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...and it ain't any "caudillo" kind of thing at all. It's called DEMOCRACY. Ecuadorans have elected their own FDR--a leader that rightwing/corpo-fascist rotters, like Reuters, also called a "dictator" during the "New Deal" era here. Ecuadorans are holding honest, transparent vote counts, which take TIME (O impatient Rotters, used to instant rightwing wins in countries with corporate-run, e-vote 'counts' like here, or death squad thugs looking over voters' shoulders as in Colombia!). They elected Correa by about a 60% margin, approved the new constitution that had his backing by an even greater margin, and continue to give him about a 60% approval rating, and he--like the good democrat with a small d that he is--puts all major issues to a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.
Suck on it, Rotters!
And THIS is why Lula da Silva, the recently retired president of Brazil, said, of Hugo Chavez: "They can invent all kinds of things to criticize Chavez but not on democracy!." Cuz Chavez is, indeed, very like Correo--accused by rightwing/corporate interests of being a "caudillo" and "dictator" when the exact opposite is true--both Chavez and Correa are profoundly committed to DEMOCRACY, genuinely and honestly elected BY THE PEOPLE, and put all major questions to a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.
The corporate disinformation about "caudillos" and "dictators" is an insult to the people of Ecuador and Venezuela--who are the true leaders of the leftist democracy movement that has swept the region. The voters, the citizens, the workers, the peasant farmers, the poor, the professionals with a conscience, in these countries, are FED UP with rule by rich elites controlled by Washington DC in the interest of U.S. transglobal corporations and war profiteers. They want their OWN government; they want to control their OWN destiny; they want to benefit from their OWN resources; they want leaders who are accountable to THEM, not to the U.S. and our corporate masters. And they have led the region in declaring their independence and in pulling the region together in very new cooperation and solidarity to get the U.S. bully off their backs, in whatever ways the U.S. is still trying to dominate this region--whether with U.S. military bases and its corrupt, failed, murderous "war on drugs," or ruinous World Bank/IMF loans, or coup d'etats, or USAID funding of rightwing groups all over Latin America.
Venezuelans and Ecuadorans lead the legions of the fed up. Brazilians, Argentinians, Bolivians, Uruguayans, Paraguayans, Nicaraguans and others have also exercised leadership and awesome grass roots organization in the struggle for Latin American independence. And their leaders--all of them--are EXPRESSIONS of this remarkable movement, as well as being the visible leaders who have stepped up and been elected to SERVE THE PEOPLE. They certainly have individual merits as leaders, but they are also charismatic because their people are charismatic and they have visionary ideas because their people have visionary ideas. This visionary leftist democracy movement is NOT dependent on its leaders. They are a remarkable crop of leaders, to be sure, but they wouldn't be where they are without massive support from the people whom they serve--support that is proven time and again, in election results and in opinion polls with further confirmation from outside polls and reports (like the recent Gallup poll in which Venezuelans rated their own well-being and future prospects fifth in the world!, a Chilean Latinobarometro poll in which Venezuelans rated their democracy best in the region after Uruguay, and a recent UN Economic Commission study ranking Venezuela "THE most equal country in Latin America.")
These leaders are going in the right direction. They are in accord with their people. They are neither "caudillos" nor "dictators." They are merely presidents doing the job they were elected to do--like we used to have in the U.S.
Here, we elect a president to end the war on Iraq, and not only are U.S. military bases and troops still present all over that country, to protect U.S. oil interests, but he has beefed up the second war--every week killing more innocent people--and started a third war! And that is not to mention the utter lack of representation of the interests of the poor majority in the White House--let alone in the ES&S-Diebold (s)elected Scumbag Congress. Something ain't right here. We all know it. And we actually need to look to Latin America and its successful leftist movements to figure out how to turn things around here. (I'd start with the ES&S-Diebold voting machines.)
But Rotters is, quite naturally, appalled that the people are having their will done in Ecuador, Venezuela and other countries. They have to think of an excuse for it. They have to invent "bogeyman" dictators to explain it. And part of their motivation in their lies, disinformation and exceedingly biased "framing" of these democracy revolutions is no doubt that they want to DENY our people models of REAL democracy, cuz if it ever catches on here again, the transglobal corporations and war profiteers who run Rotters and the rest of the corpo-fascist press will find themselves TAXED, first of all, REGULATED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, second of all, and possibly DE-CHARTED, DISMANTLED and THEIR ASSETS SEIZED for the common good. Busted, in other words. And some of them deserve full-on busting (if not jail).
If we ever get our country back, that's what's going to happen. Our people, too, are getting good and fed up. We know damn well that this Scumbag Congress doesn't represent us, and that the president we thought we elected can't do what we elected him to do--get us out of these wars, protect our "New Deal" programs like Social Security and Medicare, and provide the people of this country decent, low cost health care, as well as opposing asshole Bushwhack policies such as the U.S. "free trade for rich" agreement with Colombia, where labor leaders are being routinely murdered. A minimum set of promises--none of them kept--and several going in the wrong direction.
I think we did in fact elect Obama, although it is only a guess. U.S. elections are NOT verified and in half the states they CAN'T be verified. We elected him (probably by a bigger margin than we know) on his specific promises and on his statements of hope--but I also think that he was permitted to be elected and is thoroughly shackled in ways that he maybe knew about going in (deals he made) and in ways he didn't anticipate. And that is the problem here, in my opinion. The bad guys now have the swift, easy, electronic power--in the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines all over the country, now monopolized (80%) by one far rightwing corporation, (ES&S, which bought out Diebold)--to elect and to UN-elect whomever they wish, according to their own strategies, plots and narratives, for further looting the U.S., destroying our progressive society and using our war machine for their purposes. Do they want a "liberal" patsy to take the heat for Bushwhack wars and massive looting? Do they intend to use their Scumbag Congress to create a further crisis, by their refusal to raise the debt ceiling (a traitorous act), to make way for Bush Junta II in 2012? Whatever game they are playing, they now control the actual counting of the votes--and THIS is what is obviously NOT happening in countries like Venezuela and Ecuador, where it is the PEOPLES' agenda that is being implemented, not the CORPORATE agenda.
It's not that Rotters doesn't get it. Their bosses get it all right--and probably their jerkoff editors and so-called journalists get it, as well. They know what they are doing when they lie about the leftist governments in Latin America and "frame" its leaders as "caudillos," or "dictators," or "increasingly authoritarian" ignoring overwhelming evidence that these democracies are in good working order and their leaders are doing what they were elected to do--clean out the old corrupt, rightwing establishment, establish the country's and the region's economic and political sovereignty, end endemic poverty, utilize the country's resources to benefit the people who live there, and in general listen to the people, whose voices have never been heard before in the halls of power.
These policies mean fewer billions into the pockets of the rich. And only leaders who can say, as FDR did, "Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred," can accomplish such objectives on behalf of the people who elected them. For all the hatred exhibited toward FDR, by the rich, I don't think we've ever seen anything like the hatred poured on these DEMOCRATIC leaders in Latin America, day in, day out, in innumerable negatively twisted so-called 'news' reports. It is phenomenal--and possibly an indication of how profoundly threatened they feel by REAL democracy.
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