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Keyword: ecuador

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • THE GIANT NO ONE SEES: RED REVOLUTION COMES TO "GREEN GIANT" BRAZIL

    11/03/2009 1:23:40 AM PST · by Cindy · 30 replies · 718+ views
    INATODAY.com - INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANALYSIS TODAY ^ | November 3, 2009 | Toby Westerman
    SNIPPET: "Lula and Chavez have established a "strategic relationship," and recently agreed upon a joint Brazilian-Venezuelan oil venture worth billions of dollars. Lula and Chavez have joined with Daniel Ortega, the returned Nicaraguan Marxist dictator, to form an anti-U.S. Latin American military alliance - all with Russian assistance - funded by the region's abundant oil reserves. Brazil is engaged in its own arms build-up and Lula is determined that Brazil will become at least a first-rate regional power. Unfortunately, Lula is establishing Brazil as an anti-American military power by aligning with nations hostile or potentially hostile to the U.S. Lula...
  • Lobbyist’s Disclosure Documents Raise Serious Questions in Chevron-Ecuador Lawsuit

    10/15/2009 2:26:36 PM PDT · by BobMcCartyWrites · 6 replies · 336+ views
    Bob McCarty Writes ^ | 10-15-09 | Bob McCarty
    Today, I offer evidence suggesting Ben Barnes, lobbyist for the plaintiff in a lawsuit that could cost San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron $27 billion, has been reading this blog. It takes a while to explain, but I think you’ll find it offers worthwhile and relevant information about the Chevron lawsuit now being tried in a thoroughly-corrupt Ecuadoran legal system.
  • Ecuador close to sealing deal to buy SA’s Cheetah fighter jets

    10/05/2009 10:46:35 PM PDT · by sukhoi-30mki · 4 replies · 792+ views
    Business Day, South Africa ^ | 2009/10/06 | JULIUS BAUMANN
    Ecuador close to sealing deal to buy SA’s Cheetah fighter jets JULIUS BAUMANN Published: 2009/10/06 06:14:17 AM THE Ecuadorian Air Force has taken a step closer to acquiring 12 Cheetah aircraft previously operated by the South African Air Force after naming Denel Aviation as a preferred bidder. Denel Aviation was last year mandated by Armscor, the state agency responsible for the disposal of retired and surplus South African National Defence Force material and equipment, to sell the South African Air Force Cheetah fleet, believed to number about 40 aircraft. The South African Air Force decommissioned its fleet of Cheetah C...
  • Gunmen kill illegal migrant in southern Mexico

    09/19/2009 6:05:32 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 7 replies · 528+ views
    Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Sept. 19, 2009
    TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico — Mexican officials say gunmen have attacked a group of illegal immigrants in southern Mexico, killing one and wounding five as well as an alleged people smuggler. According to Mexico's federal preventative police, gunmen fired on a truck carrying the migrants before dawn Saturday along a highway outside the city of Comitan in Chiapas state. Federal officials say an Ecuadoran man was fatally shot and at least six others suffered wounds, including the suspected smuggler.
  • Iran Banks Move to Ecuador to Avoid Sanctions

    09/10/2009 3:11:27 AM PDT · by Cindy · 3 replies · 222+ views
    COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG.org ^ | September 9, 2009 | Douglas Farah
    In its latest bid to avoid international banking sanctions, Iran has reached an agreement with the Central Bank of Ecuador to allow the Export Development Bank of Iran to operate in this Andean nation. The move came even though Ecuador is fully aware that EDBI is under U.S. Treasury Department sanction for illicitly providing or attempting to provide financial services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
  • Judge recuses himself in suit against Chevron

    09/05/2009 11:30:19 AM PDT · by SmithL · 3 replies · 335+ views
    San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/5/9 | David R. Baker
    The judge presiding over a $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador recused himself Friday after the oil giant released videos in which he appeared to say that he would rule against the company. Judge Juan Nuñez recused himself at the request of Ecuador's attorney general, who told a news conference Friday that he wanted to avoid further delays in the trial and stop what he said he suspects may be Chevron's efforts to discredit the court's eventual ruling. This week, the San Ramon company released secretly recorded videos and transcripts that Chevron says show misconduct on the...
  • Ecuador's Correa to close private TV station for 'spying'

    08/29/2009 3:36:01 PM PDT · by Free ThinkerNY · 4 replies · 324+ views
    AFP ^ | August 29, 2009
    Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa announced Saturday he is seeking to definitively shut down a private television station that he accused of "espionage" on his office. The station Teleamazonas, a private broadcaster that has been critical of Correa and his government, has already been fined multiple times for breaking broadcasting law, notably for reporting opposition charges of voter fraud during April's general elections. This week the station broadcast a secretly recorded conversation between Correa and a Quito lawmaker -- seemingly the last straw for Correa, who has sought the station's closure for months. "I ask that Teleamazonas... is finally closed," Correa...
  • President warns of 'winds of war'

    08/10/2009 11:31:07 PM PDT · by Aussie Dasher · 20 replies · 2,240+ views
    Herald Sun ^ | 11 August 2009
    LEFTIST leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador thundered against a US military presence in Latin America today, warning the "winds of war" were blowing across the increasingly polarised continent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, attacking Colombia's decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Chavez's Ecuadoran counterpart and ally Rafael Correa during the inauguration of his second term. Speaking in Quito, Ecuador, at a regional summit, Mr Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty'' by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow,'' because of the July...
  • Healthy looking Fidel Castro meets Ecuador leader

    08/23/2009 12:32:32 PM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 17 replies · 997+ views
    AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/23/09 | AP
    HAVANA – Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper is showing a photo of a healthier-looking Fidel Castro talking with the visiting Ecuadorean president. Sunday's photo in Juventud Rebelde shows the 83-year-old Castro wearing a white shirt instead of the sports apparel he has worn in recent photos. The meeting with Rafael Correa occurred Friday.
  • Ecuador wants citizen committees to defend gov't (typical commie response)

    08/13/2009 6:18:48 PM PDT · by TigerLikesRooster · 6 replies · 371+ views
    FOX11 ^ | 08/13/09 | JEANNETH VALDIVIESO
    Ecuador wants citizen committees to defend gov't Posted: Aug 14, 2009 09:45 AM Updated: Aug 14, 2009 09:45 AM By JEANNETH VALDIVIESO Associated Press Writer QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Ecuador wants to create local citizen committees that would defend the government and its "revolution" - sparking criticism that the president aims to control opponents in a system reminiscent of Cuba or Venezuela. Citizen Participation Minister Doris Soliz told Ecuador TV on Thursday that local citizen groups are needed to defend against coups like the one that recently deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, or against outside agitators, noting U.S. military plans...
  • Hugo Chavez warns of war in South America

    08/11/2009 9:04:56 PM PDT · by bruinbirdman · 13 replies · 743+ views
    The Times ^ | 8/11/2009
    Leftist leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador have angrily denouced a US military presence in Latin America, warning the "winds of war" were blowing across South America. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, led the charge, attacking Colombia's decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Rafael Correa, Ecuador's leader. Speaking in Quito at a regional summit, Mr Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty" by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow," because of the July accord between Bogota and Washington. "This could generate a war in South...
  • Colombian Army captures 11 Ecuadorian soldiers on the border

    08/09/2009 2:48:51 PM PDT · by marron · 4 replies · 571+ views
    10:28 Bogotá, AFP An officer, a non-commissioned officer, and nine soldiers of the Ecuadorian Army were captured on Colombian territory, on the border with Putumayo department, according to the Colombian chancellor of communications. “Yesterday, August 8 of 2009, at 12 noon (17:00 GMT), at the location known as La Reforma, Puerto Leguízamo municipality, Putumayo department, the army of Colombia captured an officer, a non-commissioned officer, and nine soldiers belonging to the Ecuadorian Army, some 300 meters from the border, said the chancellor. “According to the pertinent agreements... they were handed over today to the Ecuadorian military authority, captain Michael Cadena,...
  • ...Ecuador Conterfeiting Problems

    08/01/2009 10:45:43 PM PDT · by Cindy · 9 replies · 625+ views
    OSAC.gov ^ | July 30, 2009 | n/a
    Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Ecuador Conterfeiting Problems CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Ecuador 30 Jul 2009 U.S. Embassy Quito issued the following Warden Message on July 30, 2009: The U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Ecuador wish to inform American citizens visiting or resident in Ecuador of the continuing problem of counterfeit U.S. dollars circulating within Ecuador. We remind American citizens to check your currency carefully when leaving any banking institution or private business within Ecuador. Recently, we’ve received reports of counterfeit bills...
  • AP Newsbreak: Rebel video hounds Ecuador's Correa

    07/17/2009 12:41:00 PM PDT · by SmithL · 2 replies · 284+ views
    AP via SFGate ^ | 7/17/9 | FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer
    BOGOTA, Columbia (AP) -- An hour-long video police found in a computer of an alleged rebel appears to dispel any doubts that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador. The video shows the second-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia reading the deathbed manifesto of founding leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda. The manifesto clearly acknowledges FARC contributions to Correa's campaign, but it's still possible that Correa wasn't aware of them. The video, given to The Associated Press by a government official on condition of anonymity due to political sensitivity,...
  • Obama seeks improved ties with Ecuador's Correa (another Marxist fellow traveler)

    06/11/2009 4:39:38 PM PDT · by pissant · 5 replies · 232+ views
    Reuters ^ | 6/11/09 | staff
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has told Ecuador's socialist President Rafael Correa he wants better relations, which have been strained since Ecuador charged U.S. diplomats of meddling in its affairs this year. Obama phoned Correa, an ally of anti-U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on Wednesday for what the White House said was a congratulatory call for his April re-election and to commend Ecuadoreans for their "commitment to democracy." "The president stated his desire to deepen our bilateral relationship and to maintain an ongoing dialogue that can ensure a productive relationship based on mutual respect," the White House said...
  • America’s Most Forgotten: Victims of Illegal Alien Crime – Adrienne Shelly

    06/10/2009 2:21:59 PM PDT · by AuntB · 12 replies · 711+ views
    FamilySecurtiyMatters ^ | June 10, 2009 | Carolyn Cooke
    Editor’s note: This is the next in a continuing series about the forgotten victims of illegal alien crime – a weekly series you will not see in the mainstream media. America’s Most Forgotten is dedicated to the Americans who have died at the hands of illegal aliens because of the refusal of our elected officials to enforce United States immigration law and to secure our borders from this unwanted invasion of unidentified people from across the world. No region of the country has been spared and the citizens presented come from all walks of life. Crisscrossing the nation, we have...
  • Chavez's War On Free Trade In Peru

    06/09/2009 5:08:51 PM PDT · by Kaslin · 5 replies · 421+ views
    IBD Editorials ^ | June 9, 2009
    Americas: What does Venezuela's Hugo Chavez call a nation that develops peacefully, embraces markets, promotes property rights, pursues free trade and has no use for his revolution? A target. Welcome to Peru.Last Friday and Saturday, a police confrontation at a roadblock near the northern Peruvian town of Bagua ended in violence, with some 30 dead. A major highway had been blocked off for 55 days by some 5,000 indigenous protesters in a tactic identical to that used by radicalized indigenous protesters in Bolivia in recent years. Roadblocks are basically used to starve inland cities into submission by halting shipments of...
  • Big Oil Bites Back

    05/28/2009 9:18:49 PM PDT · by Kaslin · 12 replies · 1,424+ views
    IBD Editorial ^ | May 28, 2009
    Companies: After an all-out war on oil companies from the left in recent years, it bodes well for the future to see Big Oil now recognizing the attack it's under and its duty to fight back. Witness Chevron and Exxon Mobil.Shareholder meetings can be pro forma affairs, but not for major oil companies, which have become a lightning rod for the anti-corporate sentiment gaining traction in U.S. political life since around 2006. Wednesday, Chevron was descended upon by a zoo-full of San Francisco leftists pushing rain forest sentimentalism, Burma, and other pet causes dear to the no-soap crowd. They journeyed...
  • Andes Mountains Are Older Than Previously Believed

    05/25/2009 4:20:13 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 1,161+ views
    ScienceDaily ^ | Sunday, May 17, 2009 | Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, via EurekAlert!
    The geologic faults responsible for the rise of the eastern Andes mountains in Colombia became active 25 million years ago -- 18 million years before the previously accepted start date for the Andes' rise, according to researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the University of Potsdam in Germany and Ecopetrol in Colombia... The team integrated new geologic maps that illustrate tectonic thrusting and faulting, information about the origins and movements of sediments and the location and age of plant pollen in the sediments, as well as zircon-fission track analysis to provide an unusually thorough description of basin...
  • Caroline Glick on Iran !

    05/19/2009 9:12:52 PM PDT · by Jedediah · 7 replies · 885+ views
    Caroline Glick
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212406822&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
  • Ecuador Grabs for Chevron's Wallet

    05/08/2009 3:59:59 AM PDT · by Cindy · 3 replies · 386+ views
    SNIPPET: "Forget the "60 Minutes" angle against an alleged big, bad American polluter. This looks like an Ecuadoran shakedown of millions of American small investors who have a stake in Chevron. Now that is a story worth investigating."
  • '60 Minutes' Promotes $27-Billion Leftist 'Fraud' Efforts Against Chevron

    05/04/2009 4:41:05 AM PDT · by Rufus2007 · 9 replies · 939+ views
    NewsBusters ^ | May 4, 2009 | Jeff Poor
    When $27 billion is at stake, some companies would pay big bucks to win a PR battle, but one side of an environmental lawsuit doesn't have to, since CBS is pushing its position for free. On CBS's May 3 "60 Minutes," correspondent Scott Pelley, who once compared global-warming skepticism to Holocaust denial, gave the plaintiff of a $27-billion frivolous lawsuit against Chevron a public relations victory with his report. Pelley's report featured a suit filed by the Amazon Defense Coalition, a group described as "eco-radicals," who are trying to squeeze $27 billion from Chevron for environmental cleanup that the nation's...
  • Ahmadinejad to visit three Latin American countries

    05/02/2009 4:35:55 PM PDT · by SilvieWaldorfMD · 8 replies · 618+ views
    Tehran, May 3, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay official visits to three Latin American countries at the end of this week. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in an interview with TV channel 2 said the president is scheduled to visit Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Mottaki said President Ahmadinejad's visit to Brasilia would be a new chapter of mutual ties after 17 years, which began by last year visit of Brazilian FM to Tehran and his Iranian counterpart reciprocal visit late March, 2009. He added that President's visit to Brazil, considering potentials of both countries and ties upon mutual respect...
  • Warden Message: Guayaquil, Ecuador Taxicab Warning

    04/25/2009 5:32:01 PM PDT · by Cindy · 4 replies · 638+ views
    OSAC.gov ^ | April 24, 2009 | n/a
    Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Guayaquil, Ecuador Taxicab Warning CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Ecuador 24 Apr 2009 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 23 Apr 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR NATIONAL ELECTIONS- APRIL 26 12 Feb 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: CAUTION URGED OVER ECUADOR'S CHAQUINAN CYCLING PATH 29 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: QUITO, ECUADOR, HOME INVASIONS 16 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR DEMONSTRATION JANUARY 20 14 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: QUITO, ECUADOR, PROTESTS ANTICIPATED JANUARY 15 U.S. Consulate Guayaquil released the following Warden Message on...
  • Intelligence Report: Iran Will Use Latin America to Attack US, Israel

    04/20/2009 3:28:31 PM PDT · by lewisglad · 19 replies · 1,451+ views
    Arutz Sheva ^ | Published: 04/20/09, 2:06 PM | by Malkah Fleisher
    Just two days after US President Barack Hussein Obama shared a controversial and landmark handshake with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a study analyzing the flowering alliance between the increasingly anti-Western Latin America and the virulently anti-Israel Iran. The study was conducted at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), a non-governmental organization dedicated to Israeli intelligence and terrorism issues. According to the study, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using anti-Western Hugo Chavez as a springboard into several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and...
  • Obama wins praise at summit but feels heat on Cuba (Our clueless POTUS)

    04/18/2009 1:09:51 PM PDT · by milwguy · 17 replies · 659+ views
    reuters ^ | 4/18/2009 | David Alexander and Ana Isabel Martinez
    U.S. President Barack Obama won praise on Saturday for reaching out to the Americas at a regional summit but Latin American and Caribbean leaders pressured him to end the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuba. Obama, attending his first Summit of the Americas, has promised an era of better cooperation with the hemisphere and offered a new start to communist-ruled Cuba. He won early approval from left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The warm reception for Obama from countries from Brazil to Venezuela contrasted with the last Americas Summit four years ago in Argentina, where leftists like Chavez attacked the "imperialist" policies...
  • Ecuador finalises big Super Tucano order (Brazilian warplane)

    03/24/2009 7:40:33 AM PDT · by sukhoi-30mki · 29 replies · 1,817+ views
    Flightglobal.com ^ | 24/03/09 | Stephen Trimble
    Ecuador finalises big Super Tucano order By Stephen Trimble Ecuador has finalised a contract to become the fifth Latin American nation to buy the Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano trainer and light attack aircraft. The Brazilian manufacturer on 23 March announced that negotiations over a nine-month-old agreement with the Ecuadorian air force have finally been completed, following reported difficulties with the financing arrangements. The deal covers the supply of 24 turboprop-powered Super Tucanos, with these to replace Ecuador’s ageing fleet of Cessna A-37 strike aircraft, and help re-assert control over the country’s airspace. Last March, Ecuador strongly objected to Colombian air...
  • Chavez, Ahmadinejad and the New "Missile Crisis"

    03/09/2009 2:56:01 AM PDT · by Cindy · 4 replies · 424+ views
    FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | Monday, March 09, 2009 | By Alejandro Peña-Esclusa
    SNIPPET: "On January 6, 2009, Hugo Chávez expelled the Israeli ambassador in Venezuela. Immediately after, the terrorist group Hamas publicly congratulated the "courageous step taken by the Venezuelan president." Three weeks later, after repeated anti-Semitic speeches by Venezuelan officials, the Tiferet Israel synagogue in Caracas was brutally desecrated. The perpetrators were later caught by the police, but they were undoubtedly encouraged by the official discourse. These facts are not coincidental. They are the natural result of the many political and economic agreements signed between Chávez and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who promised to "wipe Israel off the face...
  • Argentina calls CIA comment "irresponsible" ( Leon Panetta )

    02/26/2009 6:39:10 PM PST · by george76 · 8 replies · 903+ views
    Reuters ^ | Feb 27, 2009
    Argentina on Thursday blasted the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for saying the country, along with Ecuador and Venezuela, could be pushed into instability by the global economic crisis. Lumping Argentina together with Ecuador and Venezuela, both led by leftist anti-Washington firebrands, raises concern in this country, where center-left President Cristina Kirchner is trying to keep the economy from stagnating.
  • Ecuador Immigrant Dragged by Minivan for 20 Miles - Video 2/16/09

    02/16/2009 9:41:09 AM PST · by Federalist Patriot · 10 replies · 485+ views
    Freedom's Lighthouse ^ | February 16, 2009 | BrianinMO
    This is shocking video of an Ecuadorian Immigrant who was hit by an SUV in New York. As he lay in the street before help could arrive, a minivan runs over the man and his body disappears because he is caught under the van. The van dragged the man for 20 miles, never knowing he was under the van. This is just a tragic and unbelievable story. . . . . (Watch Video)
  • Victim dragged under van identified as Ecuadorean

    02/12/2009 9:55:58 AM PST · by Oldeconomybuyer · 16 replies · 685+ views
    Associated Press via Google News ^ | February 12, 2009 | By COLLEEN LONG
    NEW YORK (AP) — A pedestrian killed after he was hit by an SUV, then trapped under another vehicle and dragged nearly 20 miles, was identified Thursday as a 26-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant recently laid off from a construction job. A cousin identified the man as Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara, police said. Officers had found only a business card, Western Union receipt and iPhone in his pockets after his battered body was discovered in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Police said the gruesome death was accidental and that they have no plans to charge the two drivers, who both have clean driving records. Carabajo-Jara's...
  • Warden Message: Quito, Ecuador, Home Invasions

    02/01/2009 12:41:48 AM PST · by Cindy · 1 replies · 704+ views
    OSAC.gov ^ | January 29, 2009 | n/a
    Note: The following text is a quote: https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=96652 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Quito, Ecuador, Home Invasions CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Ecuador 29 Jan 2009 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 16 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR DEMONSTRATION JANUARY 20 14 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: QUITO, ECUADOR, PROTESTS ANTICIPATED JANUARY 15 8 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR DEMONSTRATION JANUARY 8 6 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR DEMONSTRATION JANUARY 6 19 Nov 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: ECUADOR PIRACY WARNING U.S. Embassy Quito issued the following Warden Message on January 29: The U.S....
  • Amazon pollution case could cost Chevron billions[$27 Billion]

    12/20/2008 11:34:01 AM PST · by BGHater · 7 replies · 649+ views
    AP ^ | 20 Dec 2008 | AP
    Chevron faces potential $27 billion bill in Amazon pollution lawsuit When the sun beats particularly hot on this land in the middle of the jungle, the roads sweat petroleum. A Rhode Island-sized expanse of what was once pristine Amazon rainforest is crisscrossed with oil wells and pipeline grids built by Texaco Inc. a generation ago. And for the past 15 years, a class-action lawsuit has been winding its way through the courts on behalf of the more than 125,000 people who drink, bathe, fish and wash their clothes in tainted headwaters of the Amazon River. Now a single judge is...
  • A Swift Challenge From Latin America

    12/18/2008 5:24:39 PM PST · by Kaslin · 1 replies · 358+ views
    IBD Editorials ^ | December 18, 2008
    Latin America: Barack Obama hasn't even assumed the presidency, but already he's getting his marching orders from a slew of hostile leftist regimes to our south. This is a sign of trouble.In principle, a consortium of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries trying to solve the region's problems without the U.S. is a fine idea. But at a new summit in Brazil, participants couldn't get the U.S. off their minds. The financial crisis, the falling price of oil and the pickle in which the worst-managed economies in the region now find themselves blurred distinctions between democratic and authoritarian regimes, all...
  • Chinese Illegals Entering US through Equador

    12/16/2008 5:39:33 PM PST · by Sammy67 · 8 replies · 624+ views
    RightSideNews ^ | 12/16/08
    Since Ecuador eliminated requirements for entry visas for all foreigners entering their country, growth in the arrival of Chinese from China has jumped from an average of twenty a month to over one thousand a month with goals of entering the United States illegally Saturday 12/13/08 El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador) 12/13/08 "Ecuador, stopping point in the traffic of undocumented Chinese" When officials entered a humble abode in the middle of Guayaquil in early August they found 28 Chinese citizens, the majority of them young women, crammed into two rooms awaiting travel to the United States in search of the American...
  • Ecuador plans to buy weapons from Iran

    12/14/2008 10:33:14 AM PST · by Flavius · 12 replies · 716+ views
    presstv ^ | 12/14/08 | presstv
    Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa says Quito may buy weapons from Iran to enable the tightening of security on its border with Colombia. "We have a very serious problem on the northern border with Colombia, an irresponsible government that does not take care of its… border," AFP quoted Correa as saying on Saturday. "We need to equip ourselves… Iran can supply us and help us with credit," the president explained
  • Ecuador defaults, says to fight "monster" creditors

    12/13/2008 10:00:01 AM PST · by BGHater · 11 replies · 644+ views
    Reuters ^ | 12 Dec 2008 | Maria Eugenia Tello
    President Rafael Correa declared a default on Ecuador's foreign sovereign bonds on Friday, vowing to fight "monster" debt-holders in court in one of most aggressive moves against investors in the region for years. Ecuador's dollar-denominated debt prices plunged on news of its second default in a decade and the first in Latin America since Argentina in 2002, although the decision was not expected to lead to similar moves around the region. Correa, a U.S.-trained economist and ally of Venezuela's anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez, refused to make a $31 million interest payment due on Monday on 2012 global bonds, saying the...
  • Top 100 Stories of 2008 #96: Ancient Traders Sailed the South American Seas

    12/06/2008 8:28:44 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 509+ views
    Journal Of Anthropological Research ^ | Volume 64, Number 1, Abstracts | Leslie Dewan and Dorothy Hosler
    Abstract: By approximately 100 BC Ecuadorian traders had established maritime commercial routes extending from Chile to Colombia. Historical sources indicate that they transported their merchandise in large, ocean-going sailing rafts made of balsa logs. By about AD 700 the data show that Ecuadorian metalworking technology had reached the west coast of Mexico but remained absent in the region between Guerrero and lower Central America. Archaeologists have argued that this technology was most plausibly transmitted via balsa raft exchange routes. This article uses mathematical simulation of balsa rafts’ mechanical and material characteristics to determine whether these rafts were suitable vessels for...
  • Ecuador hints at default over ‘illegitimate’ debt (may hurt venezuela)

    11/28/2008 2:31:03 AM PST · by TigerLikesRooster · 18 replies · 785+ views
    FT ^ | 11/17/08 | Naomi Mapstone and David Oakley
    Ecuador hints at default over ‘illegitimate’ debt By Naomi Mapstone and David Oakley Published: November 17 2008 18:55 | Last updated: November 17 2008 18:55 The chances of Ecuador’s government becoming the second government to default on its debt since the financial crisis began have risen sharply. It follows the country’s move on Friday to delay meeting a $30.6m bond repayment, as Rafael Correa, its president, warned the debt might be “illegitimate”. According to news­paper reports in Ecuador on Monday, the official overseeing the audit of Ecuador’s foreign debt said his committee would recommend that the country default on its...
  • Bachelor tortoise Lonesome George finds his libido at 90

    11/13/2008 3:48:59 AM PST · by Tax-chick · 17 replies · 622+ views
    Daily Mail (UK) ^ | November 12, 2008 | Daily Mail Reporter
    He is the last of his kind, and despite a sudden interest in the opposite sex at the grand old age of 90, it seems Lonesome George may stay that way. After stunning conservationists by mating for the first time in decades, the giant tortoise from the Galapagos islands still may not become a father. George, a conservation marvel and one of the world's rarest creatures, mated this year with two females, but 80 percent of the eggs they laid appear infertile.
  • Threat Matrix: October 2008

    10/06/2008 7:27:37 PM PDT · by nwctwx · 756 replies · 13,649+ views
    FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...
  • Legal rights to rivers, forests and air?

    09/24/2008 3:42:18 PM PDT · by WaveMan · 3 replies · 248+ views
    Ecuador next week votes on giving legal rights to rivers, forests and air. Is this the end of damaging development? The world is watching. The South American republic of Ecuador will next week consider what many countries in the world would say is unthinkable. People will be asked to vote on Sunday on a new constitution that would give Ecuador's tropical forests, islands, rivers and air similar legal rights to those normally granted to humans. If they vote yes - and polls show that 56% are for and only 23% are against - then an already approved bill of rights...
  • A New Law of Nature (Ecuador May Give Nature ‘Human Rights, they are not kidding)

    09/24/2008 12:00:50 PM PDT · by Kimmers · 11 replies · 473+ views
    gaurdian UK ^ | 9/12/08 | Clare Kendall
    The South American republic of Ecuador will next week consider what many countries in the world would say is unthinkable. People will be asked to vote on Sunday on a new constitution that would give Ecuador’s tropical forests, islands, rivers and air similar legal rights to those normally granted to humans. If they vote yes - and polls show that 56% are for and only 23% are against - then an already approved bill of rights for nature will be introduced, and new laws will change the legal status of nature from being simply property to being a right-bearing entity....
  • Ecuador's Correa has majority before key vote: poll

    09/03/2008 5:27:34 AM PDT · by decimon · 76+ views
    Reuters ^ | Sep 2, 2008 | Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Eric Walsh
    QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorian leftist President Rafael Correa has the majority he needs to win a key September 28 referendum to pass a new constitution that would extend his authority over the Andean nation, a poll showed on Tuesday.
  • ECUADOR: President "Stabbed In the Back" by Church Over Constitution

    08/26/2008 11:16:44 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 4 replies · 106+ views
    Inter-Press Service ^ | Aug 25, 2008 | Rosa Rodríguez
    QUITO, Aug 25 (IPS) - The campaign for the Sept. 28 referendum on Ecuador’s newly rewritten constitution has got under way, with fierce arguments between the document's supporters and opponents. At the moment the main conflict is between those in favour of the new constitution, approved Jul. 24 by the Constituent Assembly, and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Church prelates are vigorously opposed to the proposed constitution because they allege it opens the door to the legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage, although the word "abortion" is not mentioned in any of its articles. "Certain aspects of the text...
  • The Enemies of Life in Ecuador Messed with the Wrong Bishops

    08/22/2008 11:58:32 AM PDT · by Publius804 · 2 replies · 109+ views
    LifeSiteNews.com ^ | August 21, 2008 | Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
    The Enemies of Life in Ecuador Messed with the Wrong Bishops Commentary by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman August 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When Ecuador's socialists decided to pull a fast one and inject pro-abortion, anti-family language into their new constitutional project earlier this year, they probably felt rather self-assured. After all, their young president, Rafael Correa, is enormously popular in Ecuador, and his Alianza PAIS party won a clear majority in elections for the nation's Constituent Assembly, charged with re-writing the nation's constitution. Although Ecuador has strong Catholic roots, as well as a lively minority of Evangelical Protestants, the new powers...
  • Ecuador says to meet Chevron over $16 bln lawsuit (environmental damage)

    08/16/2008 2:10:52 PM PDT · by decimon · 87+ views
    Reuters ^ | Aug 16, 2008 | Reporting by Alonso Soto; editing by Patricia Zengerle and Cynthia Osterman
    QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday he plans to meet with Chevron Corp officials and lawyers for 30,000 jungle residents who are suing the U.S. oil giant for up to $16 billion over environmental damages. Peasants and Indians are suing the U.S. company in an Ecuadorean court over charges its Texaco unit polluted the jungle and damaged their health by dumping 18 billion gallons of oil-laden water from 1972 to 1992. < > Chevron, which calls the case a "judicial farce" plagued by government interference, said on Friday it was open to reaching an amicable solution...
  • Death Threats [Against] Archbishop and HLI Leader in Ecuador for Opposing "Abortionist" Constitution

    08/07/2008 7:53:14 AM PDT · by Pyro7480 · 8 replies · 340+ views
    LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/6/2008 | Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
    GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR, August 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference and the leader of the nation's Human Life International affiliate are receiving death threats due to their opposition to pro-abortion and anti-family language in the nation's proposed new constitution. "I believe that the threats are part of an unfortunate way of doing politics in the country, threats of various kinds. I can't deny that they are always fearful," said Antonio Arregui Yarza, Archbishop of Guayaquil. "One isn't accustomed (to this) when one has a peaceful vision of the world, but it is painful to confirm the...
  • Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia

    07/21/2008 9:55:57 PM PDT · by doug from upland · 1 replies · 161+ views
    zennie2005.blogspot.com ^ | 7-21-08 | Zennie Abraham
    Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia Monday, July 07, 2008 In the ongoing matter of Chevron and Nigeria comes a report from UPI declaring that "Nigeria attack cripples Chevron". Moreover, the same report points a finger at militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). And while there's no recorded link between MEND and Chevron accuser Larry Bowoto, it seems the two have similar aims: to cripple Chevron's presence in the region, as well as that of Royal Dutch Shell. Consider this UPI report: Chevron Corp. has declared...
  • A Hard Letter from Correa to Ingrid [Ecuador disses FARC hostage]

    07/16/2008 4:49:21 PM PDT · by marron · 8 replies · 219+ views
    President Rafael Correa rejected statements by ex-FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who supported the attack by the Colombian Army on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory on March 1. In the letter, the Head of State said he was surprised by comments by Betancourt, who was rescued in an operation authorized by Álvaro Uribe. “We are surprised and deeply pained by these declarations that support and try to justify an illegitimate and illegal act, which has been recognized as such and rejected by every government in America” , said Correa in the letter sent to Betancourt, released yesterday by Carondelet. In...