Ecuador and Bolivia Relations With the United States

article from April 6, 2012

by Julie R Butler

When US citizens are considering where the perfect Latin American country for them to live might be, there is more to look at beyond cost of living, weather, and culture. While these are all very important, one item that is often ignored or brushed aside as less significant is the relationship the country being looked at has with your home nation.

When it comes to the two nations of Ecuador, a very popular South American expat destination, and Bolivia, a more off-the-beaten-path cultural immersion experience, the question of where relations with the United States stand is not an easy one to answer.

The presidents of both countries have, in recent years, antagonized the United States, bringing about deteriorations in bilateral relations and periods when there were mutual ambassadorial vacancies that lasted for about eight months in Ecuador and for more than three years now in Bolivia. The situation in Ecuador was at least partly rectified, as Natalie Cely, the new ambassador to the United States, stepped into office in December 2011. For its part, the US will send a new ambassador to Ecuador ...as soon as Congress gets around to confirming the nomination. As for Bolivia, happily, the United States and Bolivia officially agreed last February to reinstate their long-missing ambassadors – albeit at some un-designated point in the future.

The dances that each of these nations are dancing with the United States are intricate and confusing. Mixed signals and coyness are the norm. In one arena, smiles and friendship abound, while in another, angry words and shaking fists make for good political theater. The presidents of both Ecuador and Bolivia are strong, left-wing populist personalities, so fiery rhetoric is all part of the dance.

The interrelationships between all the nations of the region are equally intricate and confusing, as their histories include regional warfare following their battles for independence from colonization, with further border disputes springing up and dragging on through the years. Yet for many, there is a deeply held Bolivarian desire for all of Latin America to be joined together into one coherent unit, with the idea that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. And one of the greatest forces joining all together is a rejection of influence by the United States, the nation that, having gained its independence some three decades ahead of any other country in the hemisphere, stepped into the power vacuum created by Spain’s retreat, to become a new kind of economic colonizer.

It is, in many ways, a love/hate relationship. Leaders don’t like to be perceived as dependent and weak, and they play wholeheartedly to the “you’re not the boss of me” sentiment toward the United States within their countries. However, these nations need the resources that the United States showers them with in order to buy their loyalty.

Bolivia’s Evo Morales

In 2006, Bolivian President Evo Morales began accusing the US military of using operatives disguised as students and tourists to infiltrate and try to destabilize his country, and in 2008, he kicked out USAID, Ambassador Philip S. Gordon, and the DEA. Obviously, this did not make for a very safe situation for actual students, tourists, or any other US citizens in Bolivia. But in May 2009, the two countries reengaged in dialogue in order to work together on drug-trade interdiction, a high priority for the United States in the region. Last November, the Bolivian government ratified into law a framework agreement with the expectation that the United States would adapt a “non-intrusive” and “more transparent, respectful and honest attitude” toward the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In return for social and economic development aid, Morales has once again begun to cooperate with the United States in combating the drug gangs that have been utilizing Bolivia as a transshipment point for distributing narcotics from Colombia and elsewhere to eastern destinations such as Europe. Now, he has even agreed to allow the United States to bring in new technology to monitor and eradicate coca plantations using advanced laser systems and satellite imagery.

However, a recent incident in Santa Cruz between the Bolivian security forces and the US Embassy highlights the disconnect between policy and cooperative programs vs. the reality on the ground.

Evo Morales calling the US government discriminatory, undemocratic, and racist because of its veto of Cuban participation the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Colombia doesn’t help the atmosphere in the country for US citizens much, either.

Ecuador’s Rafael Correa

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, in an even bigger huff, has announced that he will boycott the summit over the exclusion of Cuba (the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that is not a de facto member of the Organization of American States), putting the blame squarely on the United States rather than buying into any sort of diplomatic “well, there was a lack consensus on the issue” language that is being bandied about. He was hoping that his leftist friends in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia would join his boycott, but they have not, as of yet, as the summit is a substantive gathering of the hemisphere’s heads of state.

The number of US citizens living in Ecuador, estimated by the US State Department to be 50,000, is one factor that works to counteract the president’s bluster and strengthen ties between the two nations, along with the 250,000 US citizens who visit annually, more than 100 US companies conducting business in the country, and the many Ecuadorians who live in the United States. Other signs that bilateral relations are not completely severed are that USAID and other aid organizations operate in the country. Perhaps most telling is that the United States is Ecuador’s principle trade partner.

The counter-narcotics dance between Ecuador and the United States is as dysfunctional/co-dependent as the economic relationship. In short, the two countries need each other, so they each have to put up with the other’s quirks and personalities. As far as attitudes on the ground, the situation does not appear to be much different from many other places throughout Latin America where cultural and economic disparities are bound to pose security problems, while navigating around historical tensions and gross generalizations is something that each individual must work on for themselves.

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

Ecuador Profile

article from October 5, 2011

by Julie R Butler

Situated right on the equator, Ecuador’s small size (it is South America’s fourth-smallest country) makes its diversity in climates, geography, and biology all the more impressive, with three geographical areas on the mainland – the coastal plain lining the Pacific Ocean, the Andes Mountains, and the eastern lowlands, where upland rainforests descend into the Amazon Basin – plus the Galapagos Islands. Colombia is the northern neighbor of the Ecuador, while Peru borders it to the east and south.

A large majority of the population lives in the highlands and along the coast. The port city of Guayaquil is the largest city (population 2,286,800), followed by the capital, Quito (1,619,800), and then Cuenca (330,000).

Ecuador History

Civilizations have existed in the region since as far back as circa 8800 BCE. The distinctive Valdivia Culture and the Machalilla Culture along the coast, along with the Quitus near what is now Quito in the northern mountains and the Cañari near Cuenca in the mountainous south formed a regional confederation, trading among themselves and coming together to resist the Inca until finally conquered by them. For a short period just before the Spanish Conquest began, Quito was the capital of the Inca Empire.

Disease and labor camps decimated the indigenous population as Ecuador became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru for 300 years. The call for independence from Spain rang out on August 10, 1809. On October 9, 1820, Guayaquil became the first Ecuadorian city to claim itself independent. And on May 24, 1822, the rest of Ecuador liberated itself. Ecuador joined the Republic of Gran Colombia and, in 1830, separated into its own republic.

The 19th century saw a rapid succession of authoritarian rulers come and go, up until the Liberal Revolution of 1895, when forces based along the coast gained control for thirty years over the clergy and landowners based in the highlands, only to be deposed by a military junta that brought on more instability and the rise of populist politicians. Then came recession and more political instability, and armed conflict with Peru resulted in loss of territory. Meanwhile, foreign interests developed oil resources in the Amazon Basin and constructed the Andean Pipeline to transport the oil to Guayaquil, boosting Ecuador’s oil export capacity tremendously.

Nearly a decade of civilian and military dictatorship in the 1970s ended in the return to democracy in 1979. But in the years leading up to 2006, when current President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado was elected, it was once again economic difficulties that continued to wreak havoc on stability and progress in Ecuador, especially when the indigenous people began to be politically active. Small gains weighted against failure to deliver on promises of land reform and social services have caused volatility to ensue and the executive office to deteriorate.

Ecuador today

So, all of this is what is behind President Correa’s recent moves to regain power for the executive branch. An economist by training, he has made impressive progress in reducing high levels of poverty and unemployment, and his declaration of Ecuador’s national debt as illegitimate, due to the fact that it was incurred by corrupt and despotic prior regimes, has to be recognized as some truly brilliant maneuvering. It worked, as he was able to reduce the price of the debt letters and continue paying on it by borrowing from China. He also oversaw a rewriting of the constitution, allowing himself to run for a second term in office, which he won in the first-round general election, the first time in three decades that a runoff election was not required. He is eligible to run for one more term.

Correa is popular for standing up to foreign petroleum companies and foreign creditors while standing up for social programs and the environment. But unfortunately, his suppression of press freedom and his judicial overhaul are troubling. Tensions between the police, the military, and Correa are also simmering. Relations with the United States are icy, and Colombia is being held at arm’s length. Meanwhile, drug-related crime is on the rise in Ecuador.

Ecuador today is somewhat popular with expats because it is a beautiful country that is diverse and culturally interesting, and of course, the cost of living is quite low. However, social tensions between the poor and the wealthy elite are cause for some concern, and the impending economic downturn does not bode well for a country whose biggest export is oil and whose greatest challenge has been volatility during economic downturns.

[Image of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Cuenca, Ecuador, via Wikipedia]

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

The Lowest Cost of Living in the World for Expats: South America

article from August 1, 2011

by Julie R Butler

After having given brief profiles of the cities of Central American cities with the lowest cost of living for expats, another group of cities that may be attractive as well as inexpensive are those in South America. These cities are somewhat off the beaten track, being more difficult to get to from the States or Europe, and some knowledge of Spanish is a must.

Quito, Ecuador

Quito is the capital of Ecuador and an important center of Latin American heritage. Quito’s Old City is considered to be the largest in all of the Americas. It is one of the oldest Spanish colonial cities in South America as well as one of the first locations where

the cry for independence from Spain rang out. This city is also known as Luz de América, Light of America.

At about 2,800 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level, Quito’s altitude is a formidable challenge. Additionally, Quito’s location between two high mountain ranges makes for weather that is unpredictable, and changes can be extreme. The weather is one reason why Cuenca, in the south, is more popular with expats, as it is consistent throughout the year and the altitude makes it moderate and pleasant. Another factor making Cuenca more popular is that Quito is in a more culturally traditional region, whereas Cuenca is about a third of the size of the capital, which is home to about 1.5 million people.

Among country’s greatest attractions are its natural beauty and amazing biodiversity, having the coastal plain, the sierra, and the Amazon Basin as well as the Galapagos Islands, all in a relatively small area. Ecuador also has one of the lowest costs of living in South America.

Although Ecuador has been a very popular destination for expats for the past few years, one of the main concerns is political volatility. The Correa administration has made great strides in reducing poverty in Ecuador, but authoritarianism, the expelling of the US Ambassador to Ecuador, and the police coup or whatever that was that occurred in September of last year have not exactly been signs of stability. Another problem to be aware of is growing drug violence.

Asunción, Paraguay

Paraguay is a landlocked nation that sits between Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. It is defined by the Paraguay River, one of South America’s major river systems, which divides Paraguay into two distinct geographic regions: the largely uninhabited semiarid Chaco to the west and the forested Paraná to the east.

The population center is in and around the capital, Asunción, located on the Paraguay River in the south of the country. It is another of the continent’s oldest Spanish colonial cities, having served as a base from which both colonial expeditions and Jesuit missionaries were launched, a trading port, and after Buenos Aires was sacked by indigenous warriors, the uncontested regional center of power. It is also known as the location where one of the first rebellions against the Spanish arose.

Paraguay’s history, tragically, has been one of the most war-torn in Latin America, which has stifled the country’s economic development. Although the most recent political upheaval was in 1999, Paraguay has continued to face daunting problems caused by poverty due to marginalization of the Guarani people as well as corruption and political uncertainty, and it is a major smuggling and piracy haven.

Asunción is just below the Tropic of Cancer, so the weather is mostly hot and humid, with a dry season from June to September. Typhoid vaccinations are recommended, and mosquito-borne dengue fever is a concern. This city of more than two million inhabitants has its charms, among them, lack of infrastructure such as paved roads, and farm animals wandering about at will.

La Paz, Bolivia

Bolivia is South America’s other landlocked nation, although both of these interior nations do have access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Paraguay River. There seems to be a direct correlation between the astoundingly high rate of poverty – more than 60% of the population – and the large number of indigenous peoples. This country has also had its fair share of military and political upheaval, having lost over half of the territory claimed upon independence from Spain in wars with its neighbors as well as experiencing the familiar destabilizing politics that are common throughout South America. Despite fierce political opposition and pressing economic factors, President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, has managed to spur growth and induce modest improvements in poverty levels.

Very diverse geographic regions range from the Bolivian Altiplano in the west, to Amazonian rainforests in the northeast, to the Chaco in the east. The administrative capital, Nuestra Señora de la Paz, is located in a bowl at 3,650 meters (11,975 feet) in altitude among the high mountains of the altiplano. Its climate is cool year round and fairly dry, with more rain falling during the warmer austral spring and summer months.

La Paz’s early history is marked with several sieges by the indigenous Aymara people, and yet again, the city lays claim to South America’s first call for independence from Spain. Today, 2.3 million inhabitants live in this metropolitan center in the Andes.

Probably the biggest challenge to living in this, the least expensive major city in all of South America, is dealing with the altitude, which affects not only us humans, but will also ruin computer hard drives that are not specially made for high-altitude use. And, of course, there are the common issues that come with being in such an economically split society. Spanish is a necessity, as is understanding that Bolivia under Morales is yet another Latin American country that does not have good relations with the United States and is lacking a US ambassador.

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

Ecuador President Rafael Correa and His Alleged Connections to FARC

article from May 17, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

The ghosts of Colombia’s cross-border incursion into Ecuador just continue to haunt two of the most controversial leaders in the northern part of South America.

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) released a book-length dossier last Tuesday that goes into great detail about the Colombian rebels' relationship with Venezuela and Ecuador (but I am going to skip picking on Hugo Chávez this time).

The documents detail two years of painstaking research into 30 years' worth of important communications and recent emails belonging to FARC leader Luis Edgar Devía Silva, whose nom de guerre was Raul Reyes. He was killed in a raid in 2008, allowing the Colombian Army to capture several laptops, hard drives and many documents. (Question: Why does a top commander in a guerilla force keep such detailed accounts? My answer: He was a wannabe Che.)

The IISS, after exhaustive analysis, has come to some very interesting and, for the presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela, very embarrassing conclusions.

For those of my readers not very familiar with FARC, their acronym in English stands for “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,” and the organization has been designated as a terrorist entity by both the USA and the European Union. They have deeply Marxist roots and have been responsible for the killings of thousand of police, civilians and military personnel while being financed mostly by protecting the Cocaine Cowboys and their laboratories along with building and protecting clandestine airstrips in the jungles of Colombia. In other words, they are “the Bad Guys.”

These bad guys apparently worked very closely with Venezuelan elected-president-turned-dictator Hugo Chávez, and now, to nobody’s surprise, it has been revealed that Rafael Correa’s election campaign was the beneficiary of some US$400,000 that the IISS is certain Rafael Correa was fully aware of.

The following is excerpted from a report about the IISS study:

The institute also found that FARC began establishing strongholds in Ecuador's border regions next to Colombia in the 1990s, where the rebels produced and sold cocaine for income.

Unlike the redoubts it enjoyed in Colombia, FARC found Ecuador "downright hostile" at first, but as Ecuadorian politics moved left, FARC enjoyed better ties and "was successful in fomenting discord between Ecuador and Colombia," the study said.

In 2006, FARC contributed about $400,000 to the campaign of successful Ecuadorian presidential candidate Rafael Correa -- with $100,000 apparently directly from the rebel group and $300,000 more from its allies, the report alleged, the allies being the cocaine producers in the region under FARC control.

"Correa almost certainly approved the use of these funds in his campaign, but this did not translate into a policy of state support for the insurgents during the brief period between Correa's inauguration and Reyes's death," the study said. "Although the death of Reyes provoked a serious breach in relations between Colombia and Ecuador -- ironically a key FARC strategic objective -- it also interrupted FARC's burgeoning relationship with Quito. There is no evidence that the relationship has since prospered."

In an interview with the Spanish-language EFE news service, a member of President Correa's administration, Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas, called the alleged FARC campaign contributions "totally false" and dismissed the credibility of FARC's computer records.

"We always said we did not recognize the hard drives. We do not know if they really are real or invented," Lucas told EFE. He said that a broken chain of custody for the records could have allowed any intelligence agency to invent the information.

"We will not recognize any information on these because they have no truth," Lucas told EFE.

Yesterday, May 15, 2011, el presidente de Ecuador offered to take a lie detector test to prove his ignorance in this matter. He is also fully aware that he enjoys complete immunity, as president of his nation, where nobody can force him to take the so-called lie detector test; and since they are notoriously unreliable, should he actually take and fail the polygraph, he can always use the standard excuses that both guilty and innocent subjects have claimed: that they were completely intimidated by all the gadgetry attached to their person. And then, of course, there is the oldest method of beating a lie detector, and that is 20 milligrams of Valium taken 30 minutes prior to the test. Perhaps that is why no court in the USA or EU accepts results of polygraph examination into evidence in a court of law.

These accusations could not have come at a worse time for Mr. Correa, as his proposal that went in front of Ecuador’s electorate 10 days ago is rife with fraud, fear mongering and an ever-so-slow counting, with missing ballots from areas known to oppose his power grab. It reminds me of the recent elections for a supreme court justice in Wisconsin, with all of its broken chain of custody problems.

Stay tuned for uncertainty in the lovely country of Ecuador that has so much to offer, yet so many social issues to contend with.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where the Malbec Wine is Always Fine!

[Image of President Correa via Wikipedia]

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Crisis in Diplomacy: The US Ambassador to Ecuador declared “persona non grata”

article from April 7, 2011

by Julie R Butler

Back in December, diplomatic ties with Venezuela were severed when the US revoked the Venezuelan ambassador’s visa after Hugo Chávez rejected Obama’s proposed US ambassador to Venezuela, Larry Palmer. Just last week, the US ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, resigned from his post. There have been no ambassadorial ties with Bolivia since 2009. And now, this. This is a serious problem, and the State Department, under the leadership of Hillary Clinton, seems unable (or unwilling) to get a handle on it.

The WikiLeaks cables have not been helpful to these already strained relationships. But they are not the cause of the problems, here. The cause is that the United States continues to carry on with an outdated foreign policy attitude in the Western Hemisphere, and the governments of Latin America are not going to put up with it anymore.

The message to President Obama was consistent among the leaders of the three countries that he visited on his recent whirlwind tour: We deserve to be treated as equal partners, to which the US President shook hands, nodded in agreement, and smiled for the cameras. But US diplomats in Latin America are well aware that anything and everything that has been whispered about through secret cables in recent years is likely to become public knowledge due to WikiLeaks. So why have they waited around for the leaks to come out instead of proactively reaching out to the governments they are supposed to be working with to fess up and smooth things out before everything went public? We know these people are trained in marketing, but what about diplomacy?

Many are concern about what is behind US Ambassador to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, being declared “persona non grata,” and what the consequences of this will be. The leaked cables quote Ambassador Hodges discussing the suspicion that President Rafael Correa was aware that the man he had appointed as police commander had previously been found guilty of embezzlement and that chose him because he knew he could manipulate him. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño asked her to leave the country immediately, stating that she had failed to explain her allegations, given the opportunity.

While some are wondering why the US Ambassador to Ecuador would trouble herself with police corruption in a Latin American country, which is not exactly anything new and has little to do with bilateral relations, I am wondering if this might have anything to do with another WikiLeaks disclosure of a cable from March 27, 2008, titled, Colombia’s Strategy To Exploit Info From FARC, which describes how the US government was coordinating with the Colombian government in a “public relations strategy” linking Correa, Chávez, and their governments to the Colombian guerrilla fighters. It was now-President Juan Manuel Santos, then Colombia’s minister of defense, who was in charge of the devious plan. So this points to a conspiracy all right. However, it was something that happened during the previous administrations of George W. Bush and Álvaro Uribe, and Ecuador’s displeasure with the US ambassador may have more to do with drastic changes in Colombia’s improved relationships with its neighbors as well as with its evolving relationship with the US than with anything else.

At any rate, it appears that the US diplomatic corps has not yet realized that their mission is to keep up with a changing world and to actually be diplomatic rather than just knowing how to stay on message with Twitter.

[Image of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa via Wikipedia]

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler