Hugo
Chavez Gains An Ecuadoran Ally
By Stephen Lendman
28 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Ecuador's
Supreme Electoral Tribunal is still counting the votes in the November
26 presidential runoff election but the results seem clear - with one-half
of them tallied so far they show: the peoples' candidate, Rafael Correa,
68% and the bible-toting billionaire banana tycoon oligarch who's also
the richest man in the country, Alvaro Noboa, - 32% - results consistent
with two exit polls and an unofficial citizens election watchdog group,
but without the completion of the suspended vote count in the Guayas
province that's a Noboa stronghold that when done should raise his percent
of the total but nowhere near enough to close the current electoral
gap against him.
The people have spoken, and
the Washington-directed election-riggers failed for the second time
this month to arrange for their man to steal what the people of Ecuador
voted en masse to deny them - the same way it turned out on November
7 when Nicaraguans reelected Daniel Ortega despite strong opposition
to his candidacy from Washington. Again the people won, and it's a good
omen for Hugo Chavez six days before Venezuelans vote on Sunday hoping
to prove what the latest independent polls show - that he should win
reelection impressively and get to serve another six year term as the
country's president.
Ecuadorans voted for populist
economist and self-styled "humanist, leftist Christian" candidate
Rafael Correa who promised big changes in another Latin American country
ruled up to now by and for the interests of capital and against the
public welfare. Washington's choice was Alvaro Noboa who as of last
night hadn't yet conceded but may have by now as Correa's lead is too
great for him to overcome, barring any yet to be uncovered mass vote
fraud undiscovered so far but that can't be ruled out.
Correa will face huge challenges
ahead when he takes office on January 15 in a country of 13 million,
over 70% of whom live in poverty and who supported a man promising to
help them with the kinds of social programs Hugo Chavez instituted in
Venezuela. Correa sounded a positive tone last night at his campaign
headquarters as the early returns showed him to be the likely winner.
He told his supporters "It won't be Rafael Correa who assumes power
in January; it will be the people." He'll be Ecuador's eighth president
in the last decade including three of them driven from office by mass
street protests against their misrule. In Mr. Correa, Ecuadorans expect
something much different, and he promised to deliver it for them.
The country's majority poor
have put their faith in a man they hope can do for them what Hugo Chavez
did for the people of Venezuela. Ecuador is the hemisphere's fifth largest
oil producer, and Correa supporters want him to use the country's oil
wealth, as Chavez has done, to bring them critically needed social services
they've never had before and now hope to get.
Correa said he'll deliver
a "citizens' revolution" and supports beginning it by calling
for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution, a pattern similar
to the one Hugo Chavez followed after his election as Venezuela's president
in 1998. He called for renegotiating the country's $16 billion foreign
debt and hasn't ruled out an Argentine-style default to free up money
for vitally needed social programs that include 100,000 low-cost homes,
doubling the $36 "poverty bonus" 1.2 million poor Ecuadorans
receive each month and raising the minimum wage.
He also expressed strong
opposition to any new "free-trade" pact with Washington on
its one-way terms and affirmed his determination not to renew the lease
for the US military base in Manta he said he won't allow to remain open
unless the Bush administration allows his country the right to have
its own in Miami - a clear sign of his contempt for George Bush he called
"dimwitted" in the first electoral round.
Rafael Correa faces an uphill
struggle to help his people. He'll have strong opposition in Ecuador's
legislature as well as a hostile Bush administration that will do all
it can to subvert him. He does have a few things in his favor, however,
he can exploit to advantage - overwhelming support from his people,
the nation's oil wealth giving him a measure of independence from Washington
and the international lending agencies it controls and two very supportive
and friendly neighbors in Hugo Chavez (he promises closer ties with)
and Evo Morales in Bolivia. The ball is now in Mr. Correa's hands, and
it's his move to show if he can run with it.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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