant died peacefully in his bed. General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who murdered thousands of his own fellow citizens, was America's trusted friend.

In the early 1970s, he and his fellow fascists overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, with enthusiastic US backing via the CIA.

Pinochet replaced a democratically mandated government with a cruel un-elected dictatorship, trampling all over human rights, and the Americans not only failed to check his tyranny, but openly backed his vicious regime from day one because it was anti-communist...

(click here to view entire report)

Was Cuba ever really a threat to the United States?

Cuba's President Fidel Castro is seen in Havana in this October 28, 2006 file photo. REUTERS/Juventud Rebelde-Estudios Revolucion/Handout

By Pat M. Holt

Christian Science Monitor

January 4, 2007

Excerpt from report:

It remains to be seen who the long-term successor to Fidel Castro will be, or what he or she will do, but the US can learn some things from its Cuban experience. Apart from the missile crisis (which was precipitated by the Soviet Union), Cuba has never been a threat to the United States. Rather, as Sen. J. William Fulbright (D) said in arguing with President Kennedy against the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba has been "a thorn in the flesh, not a dagger in the heart." Why, then, have so many presidents, some of them otherwise sensible, been so upset about it? In part, Florida politics; in part, the possible spread of communism; in part the fear that Castro might seek to extend his revolution elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Yet Castro said many times that revolutions cannot be exported. He warned President Salvador Allende, who died trying to bring a similar revolution to Chile, not to pick a fight with the US. His assertions don't match with the US fear that Castro would try to spread his revolution.

A regime change is under way in Cuba. Maybe we would all be better off if there were a policy change in the US as well.

(click here to view entire report)

El Salvador offers picture of war-torn history

Former guerrillas take visitors on tours of one-time battlefields, hideoutsCarlos Henriquez Consalvi, founder of the clandestine Salvadoran station "Radio Venceremos," is pictured near equipment used by the radio station during the country's civil war era.

Associated Press

January 3, 2007

PERQUIN, El Salvador - Gun fragments, photos, combat plans and mountain hideouts. These are the latest tourist attractions in formerly war-torn El Salvador.

The country has been at peace since 1992. But the 12-year civil war left 76,000 dead, thousands injured and an imprint of violence on the country that residents in economically depressed areas are trying to turn into a profit.

For a fee, former guerrillas will take visitors on tours of former battlefields or mountain hideouts, while museums display war memorabilia. The government has applauded the effort as a way to draw more tourists to El Salvador.

The former Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, which led the guerrilla uprising, has teamed up with local business leaders to create the so-called "peace route."

The mountain town of Perquin, 175 miles east of San Salvador, was considered the "guerrilla capital" during the fighting, and it served as the FMLN's headquarters. Today, it is home to the "Museum of the Revolution," and features cannons, uniforms, pieces of Soviet weaponry and other weapons of war once used by the FMLN.

"The objective of the museum is simply to serve as a point of historical reference for future generations," said Rolando Caceres, the museum's director...

(click here to view entire report)

Growth and Redistribution, Lula's Big Tasks

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva delivers a speech during the reinauguration ceremony for a second four year term in Brasilia. Lula da Silva called for "speed, courage, daring and creativity" as he launched a new four-year term facing the need to pump up economic growth and create more jobs.(AFP/Evaristo Sa)

Analysis by Mario Osava

[Editor's Note: See "Lula May Increase Brazil Infrastructure Funding, Bernardo Says" and "Lula da Silva vows to help Brazil's poor."]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 2 (IPS) - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began his second term in office on Monday, postponing the final answer as to whether he will successfully live up to the challenge of going down in history not merely as the former steelworker who won the presidency in 2002 and was reelected in October by a wide margin.

His goal is to usher in a lengthy cycle of economic growth, nearly doubling the average gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 2.6 percent posted in his first four-year administration. The magic number is five percent, a rate of growth that would generate more jobs and speed up the reduction in social inequality already begun this decade.

A package of measures with that aim, which was to be announced last week, was postponed to the second half of January. The new ministerial team, which will reflect a coalition government between Lula's leftwing Workers Party (PT), the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and small leftist groups, will not be formed until February.

Budgetary constraints threaten the growth target for 2007. Critics of Brazil's mediocre economic performance over the last few years point to the lack of investment capacity of the public sector as the main obstacle. This is a consequence of the government's high running costs, according to most economists. But leftwing economists blame high interest payments on public debt, which are among the highest in the world...

(click here to view entire report)

Why Mom Hates Chavez

Caracas, Venezuela, July 11, 2002 (AFP Photo/Juan Barreto).

By "Paul -V-"

Brainshrub.com

January 2, 2007

Excerpt from report:

[W]hy do rich Venezuelans and many Americans react to Chavez as if they had just found their child playing with a grenade missing its pin?

Before researching this question, I didn't have strong feelings toward Hugo Chavez. I kind of liked him, but mainly because he's an international figure who isn't scared to tell the world that Bush wears no clothes.

Now that I've looked into it, I've come to believe that the people who criticize him the harshest are coming from a space of self-interest or ignorance.

Please note I'm not saying the guy is perfect. For example I have to agree that he's a bit of a blow-hard. Furthermore, he may yet turn out to be a dictator - this would not be the first time a popular leader would do so.

But as of this post, Chavez has done nothing that any other competent democratically-elected European or American leader has ever done. So what's with the hatred?

One word: "Taxes".

Before Chavez, the business classes in Venezuela pretty much treated taxes as a voluntary exercise. Rampant tax evasion starved the government of monies needed to pay for infrastructure to support working families and the poor...

(click here to view entire report)

18 Secret Armies Of The CIA

Aaron's News Post

January 2, 2007

Excerpt from report:

18. VENEZUELAN COUP ATTEMPT

On April 11, 2002, Venezuelan military leaders attempted to overthrow the country's democratically-elected left-wing president, Hugo Chavez. The coup collapsed after two days as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and as units of the military joined with the protestors. The administration of George W. Bush was the only democracy in the Western Hemisphere not to condemn the coup attempt. According to intelligence analyst Wayne Madsen, the CIA had actively organised the coup: 'The CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the US Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organise the coup against Chavez.'

(click here to view entire report)

Venezuela plans to offer housing credits to Nicaraguans

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (L) welcomes Nicaragua's President-elect Daniel Ortega at Caracas airport December 5, 2006. REUTERS/Jorge Silva (VENEZUELA)

Associated Press

January 3, 2007

Venezuela plans to offer housing credits to help hundreds of thousands of poor Nicaraguans build homes, President Hugo Chavez's government said Wednesday.

Chavez will open a branch of the Bank of Economic and Social Development, or Bandes, in Managua when he travels there Jan. 10 to attend the presidential inauguration of Daniel Ortega, according to a statement from the Ministry of Communication.

Venezuela's ambassador to Nicaragua, Miguel Gomez, was quoted as saying the bank will "establish important financing to benefit some 200,000 families to build their own houses."

(click here to view entire report)

Witness in Argentina rights trial is tortured

Luis Gerez, right, arrives home in Buenos Aires after being freed by abductors who abused him physically and psychologically. Natacha pisarenko / the associated press

The Associated Press

December 31, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A witness in a human-rights trial was abducted and tortured using methods reminiscent of Argentina's military dictatorships decades ago, government officials and associates of the victim said Saturday.

Luis Gerez was found Friday night in the city of Garin, 28 miles north of Buenos Aires, two days after he vanished. He was shirtless and bore the marks of having been beaten and burned with cigarettes, authorities said.

Gerez, who disappeared Wednesday, was scared but generally in good condition, relatives said. He was tossed from a speeding automobile on a deserted street.

Alberto Fernandez de Rosa, a friend who spoke with Gerez shortly after he was taken to a hospital, said the 51-year-old construction worker told him he was abducted by at least three men who kept him blindfolded the entire time, tied him to an iron bar and subjected him to physical and psychological abuse.

Gerez, who has accused a former police chief of torturing him during the 1966-1973 dictatorship, was released shortly after President Nestor Kirchner told the nation that former security agents from past military regimes were believed to be behind his disappearance...

(click here to view entire report)

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007

The outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton is seen in this September 18, 2006 file photo in New York. REUTERS/Chip East

Project Censored

Excerpts from report:

#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court

Source: Agence France Press News (School of the Americas Watch), June 22, 2005

Title: “Ecuador Refuses to Sign ICC Immunity Deal for US Citizens”

Author: Alexander Martinez

Source: Inter Press Service, November 2, 2005

Title: “Mexico Defies Washington on the International Criminal Court”

Author: Katherine Stapp

Faculty Evaluator: Elizabeth Martinez

Student Researchers: Jessica Rodas, David Abbott, and Charlene Jones

Ecuador and Mexico have refused to sign bilateral immunity agreements (BIA) with the U.S., in ratification of the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. Despite the Bush administration’s threat to withhold economic aid, both countries confirmed allegiance to the ICC, the international body established to try individuals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On June 22, 2005 Ecuador’s president, Alfredo Palacios, vocalized emphatic refusal to sign a BIA (also known as an Article 98 agreement to the Rome Statute of the ICC) in spite of Washington’s threat to withhold $70 million a year in military aid.

...

The U.S. effort to undermine the ICC was given teeth in 2002, when the U.S. Congress adopted the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (ASPA), which contains provisions restricting U.S. cooperation with the ICC by making U.S. support of UN peacekeeping missions largely contingent on achieving impunity for all U.S. personnel.The ASPA prohibits U.S. military assistance to ICC member states that have not signed a BIA.

Legislation far more wide-reaching, however, was signed into law by President Bush on December 2004. The Nethercutt Amendment authorizes the loss of Economic Support Funds (ESF) to countries, including many key U.S. allies, that have not signed a BIA. Threatened under the Nethercutt Amendment are: funds for international security and counterterrorism efforts, peace process programs, antidrug-trafficking initiatives, truth and reconciliation commissions, wheelchair distribution, human rights programs, economic and democratic development, and HIV/Aids education, among others. The Nethercutt Amendment was readopted by the U.S. Congress in November 2005.1

In spite of severe U.S. pressure, fifty-three members of the ICC have refused to sign BIAs...

(click here to view entire report)

Castro once advised Morales to shun arms

Cuban leader Fidel Castro receives Bolivian president Evo Morales at the José Martí airport in Havana on April 28, 2006.

By CARLOS VALDEZ, Associated Press Writer

December 30, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales said Friday that his close ally Fidel Castro once advised him to shun arms for his populist cause and change Bolivia through democratic means.

Morales, who was democratically elected in 2005, said Castro urged him three years ago not to follow his own example of rising to power through armed revolution. Instead, Castro urged Morales to pursue a democratic revolution similar to the one Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims to be leading...

(click here to view entire report)

Zapatista communities with the people of the world in Oventik, Chiapas, México

By "zap"

Bay Area Indymedia

January 2, 2007

[Editor's Note: See "Table 4 : The 'Other Communication, Art and Culture'" and "Mexican Zapatistas Mark 13th Anniversary."]

Today, the second day of the first meeting of the Zapatistas with the people of the world and with the grounds of Oventik still covered in mist, began the first work session on autonomous education - the ‘other education’. The table began with a discussion of the autonomous education system that has been established in Zapatista communities since government teachers were run out of the communities in 2000. Members of the Good Government Councils representing the 5 caracoles – La Realidad, Oventik, La Garrucha, Morelia and Roberto Barrios – along with representatives from the education commissions of many of the autonomous municipalities spoke of both the gains and obstacles of the past 6 years constructing autonomous education. Following this period, which allowed each Council 20 minutes to speak to education in their region, was a short question and answer period and the table was closed with the commentaries and participation of delegates from throughout Mexico and the world.

It made clear the differences in the pace with which the schools and educational promoters are advancing, but also clear was the shared desire for the creation of an educational system of liberation rather than domination. All members addressed the history of education in their communities and the reasons for the rejection of government teachers. In addition to the facts that the teachers often came from the cities and therefore had little real commitment to the communities, couldn’t communicate with the students in their native tongue and were often abusive towards the children, after the uprising in 1994 there were fears that teachers came to the communities as spies and the military was often involved in bringing supplies to the communities. Beyond these problems was the recognition that the material being taught, created by a government that is not only abusive but also ignorant of life in the communities, was not serving either the children or the community to address their own problems...

(click here to view entire report)

ARGENTINA: Not a bad year, eh?

yanquimike.com.ar

January 2, 2007

Two co-directors for the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington are among several authors of a flurry of year end stories about Argentina's continued growth.

The AP writes, "Argentina is expected to continue its strong comeback after its economic meltdown in 2002, with experts predicting GDP growth of 7 percent next year. Construction is booming, soy exports are up, and unemployment is below 10 percent after reaching a record-high of 21.5 percent in 2003." Reuters reports that the central bank's monetary plan forecasts record exports in 2007 of about $50 billion and a trade surplus of about $10 billion.

And two polls of Argentine bank analysts indicate that next year's trade surplus could be even bigger than the big bank forecasts...

(click here to view entire report)

Global inequality and class conflict

By Manning Marable

Columbus Free Press

January 2, 2007

At no previous moment in world history has the gap between the rich and poor been as wide as today. As an important, newly-released report reveals, this growing class divide exists in virtually every nation on earth.

A 2006 study by the World Institute for Development Economic Research of the United Nations University, establishes that as of 2000, the upper 1 percent of the globe’s adult population, approximately 37 million people, who average about $515,000 in net worth per person, and collectively control roughly 40 percent of the world’s entire wealth. By contrast, the bottom one-half of the planet’s adult population, 1.85 billion people, most of whom are black and brown, own only 1.1 percent of the world’s total wealth. There is tremendous inequality of wealth between nations, the U.N. report notes...

(click here to view entire report)