As a five-year observer of the ongoing legal battle between Chevron and Ecuador, this blogger's come away with a view of Ecuador that it is more like an authoritarian dictatorship than the democratic socialist government it paints itself to be.
In that, it must be asserted that a fair trial for any American business firm would be impossible to achieve in Ecuador, when the public opinion is essentially influenced by the government through the media. An opinion that differs from the state can result in the capture of the media outlet by Ecuadorian President Raphael Correa's Adminstration.
On Saturday, May 7th, the petroleum and agrobusiness nation will take a giant step in that direction as it considers a 10-point law that will control media content - legislation that, while years in the making, rubber-stamps the media-muzzling practices of President Correa (in photo with members of the media who are nice to him).
And while reports are that the referendum has the popular support of the voting people, a recent survey revealed that only 16 percent actually knew the contents of it. The most controversial item in the proposed set of laws, is a "council to regulate content deemed violent, sexual, or discriminatory." And by content, it refers to media content.
Roque Planas of Americas explains that:
But Correa really didn't need the upcoming Saturday vote to collect media outlets that produce messages he doesn't like. Just ask Ecuadorian business leader Joyce DeGinatta, who, in 2009, had her television program, which had been under government scrutiny, cancelled, and the network it was on taken by the Ecuadorian government. Here's the video, with English text, from CyberDenizen On YouTube:
And according to the Committee To Protect Journalists, this week, a Ecuadoran provincial radio reporter named Walter Vite Benítez was sentenced to one year in jail, and for critical comments he made about the mayor of the City of Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
To put it another way, Benitez was jailed for the same critical comments this blogger, and many columnists and journalists, have made about Oakland's Mayors, from Jerry Brown to Jean Quan.
And what did Benítez do? He referred to the Mayor by his title, without using his name, and had been critical of that town's overall government.
And in March, the Committee To Protect Journalists also reports that President Correa himself filed a defamation complaint against the newspaper El Universo and its three executives and opinion editor. And the result of this complaint could be to land them in jail and have to pay "hefty fines" - specifically three years in jail and $80 million.
Looks like Chevron's not the only organization Correa's trying to shake down. He's doing it to some of his own people.
And for...what?
Referring to Correa as what he's acting like: a dictator.
In a searing column dated February 6, 2011, and entitled "NO to the lies," Emilio Palacio, Eluniverso's opinion editor, calls Correa "the dicator" rather than using his name, and writes (using Google Translate)...
Emilio Palacio is referring to Correa's actions of last year and during the police uprising of last September 30th that challenged the President, who was hit by a gas canister, and eventually resulted in the death of three people. Correa, who came out, supposedly to restore order, ended up trying to take his shirt off, and allegedly yelling for the directors of the uprising to kill him where he stood. Hence the reference to "to open his shirt and yelling kill him, like a true fighter cachacascán that strives to show in a circus tent of a forgotten town," in Palacio's column.
Here's the BBC video report, showing Correa grabbing to rip off his shirt and tie, and saying, basically, "here I am, kill me":
It's that person, President Rafael Correa, which Ecuador's about to give sweeping powers of media control to.
God bless the United States Of America.
Stay tuned.
In that, it must be asserted that a fair trial for any American business firm would be impossible to achieve in Ecuador, when the public opinion is essentially influenced by the government through the media. An opinion that differs from the state can result in the capture of the media outlet by Ecuadorian President Raphael Correa's Adminstration.
And while reports are that the referendum has the popular support of the voting people, a recent survey revealed that only 16 percent actually knew the contents of it. The most controversial item in the proposed set of laws, is a "council to regulate content deemed violent, sexual, or discriminatory." And by content, it refers to media content.
Roque Planas of Americas explains that:
Correa regularly butts heads with the media; he vilifies them regularly in speeches, accusing them of bias and inaccuracy. "Our greatest rival in this plebiscite is not the opposition. Our biggest rivals are the media, who come up with a fresh scandal on a daily basis," Correa said last week.
But Correa really didn't need the upcoming Saturday vote to collect media outlets that produce messages he doesn't like. Just ask Ecuadorian business leader Joyce DeGinatta, who, in 2009, had her television program, which had been under government scrutiny, cancelled, and the network it was on taken by the Ecuadorian government. Here's the video, with English text, from CyberDenizen On YouTube:
And according to the Committee To Protect Journalists, this week, a Ecuadoran provincial radio reporter named Walter Vite Benítez was sentenced to one year in jail, and for critical comments he made about the mayor of the City of Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
To put it another way, Benitez was jailed for the same critical comments this blogger, and many columnists and journalists, have made about Oakland's Mayors, from Jerry Brown to Jean Quan.
And what did Benítez do? He referred to the Mayor by his title, without using his name, and had been critical of that town's overall government.
And in March, the Committee To Protect Journalists also reports that President Correa himself filed a defamation complaint against the newspaper El Universo and its three executives and opinion editor. And the result of this complaint could be to land them in jail and have to pay "hefty fines" - specifically three years in jail and $80 million.
Looks like Chevron's not the only organization Correa's trying to shake down. He's doing it to some of his own people.
And for...what?
Referring to Correa as what he's acting like: a dictator.
In a searing column dated February 6, 2011, and entitled "NO to the lies," Emilio Palacio, Eluniverso's opinion editor, calls Correa "the dicator" rather than using his name, and writes (using Google Translate)...
I understand that the Dictator (devout Christian man of peace) does not lose an opportunity to pardon criminals. Pardoned drug mules, sympathized with the murderers prisoners in the Littoral, asked citizens to stop stealing for no victims, he cultivated a friendship with squatters and became legislators, to who betrayed him. But Ecuador is a secular state where not allowed to use faith as a legal basis to exempt the criminals pay their debts. If I committed a crime, I demand that you prove me otherwise, do not expect any judicial pardon but due apologies...
What happens is that the dictator finally understood (or their attorneys did understand) that it has no way to prove the alleged crime of September 30 and everything was the result of an improvised script, in the midst of this rushing to hide the irresponsibility of the dictator to go to get into a barracks revolt, to open his shirt and yelling kill him, like a true fighter cachacascán that strives to show in a circus tent of a forgotten town.
Emilio Palacio is referring to Correa's actions of last year and during the police uprising of last September 30th that challenged the President, who was hit by a gas canister, and eventually resulted in the death of three people. Correa, who came out, supposedly to restore order, ended up trying to take his shirt off, and allegedly yelling for the directors of the uprising to kill him where he stood. Hence the reference to "to open his shirt and yelling kill him, like a true fighter cachacascán that strives to show in a circus tent of a forgotten town," in Palacio's column.
Here's the BBC video report, showing Correa grabbing to rip off his shirt and tie, and saying, basically, "here I am, kill me":
It's that person, President Rafael Correa, which Ecuador's about to give sweeping powers of media control to.
God bless the United States Of America.
Stay tuned.
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