Archive - Sep 2010

Ecuador news today

Ecuador's president attacked by police.
Country's leader trapped in hospital after assault, as government declares a one-week state of emergency.

In February 2008 Greg Palast met with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. They discussed the Lawsuit against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says "Ecuador is No Longer for Sale"

Watch part of the interview.

Transcript:

GREG PALAST: But let me ask you, there’s a massive multibillion-dollar lawsuit against ChevronTexaco for supposedly destroying your rainforest. What if every little nation on the planet decided to sue oil companies for billions? Wouldn’t that disrupt oil production worldwide?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Well, with these lawsuits, well, they don’t go to interrupt the oil production in the third world. They go to push these big international companies in order to be a lot more careful when they want to extract our oil, because they did and they do in the third world things that they don’t do in the first world. So it’s a double standard that they have.

GREG PALAST: Well, according to Chevron—and I’ve spoken to them—they said that they operate very cleanly, just as they do in the US.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Well, OK, yes

GREG PALAST: I’ll tell you what they’re saying.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: And also Cinderella cheats and a lot of things, yeah.

GREG PALAST: And they blame your oil company. They say it’s your fault.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: That is not true. Of course, our oil company has also done a lot of damage in the rainforest, but it is very clear that the problem comes from the ChevronTexaco period, OK?—Texaco period, because at the beginning it was just Texaco, so there are a lot of evidence about that.

GREG PALAST: Well, but here’s the problem. First of all, can they get a fair trial here? They say that there’s no chance that they can get a fair trial here.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Always there is a pretext, excuse in order to avoid the responsibilities, you know? We think that they can have a fair trial here. I cannot—the evidence is there, of course. They are blaming our oil company, but before our oil company took over the exploitation, the damage was there.

GREG PALAST: If your courts rule against ChevronTexaco, how in the world are you going to collect? They have nothing here. How is little Ecuador going to collect against big Chevron?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Well, that will be a problem. It’s not a public lawsuit. It’s a lawsuit followed by indigenous communities from the Amazonia. Any way we go to support [inaudible] or in order to collect the money, if they win the lawsuit, but, well, that will be a precedent, because we can do the same thing if, for instance, Occidental, a lot of oil companies are following lawsuits against the Ecuador government. So we can follow the same strategies we want. How in the world they can collect the money? It’s a demonstration of faith. So I think their own United States, their own international community should impose to ChevronTexaco [inaudible] the moral duty of paying this money.

GREG PALAST: Well, besides the moral duty, there are no Chevron assets in Ecuador anymore.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Well, of course.

GREG PALAST: But there are billions in Chevron assets in Venezuela. Will your friend Hugo Chavez help you collect if your citizens win?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: You know, it’s not a government problem. It’s not our lawsuit. It’s a private lawsuit. So—but I think there is a moral issue here. So it’s not possible to have this kind of impunity, if this indigenous community wins the lawsuit against ChevronTexaco. So in this case, we think that the moral duty of the international community is to push to ChevronTexaco in order to pay this money.

GREG PALAST: Will you call on President Chavez or others to help you enforce—protect your citizens in the rainforest?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: I will call the whole international community. Always you are giving us moralist speeches, advice about economic policy, social policy, environmental policy, moral policy, etc. So we are sure that in this case you will not support this indigenous communities against a huge, a big, a very powerful transnational, ChevronTexaco.

GREG PALAST: Do you think that the US government is going to support your attack, your government’s attack, your people’s attack on the oil company that Condoleezza Rice came from?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: It’s not an attack. It’s justice. So we expect—yes, we hope that the US government supports this, if you want, this claim.

GREG PALAST: Now, you’ve thrown Occidental Petroleum out. You have forced ChevronTexaco out of your country. What is Ecuador’s problem with US oil companies?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: What is the problem of the US company with Ecuador? Because we are not crazy. We are—our indigenous people are fighting against ChevronTexaco [inaudible], you know? You can see our rainforest before Petroecuador. It’s not true that the fault is in Petroecuador. You know, before Petroecuador, we already had a lot of damage in our rainforest. And also with Occidental, it’s very clear that they break up their contracts on the Ecuadorian law. So it’s not that we have something against foreign investment, foreign companies or US companies. But there are some companies that used to do in our countries things that they will never do in their own countries.

GREG PALAST: This is a big change in Ecuador. I don’t think I would have heard this, this talk, from a prior president of ten years ago. What’s changed? Why suddenly—before, you had presidents that embraced Occidental, that embraced Chevron. Now, what’s happening?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Ecuador is no longer on sale, you know? Now, Ecuador has a sovereign and nationalist government. That is the huge different—difference, sorry.

GREG PALAST: Yeah, very different. Now, does that—now, one of the things, though, is that Hugo Chavez has just lost a big vote. Evo Morales is facing a revolt in Bolivia. Is this really the end of the populist left in Latin America?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: I don’t know why or what you use to call “populist left.” Our left is not populist. It’s a very technical one. But it’s very popular. That is different, you know? Perhaps that is not understood in the States. Anyway, any change in Latin America, the most unequal region in the world, will face a lot of obstruction, of problems. But we have to continue because these changes are necessary. But there are still very powerful groups against any change. Why? Because they are—they have been very, very, very well in this situation, very comfortable situation, with poverty, etc. So it’s normal. Perhaps “normal” is not exactly the word. It’s—if you want, we can expect to have this opposition, very strong opposition, of these groups of interests, because they go to lose their privileges.

GREG PALAST: Do you think that the United States is backing the privileged classes?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Sometimes, yes.

GREG PALAST: Do you think that’s part of your problem with the Bush administration?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: We don’t have any problem with Bush administration. We respect a lot of the US government. But sometimes, of course, about foreign policy, we have to comment on that. I think that most part of the world, of the international community, for instance, criticized the Iraq invasion. So these kind of things, we can comment on. But we don’t have any problem with the Bush government.

GREG PALAST: Well, but the Bush government has a problem with you. I noticed that Condoleezza Rice and the Bush government made it very clear that they didn’t like you being appointed finance minister in the last government. Obviously they can’t be happy with you being president.

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: Well, no, no. I didn’t know that. Perhaps international organizations didn’t—were not too happy about my nomination—for instance, World Bank, IMF, etc. But I didn’t know that the Bush administration was not happy with my nomination. Anyway, I don’t care about that.

GREG PALAST: Yes, well, are you saying that Paul Wolfowitz was not happy with your policies here in Ecuador, the president of the World Bank?

PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA: I didn’t talk to Paul Wolfowitz, but I talked to—I don’t remember the name of the vice president of the World Bank, and I realized very well that she wasn’t happy with me.

The full interview can be seen in the bonus material of the DVD Palast Investigates.

****

Greg Palast is an investigative journalist and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His reports can be seen on BBC Newsnight.

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Source: Reuters By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A bomb blast at a rural Myanmar election commission office has stirred fears of violence during the first polls in two decades next month in the reclusive ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders writes a prescription that can't be repeated often enough:

First, let's be clear: despite all the right-wing rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. That's a lie! The truth is that the Social Security Trust Fund has run surpluses for the last quarter-century. Today's $2.5 trillion cushion is projected to grow to $4 trillion in 2023. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, experts in this area, say Social Security will be able to pay every nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary until 2039. Got that? In case you don't, let me repeat it. The people who have studied this issue most thoroughly and have no political bias report that Social Security will be able to pay out all benefits to every eligible beneficiary for the next twenty-nine years. It is true that by 2039, if nothing is changed, Social Security will be able to pay out only about 80 percent of benefits. That is why it is important that Congress act soon to make sure Social Security is as strong in the future as it is today. The hatred of Social Security from the right-wing antigovernment crowd is based on the fact that Social Security, a government program, has been enormously successful in accomplishing its mission. For seventy-five years, in good times and bad, Social Security has provided financial security for tens of millions of Americans. ... In the midst of all of the destructive rhetoric and ideas out there with regard to Social Security, there is one proposal that is simple, sensible and would keep Social Security strong and solvent in a fair and just way. Under the law today, the Social Security payroll tax is levied only on earnings up to $106,800 a year. That means millionaires and billionaires get off scot-free on all of their income above that amount. In other words, an individual who earns $106,800 pays the same Social Security tax as a multimillionaire. That's wrong. Applying the Social Security payroll tax on those with the most income, say over $250,000 a year, would correct this inequity. According to CBO, applying the tax to all income would provide all the revenue that Social Security needs for the foreseeable future—for our kids and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

As Joan McCarter reported Thursday, Sanders was joined by 11 other Senators and 104 members of the House in announcing that they are united in their opposition to any cuts to Social Security that the deficit commission may recommend.

• • • • •

At Daily Kos on this date in 2007

Source: Reuters (For full Ecuador coverage click on [ID:nECUADOR])

* Troops free president after day of unrest

* Correa faces showdown with party rivals

By Alexandra Valencia and Hugh Bronstein

QUITO, Oct 1 ( ...

Source: Reuters BOGOTA, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa survived the most serious challenge of his four years in office when troops rescued him from a hospital surrounded by renegade police, but ...

MysteryGuitarman — Bohemian Slide (h/t Ellie).

What’s on your mind?

Today, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Contingency Fund will expire because a minority in Congress blocked the extension proposed by the President. This will put up to 100,000 jobs in jeopardy, raising unemployment and potentially even cost the government more money in additional public assistance funds. A strong commitment that the program will be restored when Congress returns could still save some of these jobs, and provide crucial help to workers, businesses and communities.

The TANF Emergency Contingency Fund lets states use Recovery Act dollars to help employers pay for the cost of hiring low-income unemployed workers. Since the inception of the program, states have provided jobs to more than 250,000 jobless parents and disadvantaged youth according to a recent analysis. In September alone, up to 100,000 Americans were employed in subsidized jobs funded through the Emergency Fund - jobs that are in jeopardy given the expiration of this successful initiative. We certainly shouldn’t let effective programs expire, especially when they’re still very much needed to help these low-income workers earn the paychecks they need to support their families.

Small businesses are hiring many of the workers supported by this program and these businesses have been able to grow as a result. A recent New York Times story highlighted an innovative program in Mississippi that used the funding to pay private companies to hire 3,200 workers and paid their salaries on a sliding scale so that the employers would end up paying the entire amount after six months. As a local employer recently told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s a win-win. We needed the help and they needed the jobs.”

Without federal funding, most states and localities won’t be able to continue to provide support for these jobs. Governors from both parties have called for the extension of the program and some will try to keep it going for a couple of months with state funds, buying Congress time to act. But the reality is that many states will be unable to fill the gap, and those that can, only temporarily. A commitment to extending this program will give more governors the confidence not to end it now and could save up to 100,000 jobs.

We should all support effective job creation programs. I hope Republicans will join with Democrats in Congress to renew funding for the Emergency Contingency Fund and provide businesses a chance to hire and the neediest Americans an opportunity to work.

Lawrence H. Summers is Director of the National Economic Council

In his address last week before the UN General Assembly, President Obama issued an unprecedented appeal to heads of state around the world to promote open society and open government. He noted that the "arc of human progress has been shaped by individuals with the freedom to assemble" and called civil society the "conscience of our community." At a time when governments have grown savvy at using legal and administrative curbs to impede the work of civil society organizations, he also urged world leaders to “embrace and effectively monitor norms” that advance the rights of non-governmental groups.

Today, in Geneva, in a landmark achievement for human rights, a diverse group of countries – large and small, rich and poor, north and south, east and west – came together to create the first-ever Special Rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association. This new position will collect critical information about how these rights are exercised, identify best practices that promote and protect these rights, and help hold governments accountable for their restrictions on civil society activity. The geographic diversity of the 62 countries that co-sponsored this resolution – including original co-sponsors the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Lithuania, the Maldives, Mexico and Nigeria – are but the latest testament to the universality of the right to assemble – a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and acted upon every day by citizens around the world who mobilize on behalf of good government, more inclusive politics, cleaner air, media freedom, and the full stable of human rights. Most notably, many of these cosponsors were nations that emerged from tyranny in the second half of the last century. Together this group conveyed our shared belief, in President Obama’s words, that “part of the price of our own freedom is standing up for the freedom of others.”

Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a general shrinking of the democratic space. This time, though, a large and far-sighted group of countries have banded together to send a resounding message that the protection and advancement of civil society bring about the advancement of society as a whole. The Human Rights Council’s decision is both a moral and pragmatic victory. As Secretary Clinton said in Krakow this summer, “progress in the 21st century depends on the ability of individuals to coalesce around shared goals, and harness the power of their convictions.” Those who stood together today at the Human Rights Council took an important step to bring about that progress.

Samantha Power is Senior Director and Special Assistant for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Walk step by step with the President as he signs the Small Business Jobs Act, speaks to college journalists, holds backyard discussions about the economy with area families across the heartland and much more...

Click here to see the video.

For more information on the events in this edition of West Wing Week, check out the links below:

Monday, September 27th, 2010

• President Obama Signs Small Business Jobs Act - Learn What's In It

Monday, September 27th, 2010

• President Obama to College Journalists: "What I Want to Do is Just to Go Speak to Young People Directly"

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

• The President on Our Veterans & Choosing Priorities in Albuquerque

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

• A Backyard Discussion on the Patient's Bill of Rights.

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

• A Backyard Stroll Through Health Reform in Des Moines

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

• Discussing the Economy at the Southampton Recreation Association in Richmond

Reuters - California will enter the fourth month of its fiscal year on Friday without a state budget in place after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers failed to agree on Thursday on a spending plan.