Man Tells Wife: 'Ecuador will not participate in U.S.-Led Military Exercises.'

Wife Says: 'And much less the other exercises.' (resisting the Correa dictatorship.)                                                           

                                                                                                     [El Universo, Ecuador]

Juventud Rebelde, Cuba

Negroponte Arrives: Beware of the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Will the nations of Latin America be happy to see U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte? According to this op-ed article from Cuba's state-controlled Juventud Rebelde, the former ambassador to Honduras, Iraq, Mexico and the Philippines - not to mention the first Director of National Intelligence - may be dressed as a tourist - but underneath his clothes stands, 'The very symbol of imperial egoism and power.'

By Marina Menéndez Quintero

Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen

May 9, 2007

Cuba - Juventud Rebelde - Original Article (Spanish)

Being in the public eye is nothing like pulling strings behind the scenes. For that reason, one can assume that despite his vast and bloodthirsty experience – which includes spying, dirty wars, surreptitious dealings and repression - John Negroponte  will not have an easy mission today in Ecuador, his second stop on a tour of Latin America that began yesterday in Colombia.

Donning orange uniforms to evoke the suffering of U.S.-held prisoners at the illegal naval base in Guantánamo, leaders of Ecuadorian social and people's groups have called for protests this Wednesday, when the Undersecretary of State arrives at Government House to meet with President Rafael Correa.

Given the well-known anti-Yankee sentiment of a population that rejects the presence of [US.] Marines at Manta Base , there is little doubt that the official welcome for Negroponte will not be a flattering one. The government in Quito has just announced that it has dispatched a note of protest to Washington for decisions it has taken without consultation and other cases of feigned ignorance involving the U.S. Southern Command and the [annual] UNITAS military exercises [see editor's note]. This also raises the likelihood that Correa will inform Negroponte himself today [Monday] his determination not to renew the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments Treaty with the United States, considering that it “diminishes Ecuador's sovereignty” and “disrespects” its national interests.

[Editor's Note: The Correa government refuses to participate in the UNITAS 2007 military exercises, which also take place in Colombia, Chile and Peru, because of the attitude shown by Washington. Quito's note of protest to the U.S. says that Ecuador will not accept impositions and refusals of control over the entry of U.S. troops into the country’s waters. The decision led the U.S. Southern Command to withdraw the UNITAS 2007 headquarters from Ecuador and move it to Colombia. Quito's communiqué further reads that “faced with these unusual, unilateral, and unacceptable decisions, we decided not to participate in the naval exercises." 

The author also refers to "Manta Base." Offically called the Eloy Alfaro Air Base, the U.S. Southern Command has been using the base for anti-drug surveillance flights over the region - especially neighboring Colombia. In 2000 during the Clinton Administration, the United States had paid for a ten-year lease to use the base. The recently-elected President, Rafael Correa, has promised not to renew the lease when it expires in 2009].

The Ecuadorian government's decision to break its ties to the World Bank and IMF and thus end its financial dependency on those institutions is consistent with the rejection of the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments Treaty. This act, along with Ecuador's rejection of Negroponte today, will go a long way toward reclaiming that nation's sovereignty. In fact, the Ecuadorian Government has insisted that business leaders not to ask for “alms” from a “war criminal” [Negroponte].

Amidst the deep questioning provoked by the warmongering-style of the Bush Administration, the figure of Negroponte - a total hawk - has stepped out from behind the curtain. One can piece together his biography by reading the comments of Ecuadorian cybernauts on the Web site of the El Telégrafo newspaper:

He joined the CIA and ran missions during the war in Vietnam; laying the groundwork [for the U.S. presence] in Iraq where he acted as ambassador, as he did in Mexico and the Philippines. But one must also recall his work as a diplomatic representative [ambassador] in Honduras in the early 1980s , when the government of Ronald Reagan showed off the perversity of so-called “low intensity conflicts” in Central America. As his envoy, Negroponte supervised the creation and workings of the El Aguacate Air Base in Honduras: the training site for the Nicaraguan Contras which also served as an improvised clandestine detention center in whose outskirts the remains were recently uncovered of some of the 190 people thought to be buried there . 

Although less bloody, the mission that Negroponte must now complete is no more benevolent. As has become known, his agenda includes the key themes of the United States, such as the extension of Plan Colombia, the cementing of Free Trade agreements with that Andean nation and Peru - which he will also visit, as well as Panama - and the issue of biofuels. This is to continue with the designs of Bush and those of the consortia who wish to ensure - with monoculture and hunger in the South - oil substitutes that will make possible the continuing waste by the rich.

[Editor's Note: Some in Latin America fear that by growing crops for fuel - or biofuel - not enough crops for food will be grown, plunging the poor into hunger].

The very symbol of imperial egoísm and power, Negroponte cannot deceive … Not even in sheep's clothing.

Spanish Version Below

Negroponte, ni vestido de oveja

Por: Marina Menéndez Quintero

Correo: mmenendez@jrebelde.cip.cu

09 de mayo de 2007

No es lo mismo a la vista pública que moviendo hilos detrás de la escena. Por eso puede colegirse que a pesar de su vasta y truculenta experiencia —donde se incluyen espionaje, guerras sucias, ayudas encubiertas y represión— John Negroponte no tendrá una misión fácil hoy en Ecuador, segunda escala de la gira latinoamericana que inició la víspera en Colombia.

Provistos de uniformes naranjas para evocar el sufrimiento de los presos de Estados Unidos en la ilegal Base Naval de Guantánamo, los líderes de movimientos sociales y populares han llamado a manifestarse este miércoles, cuando el Subsecretario de Estado llegue a la Casa de Gobierno para entrevistarse con el presidente Rafael Correa.

Si bien era ya conocido el sentimiento antiyanqui de una población que rechaza la presencia de los marines en la Base de Manta, lo cierto es que el contexto oficial en que se produce la llegada de Negroponte, tampoco halaga. El gobierno de Quito acaba de anunciar el envío de una nota de protesta a Washington por la decisión inconsulta y otros descentendimientos con el Comando Sur y los ejercicios Unitas. También se ha adelantado que probablemente Correa comunique al propio Negroponte, hoy, la determinación de no renovar el Tratado de Promoción y Protección Recíproca de Inversiones establecido con EE.UU, al considerarlo «poco soberano» y «entreguista».

Coherente con los pasos dados por el gobierno ecuatoriano al romper virtualmente con el Banco Mundial y el FMI para acabar con la dependencia financiera, la renuncia al tratado es portadora, además, del mismo reclamo de soberanía que harán hoy los ecuatorianos con su rechazo a Negroponte. De hecho, han exigido a los empresarios no pedir «limosnas» a «un criminal de guerra».

En medio de los profundos cuestionamientos que origina el estilo guerrerista de la administración Bush, el expediente de Negroponte —todo un halcón— ha dejado de estar tras bambalinas. Entre varios de los internautas ecuatorianos que estampan comentarios en el sitio digital del rotativo El Telégrafo, puede armarse su biografía: temprana entrada en la CIA y misión en Vietnam durante la guerra; labor de zapa en Iraq, donde fungió como embajador, así como en México y Filipinas... Pero se remarca su trabajo como representante diplomático en Honduras durante los primeros años de los 80, cuando el gobierno de Ronald Reagan hacía gala en Centroamérica de la perversidad de los llamados conflictos de baja intensidad. Como su enviado, Negroponte supervisó la creación y funcionamiento de la base aérea de El Aguacate, en Honduras: sitio de entrenamiento de la contra nicaragüense e improvisado centro clandestino de detención de cuyas inmediaciones, recientemente, se han rescatado restos de algunas de los casi 190 personas que, se estima, fueron enterradas allí.

Si bien menos sangrienta, la misión que debe cumplir Negroponte ahora no es más benévola. Según ha trascendido, en su agenda figuran temas claves para EE.UU. como la extensión del Plan Colombia, la concreción de los TLCs firmados con esa nación andina y con Perú —que también visitará, así como a Panamá—, y el asunto de los agrocombustibles, de modo de dar continuación al empeño bushiano y de los consorcios que quieren asegurar, con el monocultivo y el hambre del sur, los sustitutos del petróleo que posibilitarán el derroche de los ricos.

Símbolo del egoísmo y la prepotencia imperiales, Negroponte no puede engañar... Ni vestido de oveja.