Ecuador says U.S. helped Colombia plan '08 bombing

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Ecuador says U.S. helped Colombia plan '08 bombing
By Hugh Bronstein Hugh Bronstein – 1 hr 39 mins ago

QUITO (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence from inside Ecuador was used to plan a 2008 bombing by Colombian troops that killed a top FARC guerrilla chieftain inside Ecuadorean territory, the government said on Thursday.

A 130-page report prepared by the Ecuadorean government says U.S. forces then based in the Pacific coast town of Manta helped Colombian troops target Raul Reyes, No. 2 commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The March 2008 bombing, carried out in an Ecuadorean border area called Angostura, triggered a diplomatic crisis in the region. Ecuador and Colombia are just now reestablishing diplomatic ties severed by Quito after the raid.

Ecuador has since ended its Manta cooperation agreement, prompting Washington to sign a deal with Colombia in October allowing U.S. forces to carry out anti-drug operations from seven Colombian military bases.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091211/wl_nm/us_ecuador_usa_raid

[AlphaCentauri]

1. Probably the guys who were predicting Obama's victory

were doing surveillance work before the bombing.

Rmember Raul Reyes last words?

The gringos will ask for an appointment with the minister to solicit him to communicate to us his interest in discussing these topics. They say that the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support "Plan Colombia" nor will he sign the TLC (Colombian Free Trade agreement). Here we responded that we are interested in relations with all governments in equality of conditions and that in the case of the US it is required a public pronouncement expressing their interest in talking with the FARC given their eternal war against us.

[COLGATE4]

2. More anti-gringo posturing

by the left-wing president of Ecuador. In times of political difficulties, Yawn.

[Judi Lynn]

3. He's not having "political difficulties." He just won an election this year.

To help fill in what appears to be a big hole in your Ecuador awareness:

updated 9:08 a.m. EDT, Mon April 27, 2009
Ecuador's Correa claims re-election win
By Arthur Brice
CNN

(CNN) -- U.S.-educated economist and socialist Rafael Correa became the first president to win re-election in Ecuador since 1972, a victory all the more astounding given that the three preceding presidents were ousted amid anti-government protests.

"We have made history in a country where from 1996 to 2006 no democratic government completed its term," Correa said in claiming victory a few minutes after the polls closed Sunday night. "We had seven presidents during that time."

Correa vowed to keep working for the common people.

"We are here for the poor," he said at a news conference in which he claimed victory. "We will never fail you. We will never fail you."

Official results were not available Sunday night, but the president's Web page said Correa had won 54.92 percent of the vote.

According to an exit poll by CNN affiliate Ecuavisa TV, Correa won 55.2 percent of the vote, leading former President Lucio Gutierrez by more than 25 percentage points and banana magnate Alvaro Noboa by 45 percentage points. Legislator Martha Roldos finished a distant fourth, with about 3 percent of the vote, the exit poll indicated.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/04/26/ecuador.election/index.html

[Zorro]

6. Correa Keeps Losing Points in Ecuador

And here's something to help fill in your big sanctimonious hole in Ecuador awareness:

<snip>

Public support for Rafael Correa continues to erode in Ecuador, according to a poll by Cedatos/Gallup. 42 per cent of respondents approve of their president’s performance, down two points since October.

Correa, a former finance minister, ran for president as an independent leftist under the Alliance Country (AP) banner. In November 2006, Correa won a run-off with 56.69 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Ecuador’s head of state in January 2007. Correa’s party nominated no candidates to the National Congress.

In September 2008, Ecuadorian voters ratified a new constitution in a nationwide referendum. The draft was approved by the pro-government majority in the Constituent Assembly. Under the terms of the new constitution, Ecuador held a presidential election in April. Final results gave Correa 51.95 per cent of the vote. For the first time in 30 years, the Ecuadorian presidential election did not require a run-off.

On Dec. 5, Correa announced that oil companies currently operating in Ecuador will have to reach new deals with the government by March 2010, adding, "Either they sign the new contracts by March or we are going to change the rules of the game and the relationship between the companies and the state. I will meet with the companies and we are going to speak plainly. They will invest or leave the country."

<snip>

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/correa_keeps_losing_points_in_ecuador

[Wilms]

7. However dim your view of progressive Latin American development, name calling isn't necessary.

If there's specific policies you think are bad, I understand you posting about it.

But it seems out of place to treat democratically elected Latin American leaders with a contempt that mirrors a Limbaugh-like wish for them to fail.

[mackerel]

8. So killing a FARC leader is a bad thing?

Not that I support covert operations or anything but FARC is bad for all of South America.

[Wilms]

9. I wasn't addressing FARC. Rather, I was addressing snark.

[Peace Patriot]

13. Yeah, killing that FARC leader WAS a bad thing...

1) According to the president of France, the president of Ecuador and Ingrid Betancourt's family, and according to the French, Swiss and Spanish envoys who were in Ecuador that day for this purpose, Raul Reyes was about to release Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages in Ecuador. The reason that hostage release negotiations had shifted to Ecuador from Venezuela--where Hugo Chavez had been negotiating with the FARC at the request of the president of Colombia for hostage releases--was that the Colombian military was trying to sabotage those releases and sent rocket fire at the location of the first two hostages to be released (to Chavez), sending them back on a 20 mile hike into the jungle. Apparently, the entire event--possibly including Uribe's initial request to Chavez--was intended as a trap to hand Chavez a diplomatic disaster with dead hostages. Numerous international leaders, human rights groups and hostages' families begged Chavez to continue his efforts, despite Colombia's treachery, and he eventually got six hostages released but had to stop because it was too dangerous.

2) Numerous leaders (Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Spain) were involved in efforts to bring Colombia's 40+ year civil war to an end, with a peace settlement. Raul Reyes was the chief FARC peace negotiator. He was arranging hostage releases in a bid for peace. His death, and the outrageous use of ten 500 lb US "smart bombs" to blow away a temporary hostage release camp that contained 25 sleeping people including Reyes, ended all hope for peace in that civil war.

In summary, neither the U.S. nor Colombia wants peace in this long civil war. The civil war is the Colombian military's gravy train ($6 BILLION in U.S. military aid, supposedly for the "war on drugs" but the Bushwhacks added the purpose of killing Colombia's homegrown leftist guerilla fighters). The civil war is a handy U.S. justification for war profiteering and for a huge U.S. military buildup in Colombia--secretly negotiated, recently leaked--that very likely has a Rumsfeld oil war plan in South America underneath its rather mindboggling provisions (SEVEN new U.S. military bases in Colombia, NO LIMIT on the number of U.S. soldiers and 'contractors' who can be deployed there, unlimited diplomatic immunity for whatever the U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors' do there, and U.S. military use of all civilian airports and other facilities in Colombia.) (I swear, this resembles nothing so much as South Vietnam, 1963--a puppet government inviting the U.S. military into the country as the front for a U.S. war--the ultimate target, in this case, being Venezuela's and probably Ecuador's main northern oil regions.)

And speaking of treachery, after the U.S./Colombia blew the FARC camp to smithereens--nearly starting a war with Ecuador/Venezuela then and there--Colombia claimed to have retrieved Raul Reyes' laptop (later laptopS) which they claimed contained evidence that Chavez and Correa are "terrorist lovers" (were taking money from, or giving money to, the FARC, were helping the FARC develop a "dirty bomb" and on and on). Colombia started leaking little tidbits--supposed emails--from these "miracle laptopS"--over many months. So, a) Uribe/Colombia asks Hugo Chavez to negotiate with the FARC, and then, b) not only fires upon the hostages he's trying to get out, but starts lambasting him when supposed references to him supposedly show up in an alleged FARC laptop!

The bombing of the Reyes camp--and raid over the border to shoot any survivors (the Ecuadoran military found bodies in their pyjamas shot in the back)--had many uses: ending all talk of peace, killing all witnesses, rehearsing U.S./Colombian forces coordination and getting in some "turkey shoot" practice, setting the precedent of violation of sovereign borders, and producing fake evidence against leftist leaders.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Yeah, that's just a horrible rating. The previous U.S.-approved Presidents were so well liked!

Page last updated at 16:17 GMT, Thursday, 6 August 2009 17:17 UK
Timeline: Ecuador
A chronology of key events:

~snip~
1963 - President Carlos Arosemena Monroy deposed by military junta, which implements social and economic reforms, including agrarian reform.

1966 - Interim government takes over from military junta, which was forced to step down following violent demonstrations and harsh retaliation; newly elected constituent assembly chooses Otto Arosemena Gomez as head of state.

1967 - New constitution promulgated.

1968 - Former President Jose Maria Velasco elected president for the fifth time and, two years later, assumes dictatorial power in response to declining support.

1972 - Oil production starts and Ecuador emerges as a significant oil producer; General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara becomes president after overthrowing Velasco.

1979 - New constitution heralds return to democracy.

1981 - Border war with Peru erupts, but ends with international arbitration.

Economic deterioration

1982 - A deterioration of the economy due to falling oil prices leads to strikes, demonstrations and a state of emergency.

1987 - President Leon Febres Cordero kidnapped and beaten up by the army in protest at policies of privatisation and public expenditure cuts.

1992 - Indigenous peoples granted title to 2.5 million acres in Amazonia; Ecuador leaves the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase its oil output.

1995 - Vice-President Alberto Dahik Garzoni flees, seeks political asylum in Costa Rica to escape corruption charges.

1996 - Abdala Bucaram Ortiz elected president.

1997 - Fabian Alarcon becomes president after Bucaram is deposed by parliament on grounds of mental incapacity.

1998 - Jamil Mahuad Witt elected president.

2000 - Vice-President Gustavo Noboa becomes president after Mahuad is forced to leave office by the army and indigenous protesters; Ecuador adopts the US dollar as its national currency in an effort to beat inflation and stabilise the economy.

2001 January - Ecuador declares state of emergency in Galapagos Islands after an oil spill from a stricken tanker threatens the islands' fragile ecological balance. The potential danger is, in the end, largely averted.

2001 September - Indigenous community leader Luis Maldonado sworn in as minister for social welfare, the first Indian to hold a cabinet post which does not deal exclusively with indigenous affairs.

2002 February - Protests by indigenous peoples bring oil production to a near standstill. The protesters demand that more of the oil revenues should be invested in their communities.

Gutierrez elected

2002 November - Leftist and former coup leader Lucio Gutierrez wins presidential elections. He takes office in January 2003.

2003 August - Former president Gustavo Noboa, who faces corruption charges, goes into exile in the Dominican Republic.

2004 April - Jail crisis: Hundreds of people are held hostage by prisoners demanding better conditions and shorter sentences. Police regain control after 10 days.

2004 December - Congress dismisses most of the Supreme Court's members and appoints a new court. President Gutierrez accuses the former court of pro-opposition bias.

Gutierrez ousted

2005 April - Anti-government protests mushroom after the Supreme Court drops corruption charges against two former presidents. Congress votes to oust President Gutierrez. Alfredo Palacio replaces him.

2005 August - Protesters, demanding that oil revenues should be spent on infrastructure, bring oil production to a halt. A state of emergency is declared in two oil-producing provinces. The protest ends after oil companies agree to help mend roads and pay local taxes.

2005 October - Former President Lucio Gutierrez is arrested and detained on charges of endangering national security. He is released in March 2006 after a judge dismisses the charges.

2006 March - Nationwide protests flare over a proposed free trade agreement with the US.

2006 June - Ecuador prompts US ire by cancelling the operating contract of the US oil firm Occidental Petroleum after it allegedly sold part of an oil block without government permission.

Correa elected

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1212826.stm

[EFerrari]

4. You say "left wing" like it's a bad thing.

LOL

[alittlelark]

5. Uh, yeah....

[Octafish]

16. Yawn about THIS.

The Real Deal: The Ultimate New Business Cold Call -- NYSE Grasso and the FARC rebels in Columbia

Any thoughts on why the head of the NYSE was hanging out with the FARC leader?

[Goldstein1984]

11. We should just stay out of the business of

other countries. We have plenty of problems to fix right here at home.

We're 5% of the world's population and we do 50% of its "defense" spending. That kind of budget screams empire.

We have a solid history of supporting, directly or tacitly, military coups. We preach democracy, unless it results in a democratically elect socialist leader. We demonize leaders like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales because they put the interests of their people before the interests of U.S. corporations raping their countries. And how long are we going to keep the economic boycott and unconstitutional restriction on travel my U.S. citizens to Cuba.

Read "Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano. Or maybe just a little Noam Chomsky.

[Mudoria]

12. Doubtful to say the least

[Peace Patriot]

14. So, you did your own research into this matter? Tell us all about it. nt

[Judi Lynn]

15. Colombia Urgent Action: Death Threats to Sinaltrainal

Colombia Urgent Action: Death Threats to Sinaltrainal
as Coca-Cola stalls on collective agreement
Report by Colombia Solidarity
Published: 11/12/09

We denounce before the national and international community that on 24 November 2009 our comrade Luis Javier Correa Suárez received a call on a mobile phone assigned to him by the protection programme of the Ministry of the Interior and justice, the call came for the mobile number 312-8160930 and a man who identified himself as Arnold Jiménez told Javier Correa “you have until the 22nd to renounce, and there won’t be another phone call”, when he asked why the man replied “you know why, don’t play games, you know what I mean” and hanged up the phone.

We also denounce that on 20 November 2009 two calls were made to Sinaltrainal’s land line, one confirming a fax and one on which a man said that he would be calling the other Sinantrainal branches to inform them of the contents of the fax. He also said that Coca Cola had relationships and influence with the Government and the sons of Alvaro Uribe, this man did not identify himself for security reasons. In a previous statement we denounced the commercial treaties between the sons of the President and the multinational.

This death threat reaches us a few days after the Inter-American Commission on human rights notified us its decision to extend precautionary measures to Sinaltrainal members and at a point when we are in a collective conflict with multinational (National Industry of Soft Drinks S. A. - Coca Cola), which does not want to sign the collective labour agreement even though we had reached an agreement to our demands during the negotiation process.

We demand from the authorities to investigate and punish the material and intellectual perpetrators of these acts and to guarantee our right and freedom of association and to protect the life and physical integrity of Sinaltrainal members and their families.

We ask the international community as much solidarity as possible to help us prevent crimes against the trade union movement and the people of Colombia

National Directorate
Sinaltrainal - Colombia

http://www.labournet.net/world/0912/colomb2.html

[Judi Lynn]

17. Colombia: 195 Teachers Killed, No One Guilty

Colombia: 195 Teachers Killed, No One Guilty
Monday, 14 December 2009, 11:24 am
Press Release: ITUC
Colombia: 195 Teachers Killed, No One Guilty

Brussels, 8 December 2009: The ITUC has denounced and strongly condemned the murders of art teacher Zorayda Cortés López, who worked at the Higher Technical Institute of Pereira, the capital of Risaralda, and Leny Yanube Rengifo Gómez, a teacher and active member of the Cauca education workers' union, Asociación de Institutores y Trabajadores de la Educación del Cauca – ASOINCA.

It is unacceptable and a cause for grave concern in the trade union movement that 195 teachers have been assassinated in Colombia, without a single arrest being made, and that 35 trade unionists have been killed this year alone.

These murders have once again plunged into mourning the victims' families along with the entire teaching profession and the national, regional and international trade union movement. "Colombia must respect the ILO core conventions it has ratified and that are therefore binding on it," said Guy Ryder, general secretary of the ITUC. "These murders demonstrate the utter falsity of the message the Colombia government is striving to send out to the international community regarding its success in curbing violence against trade unionists."

In a letter http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Asesinato_de_Zorayda_Cortes_Lopez_y_Leny_Yanube-_dic.pdf to the Colombian authorities, the ITUC has called on President Álvaro Uribe and his government to fulfil their Constitutional duty to protect trade union leaders and on the Attorney General to investigate these despicable crimes, to bring those responsible, at every level, to justice, to punish them with the full weight of the law and thus break the chain of impunity surrounding the murders of trade unionists in Colombia.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0912/S00324.htm