Killing people for Oil.

by iosaf Sat Oct 15, 2005 22:41

Gutiérrez got to Manta airport Ecuador and was arrested and is in custody, to spend his first night since exile followed his deposal in prison.

His Mrs is distraught. she's phoned up everyone.
His family are busily running around the place asking questions and looking for decent character references.

Mr Gutiérrez was not in the XV iberoamerican conference which just ended. This is cause he's like so "last april".

Anyway, its not over yet.
Now I want you to remember that ecuadorian prisons can be "spun" and often people far away from Ecuador think they're really shit places to be imprisoned in. You might remember the male prisoners who crucified themselves in the yard earlier this year protesting the fact that they had served their sentance but no-one had thought to let them out? And then there were women prisoners who just sewed their lips together.
Poor people aren't like us. They get desperate.
Gutiérrez is neither poor nor likely to sew his lips up, he is one of the very succesful types of career politician who get called "statesmen" and he just won't "go" que se vaya! q.s.v.t.! and be "an ex statesman"

& sure he's looking for publicity. How long before he gets on radio wireless eirinn?

-

by ingin Fri Oct 14, 2005 02:44

Lucio Gutiérrez has announced in the last hours that he will travel to Ecaudor tomorrow.
Last October 5th he got official and totally squeeky clean exile status in Colombia where he has been staying since he was deposed in Ecuador on the 20th of April.

Lucio Gutiérrez used to be the president of Ecuador, thats why we say he was "deposed" instead of just fired, or "let go".

Mr Guitiérrez will however fight his redundancy package. Colombia has already refused his plea that he was politically persecuted. They sort of drew the line at recognising his "deposed" claim.

As is usual this is a family news thing. Lucio's brother Gilmar Gutiérrez, and former minister of government Fausto Cobo and a certain businessman Milton Ordóñez who only got to Colombia on the 20th of September, are all eager to get their names on this last hour's news item.

Yes, they all want the state back.

Fair play to them. They're not exactly the oppressed underclass, or the emergent chattering class, or even the most literate of their nation. They don't have a clue what precarity means, or crucifying yourself in a prison yard means. (oh! how extreme did the state get this last year!?)

But they want "their" state back. Put it through the search engine. its called "Ecuador".

by iosaf Tue Aug 30, 2005 14:48

* the USA has asked the Ecuadorian state to renegotiate rather than cancel the contract with Oxy.

* agriculture ministers of the continent have gathered in Ecuador for a meeting aimed at improving food supply, land distribution and "end poverty".

* Colombia and Ecuador are holding the second round of talks on their border issues. This issue heated up earlier in the year thanks to sabre rattling by the previous Ecuadorian minister of defence. Border issues include narcotraffic issues, and crop spraying. It seem likely an agreement to stop crop spraying will be made. Just so you get the picture, its not spraying greenfly, its more low level chemical attack on certain kinds of plants, which half of dublin use in powder form. Such spraying action has caused and is causing in the name of the "war on drugs" another eco-disaster and widespread destruction in the Andean highlands.

* Oxy have not satisfied anyone other than the USA that they ought stay.... its far from over.
http://ecuador.indymedia.org/

by The Bush End Times Cult Sun Aug 28, 2005 00:20

Bush: "Y'All help me Kill The Ayrabs and Chavez and Steal their Oil Fer Jesus and You'll git ta Heaven."

by very late at night. I didn't look at ecuadoriastan through - my satelite tonight. I was elsewhere. indeed. Sat Aug 27, 2005 01:18

& a brief report on the reasons that the strikers what Oxy out. At present they take 84% of the revenue they earn out of the country and give 16% to the Ecuadorian state. Who pays for the roads eh?
the strikers you remember listed nationalisation as a demand, not getting very far that one, but they also demanded Oxy goes.
Think about it, the state gets 16% of the oil they export. The state is now over 90% back to normal production. An interest oil loan is through, and estimate hover around 300million$ damage in economic terms. [do, please look at those photos]
its less than was predicted. Thats future trading for you. & did I mention NAFTA and the EU are buying home heating fuel now, coz its cheap?
Oxy can go. Even though the strikers are reported in the dutch article as wanting 50% of the revenue.
Now, you see that 5$ or 15$ a barrel traded over 60$ makes sense.
enough money talk. Life is not about money.
Look at the state of emergency photos with the article, and remember to keep your state out of emergency.
http://indymedia.nl/nl/2005/08/30047.shtml

by iosaf Fri Aug 26, 2005 02:54

*the congress has lifted the state of emergency.
56 votes in favour 15 abstentions 100 votes in the unicameral parliament.

* an agreement has been announced which means - roads, increased tax share to the amazonian provinces, increased contribution to well being in the regions, increased regularisation of workers in the regions, increased oil production oh and the soliders go home, and naturally very soon the radio will be back on, and the land will be clean, and everyone will forget about Ecuador.

*ecuador indymedia invite you all to the launch of the Alejo Capelo bookshop. named after a old time anarchist of the spooky kind who wrote in mexican magazines, or maybe a latter one, ask them.

* the oil companies want the heads of the strikers.

* no amnesty has been announced for any leader or striker that i've read about or been told about.

* its not over yet.

by iosaf Thu Aug 25, 2005 15:58

* 10 women are on hunger strike they're in the cathedral of Lago Agrio. The radios are still jammed, and less news is coming out now of conditions on the ground.

* the media are saying a solution is imminent and that the strike leaders are asking for immunity ahead of the solution which they spin will occur tonight local time.

* the congress has narrowly voted to continue the state of emergency.

* the oil companies have quite smugly agreed to asphalt 360 km of road in the provinces. I used the word "smugly" because this concession is being spun as a charitable act, when in fact if one considers it you see it is an infrastructural improvement which serves the industry on several fronts. Road surfaces are a by-product of oil production, and the contracters who would build those roads are the oil companies, and better roads will assist higher oil production. This sort of concession is typical of first world "aid".

* oil exportation has returned to 83.6% of normal.

* the oil companies meet today with the President of the state in meetings which are seperate but of course very relevant to the ongoing negotations.

here are links for sites which deal with the themes, the strikes, the history of Ecuador and the indiginous communities:-

(comitee of assemblys or is it assembly of comitees?)
http://www.conaie.org/
monthly magazine
http://www.redvoltaire.net/elsucre.html
news discussion site
http://www.tintaji.org/
site on ecuador under the spanish anarchist umbrella nodo 50 (not many visitors):-
http://www.nodo50.org/opcion/91/
magazine on amazonian issues (not too upto date)
http://www.sarayacu.com/
Ecuadorian radio Imc project
http://ftaaimc.org/or/static/radio_en.shtml
campesinos of Ecuador
http://www.movimientos.org/cloc/confeunassc-ec/
indiginous peoples site, an old one good for background to political issues
http://www.geocities.com/shinallatak/
umbrella portal of the Forajidos with link to radio luna (in sucre not the amazon)
http://forajidos.org/
rebellion magazine
http://www.rebelion.org/
zmag spanish pages
http://www.zmag.org/Spanish/index.htm

and of course Ecuador indymedia
http://ecuador.indymedia.org/

by io Wed Aug 24, 2005 02:41

* the congress have met for the first time since the strike began and are split on the state of emergency.

* there have been reports of brutal repression of campesinos in the amazon on imc ecuador without follow up.

* officially the talks are ongoing and there's a lot less spin.

* the RC church global monitoring men in black crew have confirmed an indymedia report that radio stations in the amazon are being blocked by the state of emergency.

* the loan of oil has been ratified bythe venezuelan president, but its off the front pages as well, the call to assasinate chavez by a US preacher taking precedence.
*********************************************************

Here are the demands of the strikers:-

1 the ending of contracts with the oil companies OXY and ENCANA.
2. demand for the nationalisation of oil, so that resources which now go abroad are used to build schools, hopsitals and to help our farmers etc. Ecuador is not a poor country, it is a pillaged country.
3. immediate and obligatory contracting of the workforce qualified and unqualified workersof the oil companies both national and international.
4. Supply of drinking water and electricity to all communities that live within the oil field blocks.
5. building and equiping of health centres in the parishes which do not have these services in both provinces..
6. payment on the part of the companies for the use of natural materials, (water, wood, air etc..)

[ MY comment.]
I believe demands 3 to 6 are not exagerated.
6 ask fors indemnification of two amazonian provices against an industry which has been proven (see last comment) to have delivered an ecological disaster to the region.
5 there are many villages or "parishes" without health centres, without vaccines.
4 Consider the lack of drinking water in the state and region, and the sustained damage being done to quality water availability in the region,
and consider that water is an essential resource for the industry.
3 if the workers are not regularised, their precarity dooms the region, and will see further destruction of the forset zones and migration within and without the state.
2 nationalisation of petrochemical resources in south america is a very difficult subject which reallyought have been dealt with a long time ago, and has now taken on certain other considerations, and thus has to be taken very gently, demand 2 should be preceded by demand3.
1 we are not based on the information on this page, or linked to from this page, in a position to say which companies ought not be allowed trade in other states, that is an internal matter, for punishing one is to encourage another, and they just burn the stuff. that's what they do with it.
they burn the planet-
honestly thats how it works.
put your little finger in a candle and hold it there.
imagine that for eternity+
Would I be breaking the law if I asked people to throw eggs at Reverend Pat Robertson's house?

http://www.ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2005/08/10901.shtml

by iosaf Tue Aug 23, 2005 15:43

* no dead.

* media are spinning, one side says negotiations broken off, other say that negotations are very difficult.

*strikers say the oil companies have not satisfied their demands or answered their questions.

* the subject of Oxy, the US company they strikers want completely out of Ecuador has not yet been touched.

*******************************************************
an example of the issues at stake:-

* Chevron / Texaco one of the global oil giants which fought from 1993 to 2004 a series of legal actions brought against it by a coaltion of interests defending the amazon communities relating to pollution of 2.5million hectares and the land of four indiginous communities Between 1964 and 1990 when the company operated in ecuador under its subsidiary Texpet and opened 339 oil wells and extracted 1.434,000,000,000 barrels of oil.

(idea of size - the province of Connaught is 1,771,045 hectares Texaco Chevron (condoleeza rice's employers before she went into front room politics) polluted an area twice the size of Connaught, where 30 million people are considered effected, idea of population density Connaught was home to 464,296 people for the 2002 census)

Q. How did they do that iosaf?

A. They did this by allowing 20million gallons of pipeline cleaing water to be released untreated, they burnt 235billion cubic feet of gas in open air, and allowed a land slick of 16,800million gallons of crude to form.

You'd think its such valuable stuff this oil, they would have taken more care of it.

But the use of the technology (cheapest possible extraction and treatment as typfies oil and gas operations in mid asia) saved Chevron / Texaco 4billion$ or to put that in the easy to understand layman's figures

- 3$ per barrel of extracted crude.

The case was brought by "Frente de Defensa de la Amazonía", which represents those effected in the ecuadorian provinces of Orellana and Sucumbíos, where people are still unhappy.

they are divided "ethnically" into these indiginous "nations" Secoya, Cofán, Siona and Huaorani.

more info
http://www.bolpress.com/internacional.php?Cod=2005002800

by iosaf Tue Aug 23, 2005 04:38

the image of prisoners crucifying themselves in the yard of Ecuadorian prisons earlier this year, might have caused the last comment (perhaps now hidden) which asks what would Jesus say if he were alive today, and what Bush might say to him. Today of course Bush spoke to the veterans of foreign wars groups in Salt Lake City Utah, the global HQ of the mormons, he mentioned how well he was doing in Iraq.

It is thus timely for me to remind ye all, that Jesus is not generally felt to be dead, he is still alive, thats the secret with Jesus, for all you DIY fans.
******************************************************

Today's news from Ecuador:-

*the leaders of the strikes were released to hold negotiations.

*they were tense.

*that means people really look "dead serious".
and that the negotiations were tense. it was very apparant that the amazonians are more "indiginous" in background than the ministers and the observers. Its a melanin skin content thing, once you've been looking at telly a long time you can spot it.

*the message from the state which many of you now think is playing a huge part in this, Venezuala is that this is an "internal matter". & that means its an internal matter.

*the strikers and their support groups have answered questions today from thier internal media as to their backers, "who put them up to this? and they have generally denied any connection with the deposed president in exile in Peru. (c/f earlier ecuadorian articles)

*One protester put it succintly when he used the dollar word, this is really very helpful, its an international currency, and if you want things to be understood you put a dollar value on them. Its like the hectarage of county Louth a useful little benchmark. Seemingly the state of ecuador is entitled to a certain amount of dollars for every barrel produced, every day. And!!!! they haven't been getting that amount of dollars on every barrel produced every day. To put that in layspeak -
They're getting ripped off big time.

*Global markets stabilised in the last day's trading after a brief hike of 2$ on every barrel of crude produced leveled out.

*the USA and EU are presently purchasing crude and gas to store for winter diesel and home heating requirements, its supposed to be cheap now. Those wicked ecuadorian strikers might have increased your winter fuel bill in a language more easy to understand than arabic.

*the IMF have come in.

*Colombia has given up hope of rescuing people from a refugee / illegal migrant / sin papales / poor people / breakjing the law boat that just went missing with 94, but 9 of them got picked up. lucky them.

*When the 2 prisoners crucified themselves in the yard in Ecuador, the womens' prison saw inmates sew their lips together.

*protests in the amazonian provinces continue with the peaceful concentrated demonstrating their belief they are silenced.
is it 5$ a barrel? is it 15$ a barrel?

*heck how much is a barrel of Oil?

*the stock in Ecuador's phone network has gone up, people make phonecalls during crises, time to invest, little upward spike...

*they did very well in the Bolivarian games, Venezuala came first then Peru.

**********************(early morning ireland = supper time ecuador comment***dripping in sarcasm***************

The Oil produced is felt to be a resource of many more citizens of Ecuador than those in the amazonian provinces, and is felt by many to be a resource of South America. That's what happens when you've millions of really poor people. its quite clear the Irish aren't really poor, because they're not demanding north sea oil revenue off the british.

by Onward Christian Soldiers Mon Aug 22, 2005 22:28

Bush: "JESUS YOU PINKO COMMIE FAG MUSLIM LOVING LIBERAL TERRORIST!!!! HOW DARE YOU SAY I'M A HYPOCRITE! Ahem! Secret Service, Jesus and his Communist Disciples are not to be admitted into the GOP Prayer Breakfast!"

by iosaf Mon Aug 22, 2005 17:07

* loan of crude will start arriving tomorrow and is being given without interest.

* tentative "ceasefire" in place, no more installations attacked, no more pipelines dynamited that sort of stuff, a lot of soldiers drafted in.

* today marks the 20th day of peaceful protests which have accompanied the "troubles" and led by the womens' groups of Orellana people are on the streets with thier mouths covered in bandages.
http://www.ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2005/08/10891.shtml

*criticism of the human rights practise of the emergency power army mounting with allegations of torture. Report published on 19th of the month being followed up
http://www.ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2005/08/10880.shtml

*Chavez has said "ecuador will not pay a centavo [=cent] for the oil, but also affirmed that the crises is an internal matter.

*Some south american contributors are asking is Chavez "a leader or a caudillo" [a term used for the type of national leaders which emerged in South America after and including Bolivar, "caudillismo" seems to mean a popular leader who could be understood as a dictator, Bolivar was a hero, many other caudillos are considered to be as well, and ythen there are many who weren't, Franco used the title, as did Pinochet. Example link of the debate, which though obviously "north american" in its spin, is still a question which comes up with so much regularity it ought be considered, because it touches on the hypocrisy of US attitudes to the continent, a strong leader is required in the UK, and Israel, but in latin america a strong leader is a "caudillo":-
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/196856/index.php

*the Bolivarian games, are holidng their XV competitions at the moment in Colombia and Bolivarian athletes are vying with Peru to bring home the gold medals. They're doing very well.
http://www.juegosbolivarianos2005.gov.co/home/news.aspx?NewsId=301&Cat=1

*The negotiations between strike representatives and government have started.
At the table in Quito are also to be found the RC church, the OEA, the UN as observers.

* one of the strikers demands (and most of their demands are standard "more infrastructure, more national obligations stuff like hospitals and schools" is the cancellation of the state contract with the US oil company Occidental [Oxy]
http://www.oxy.com/
who they accuse of breaking Ecuadorian law in its developments.

by iosaf Sun Aug 21, 2005 15:21

* The mayor of Nueva Loja, Máximo Abad who is in custody has said by telephone that the strike is suspended, this news is reported in the region today.

*chavez yesterday asserted the pentagon are behind the crises which has reduced ecuadorian oil exports by 95%. Saturday saw 33,167 barrels produced as opposed to the average of 201,000 barrels according to a Petroecuador spokesperson.

*The Ecuadorian government has accused Gutierrez, who is in exile in Peru, of being behind the unrest.

*Chavez spoke by telephone to Palacio (president of ecuador) to confirm the offer of "loan oil".

* the loan has been publicised on the Chavez presidential website (but I can't find it doh!) [its reproduced here - http://aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=59093
The statement declares the will and obligation of Venezuela to uphold "labour solvency issues" in the region amongst other usual socialist rhetoric.

*Ecuador has accepted the loan
http://www.abn.info.ve/go_news5.php?articulo=16311&lee=16


*Ecuador's president Palacio estimates the loss to the economy will be about $443million once loss of export and repairs to the installations are made.

*Ecuador's new minister of defence the man in the article above has said it is not his department's job to negotiate with the protesters and reports a further 7 incidents yesterday after the arrested "leaders" had declared an end to the strike, he reaffirms his job is to protect the state's interests.

* Ecuadorean Interior Minister Mauricio Gandara said he invited protest representatives to talk on Sunday in the capital city, Quito, free of the threat of being arrested.

*Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said that a meeting would be held in Caracas on Monday to study the request and the availability of Venezuelan crude.

*Ecuador also plans to import fuel for domestic use and seek a $400 million loan from the Latin American Reserve Fund to avoid balance-of-payment problems.

*the managing director of petroecuador, Luis Román has confirmed the crude will be returned to Venezuala as soon as oil production returns to normal, and that the loan will guarantee Ecuador's international obligations to provide NAFTA with diesel. They hope to return to 1,9 millon barrels per month by September and raise production to 3.5million barrels by October.

*Ecuador has invited Venezuala to buy its government "debt bonds", to the value of $300million, the complete issue of these bonds (related to World Bank activity) is $500million.
[Venezuala owns $200million of Argentina's defecit World Bank bonds already, you soon realise that the Venezualans are bailing out a lot of their neighbours, and the those they can't bail out try and get out by refugee boat, and the Colombians rescue them]

(for shipsea)
Ecuador Embassy
Flat 3b
3 Hans Crescent
London SW1X 0LS

Telephone: 0044 207 584 2648
00 44 201 367 8084
Fax: 00 44 20 7823 9701

Petroecuador :-

Alpallana E8-86 y
Av. 6 de Diciembre,
P.O.Box: 17-11-5007
or
PO Box 17-11-5008
Ecuador.
Tel (00 593-2) 2563060 /(00 593-2) 2561589
/(00 593-2) 2560525
Fax (00 593-2) 2503571

Ecuador's amazonian provinces won 2nd prize at the International Tourism Board's awards Berlin March 2005.

by Shipsea Sat Aug 20, 2005 22:50

To whom can we write/object with any chance of halting this? within Equador? Are all major newspapers (I know, I know) being bombarded with letters or concern? Robert Fisk, John Pilger who the hell else can we write to and where?

by The Bush Tribunal Sat Aug 20, 2005 22:30

Bush: "Sorry to Oil the Death Squads and Rainforest but Cocaine and Oil comes first."

by eeeeeekkkkkk Sat Aug 20, 2005 16:11

Reading between lines it ounds like a replay of the recent 'gas war' in Bolivia. Shooting people did not work in Bolivia during the 'water war'. Can it work in Ecuador?

Can anyone explain why Chavez appears to be taking a position against the indigenous protesters?