Palast - Ecuador Gets Chavez'd

[realFedUp]

ECUADOR GETS CHAVEZ'D
By Greg Palast
Excerpted from The Nation
16 May 2005
www.TheNation.com

George Bush has someone new to hate. Only twenty-four hours after Ecuador's new president took his oath of office, he was hit by a diplomatic cruise missile fired all the way from Lithuania by Condoleezza Rice, then wandering about Eastern Europe spreading "democracy." Condi called for ?a constitutional process to get to elections,? which came as a bit of a shock to the man who'd already been constitutionally elected, Alfredo Palacio.

What had Palacio done to get our Secretary of State's political knickers in a twist?  It's the oil--and the bonds. This nation of only 13 million souls at the world's belly button is rich, sitting on at least 4.4 billion barrels of oil in known reserves, and probably much more. Yet 60 percent of its citizens live in brutal poverty; a lucky minority earn the "minimum" wage of $153 a month.

The obvious solution--give the oil money to the Ecuadoreans without money--runs smack up against paragraph III-1 the World Bank's 2003 Structural Adjustment Program Loan. The diktat is marked "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY," which "may not be disclosed" without World Bank authorization. TheNation.com has obtained a copy.

The secret loan terms require Ecuador to pay bondholders 70 percent of the revenue received from any spike in the price of oil. The result: Ecuador must give up the big bucks from the Iraq War oil price surge. Another twenty percent of the oil windfall is set aside for "contingencies" (i.e., later payments to bondholders). The document specifies that Ecuador may keep only 10 percent of new oil revenue for expenditures on social services.

continued

[wiggs]

1. Ecuador was enslaved by US and World Bank

Ecuador was poster child for how developing nations were to behave: Take on loans based on inflated estimates of economic prosperity. Loan payments are unrealistic, country defaults. US and World Bank dictate terms of repayment, including exclusive use of American companies to do work in Ecuador, allowing corporations access to national treasures (oil, land, cheap labor usually), allowing a few Ecuadorians to get wealthy, dictating UN votes, etc. If the country does not toe the line, threats are made. If the country still does not cooperate (look out Chavez) then more serious consequences happen. Allende, Roldos, and Torrijos were examples of leaders who tried to defy this expected cooperation. Hussein too.

The bottom line is the country becomes a slave to US and World Bank, the masses are not helped, a priveledged few become wealthy. This pattern has been going on for decades and is a little known, important, disgusting part of our history. Many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Indonesia have been victimized this way...not much hope in many areas.

Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man details this very well and is highly recommended reading for those of us who are naive and did not know.

[Demeter]

2. Condi Had to Make A Bag Run to Baghdad

modern telecommunications, however, permits her to make a mess of things in multiple locations simultaneously.

Iraq not only has the wheels coming off, it's scraping a hole in the bottom of the wagon. And BushCo threatens Syria because they let refugees across the border from the great insurgency assault?

How can these people look in the mirror in the morning?

[realFedUp]

3. I think they just look at eachother....nt