- Hugo Chavez Frias gained an Ecuadoran ally last November
when voters rejected Washington's choice and the country's richest man
and elected Raphael Correa its President by an impressive margin. Correa
is a populist economist and self-styled "humanist, leftist Christian"
promising big changes for another Latin American country long ruled by
and for the elite and against the interests of ordinary people Ecuador
abounds in whose voices finally spoke and prevailed.
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- Correa took office January 15 in a country of 13 million,
over 70% of whom live in poverty. They voted for a man promising social
democratic change and the same kinds of benefits Venezuelans now have under
Hugo Chavez they too now have a chance to get. Correa is the country's
8th president in the last decade including three previous ones driven from
office by mass street protest opposition against their misrule and public
neglect.
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- Correa campaigned on a promise of change including using
the country's oil revenue for critically needed social services Ecuadoreans
never before had. He promised a "citizens' revolution" and to
be an "instrument of change" beginning by drafting a new Constitution
in a Constituent Assembly he hopes will be authorized by popular referendum
following the same pattern Hugo Chavez chose in 1999 following his first
election as Venezuela's President in December, 1998.
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- Ecuador's majority right wing Christian Democratic Union
(UDC) party tried stopping him but overwhelming popular support for it
finally got enough members in it to go along. The vote came February 13
and won out 54 - 1 with two abstentions in the nation's single-seat legislature.
Most opposition deputies walked out before the vote when it was apparent
they'd face defeat.
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- Following the vote, Ecuador's Supreme Electoral Council
(TSE) set April 15 for the referendum vote that's virtually certain to
pass as popular support for its purpose runs around 77%. After passage,
as expected, voters in June or July will select 130 delegates to the Constituent
Assembly that should begin meeting in August or September. It then will
have six to eight months to write a new Constitution that would go before
voters to be ratified, and if it changes the Congress or presidency would
require new elections be held for legislators and the nation's highest
office.
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- It things go as planned, Ecuador is now poised to change
its method of governance the same way Venezuela did it eight years ago.
Raphael Correa promised it, and he's now moving ahead to give his people
the same kind of 21st century socialism Venezuelans now have and embrace.
Ecuadoreans want it too and now have their best chance ever to get it
under a leader working for them just as Chavez does for Venezuelans with
overwhelming approval.
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- Correa is confident of success and told his people on
February 17 on his weekly radio program he'll resign if his supporters
don't win a majority of seats in the Constituent Assembly. He said he'd
rather go than "warm the bench and be just another of the bunch of
traitors and impostors we've had in the presidency...." That's not
likely as long-denied Ecuadoreans overwhelming support their new President
and the process of change he's now poised to deliver for them the same
way Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela that works.
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- It's one more step left in Latin America but just a small
one on a continent long under Washington's ominous shadow watching events
closely and not about to let its control slip away without resisting.
Any leader trying knows the threat, but those willing to risk it are the
ones to watch. Hopefully others in the region and beyond will join them,
and they have a courageous model in Hugo Chavez who defied the odds and
continues moving ahead boldly after eight successful years. If Chavez
can do it, why not others if they'll try. The more who do, the stronger
the process for real social change becomes that with luck could be unstoppable.
What a glorious impossible dream, but even those kinds come true.
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- Correa intends a further challenge to US hegemony by
following through on another campaign promise to close the major US military
base at Manta when the 10 year treaty authorizing it expires in 2009.
Doing it won't make Pentagon top brass happy as it's their largest base
on South America's Pacific coast and one costing many millions to build.
It's certain they'll try getting Correa to reconsider and won't go light
on the pressure doing it. But as of now Minister of Foreign Relations
Maria Fernanda Espinosa stated her country's position: "Equador is
a sovereign nation, we do not need foreign troops in our country (and they
likely will have to go)."
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- Correa also plans a new relationship with US-dominated
international lending agencies following through on his campaign to renegotiate
the country's $16 billion foreign debt and hasn't ruled out an Argentine-style
default to free up revenue for vitally needed social programs including
100,000 low-cost homes, raising the minimum wage, and doubling the small
"poverty bonus" 1.2 million poor Ecuadorans get each month.
For now, Correa opted to make a scheduled $135 million debt payment to
foreign bond holders while pursuing his greater aim to renegotiate the
whole debt and annul the odious part of it resulting from previous governments'
corrupt dealings it profited from at the peoples' expense.
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- Correa is also negotiating bilateral trade and other
economic deals with Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales based at least
in part on Venezuela's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas or ALBA
model. It's the mirror-opposite of FTAA or NAFTA-type one-way pacts sucking
wealth from developing states agreeing to them. Instead it's based on
sound principles of complementarity, solidarity and cooperation to achieve
comprehensive integration among Latin American nations agreeing to them
and being willing to work together toward developing their "social
state" in contrast to US-type deals being all for its corporate giants
and the privileged.
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- These are the early bold steps of a courageous new leader
promising and now proceeding to follow in the footsteps of the example
Hugo Chavez set. He's off to a fast start on a road sure to have promise
and perils but with great potential payoff for his people if he can persevere
and succeed. He's showing he intends to try.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
tune in each Saturday to hear the Steve Lendman News and Information Hour
on The Micro Effect.com each Saturday at noon US central time.
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