President Rafael Correa
Today the Washington Post editorial page (6/25/13) slammed Ecuador for daring to consider an asylum request from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Post declared:
When it comes to anti-American chutzpah, there’s no beating Rafael Correa, the autocratic leader of tiny, impoverished Ecuador.
Correa is the overwhelmingly popular, democratically elected president of a country that has experienced remarkable growth over his time in office. The Post, clearly missing its old left-wing Latin American target, sneers that “replacing the deceased Hugo Chavez as the hemisphere’s preeminent anti-U.S. demagogue” is Correa’s mission.
The paper slams Correa’s record on press freedom, and notes that there is a solution here for the United States:
Some might find it awkward to be granting sanctuary to one country’s self-proclaimed whistleblower while stifling their own. Not Mr. Correa, who for years has been campaigning against the United States while depending on it to prop up his economy with trade preferences. Thanks to the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Protection Act, Ecuador–which uses the dollar as its currency–is able to export many goods to the United States duty-free, supporting roughly 400,000 jobs in a country of 14 million people.
As it happens, the preferences will expire next month unless renewed by Congress. If Mr. Correa welcomes Mr. Snowden, there will be an easy way to demonstrate that Yanqui-baiting has its price.
So do what the U.S. government wants, or we’ll see to it that your economy suffers. Huh.
This had a familiar ring. Sure enough, the Post‘s editorial page made the very same recommendation back when Correa’s government was considering granting asylum to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. That led the Post (6/20/12) to blast Correa as “a small-time South American autocrat” looking to supplant Chavez as “chief Yanqui-baiter and friend-to-rogues.” And, like today, the Post offers the U.S. government a solution:
There is one potential check on Mr. Correa’s ambitions. The U.S. “empire” he professes to despise happens to grant Ecuador (which uses the dollar as its currency) special trade preferences that allow it to export many goods duty-free. A full third of Ecuadoran foreign sales ($10 billion in 2011) go to the United States, supporting some 400,000 jobs in a country of 14 million people. Those preferences come up for renewal by Congress early next year. If Mr. Correa seeks to appoint himself America’s chief Latin American enemy and Julian Assange’s protector between now and then, it’s not hard to imagine the outcome.
It’s good that someone at the Post‘s editorial page knows how to copy and paste.
Whatever debatable qualifications the Post has to be considered a member of “The Liberal Media” ™ on some domestic issues
Clearly don’t possess a passport
As usual, The Guardian provides a more balanced report — and still far from complimentary:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/24/rafael-correa-assange-ecuador-press
@Eric Guardian column from Indian economist Jayati Ghosh is far more celebratory of Ecuador: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/19/ecuador-radical-exciting-place
Due to their historic and gruesome crimes of conquest, genocide, slavery, and exploitation, euro-oligarchs and erstwhile conquistadors are haunted by the Left and the possible loss of their supremacy and privileges in Latin America. In fact, these elites that control most of the press have aided and abetted the murder, torture, rape, and savage repression of hundreds of thousands of people over this past century in almost every country to prevent the Left from ever coming to power. Now with the Left’s success, they and their US backers are apoplectic. This simple fact explains almost all the venom and hostility directed at these countries.
People like Jackson Diehl at WashPo and the Human Rights Watch “Americas Division” chief José Miguel Vivanco carry this racially rooted vendetta with them.
Refusal to acquiesce to foreign corporate domination and ownership of another country’s resources clearly must be anti-democratic and dictatorial. To use such resources to alleviate poverty and destitution is clearly anti-US. And general ignorance in the US of media ownership in a country like Ecuador provides ample opportunity for the likes of the discredited WaPo and NYT to promote the myth of some free press under threat, even as they serve as shrill shills of the corporate government. Same shills called the late President Chavez a ‘dictator’ .
Of the above notable posts, ceti, in particular, nails the imperial, racist supremacist dimension of the unprovoked threats and sabotage faced by countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia.
“Grant trade preferences” is the Post’s half-wit way of saying “abstain from puinitive levies, usually granted by Congressmen to help industries which contribute to their campaign funds.”
Hey, we could add that to the SAT preparation lessons!
-dlj.
Damn all this bad press might make me take Equador off my vacation list.First North Korea and Iran …now this.Oh well my fallback of Syria might still have flights and accommodations.Let me check