Ecuador threatens oil companies with eviction

QUITO (MarketWatch) -- President Rafael Correa said on Saturday that oil private companies that don't sign new services-based contracts must leave the Andean country.

"I'm not playing," Correa said during his weekly media address. "The rules are proposed. Take it or leave it. If they don't like it, farewell and we will pay for their investments."

The Correa statement came just 10 days before the deadline he gave for the five biggest private producers to sign new contracts.

Ecuador wants to switch all current production-sharing deals with private companies to service contracts, in order to tighten its control over its natural resources.

Under service contracts, private oil companies will be paid a production fee while the government would own 100% of the oil and gas produced. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ecuador-threatens-oil-companies-with-eviction-2010-11-14

After further thought, they're already trying. They just tried a few weeks ago



Here we go

And oil is the perfect place to do it. Too precious to walk away from.

Expect a big round of "free market" bullshit from industry and their government toadies.

Thankfully Ecuador should have support from the best of South America, at least.

Venezuela was willing to shut off the oil spigot for a short time to give the system a shock in defense of Ecuador, should "the war on terrorism" or "the war on drugs" suddenly become an issue there.

Among others. A lot of promise in SA right now.

things.

Chavez was the first. He insisted on changing the prior rightwing giveaway of Venezuela's oil profits, a 10/90 split favoring multinational corporations, to a 60/40 split of the profits, favoring Venezuela and its social programs, and majority government control of all projects. This is the original reason why our government (ahem, Exxon Mobil) hates him. But he stuck to his guns, and now other countries and companies are flocking to Venezuela to take advantage of the Orinoco Belt (the biggest oil reserve on earth; twice Saudi Arabia's, according to the USGS) on Venezuela's terms. With the added revenue, the Chavez government has cut poverty in half, cut extreme poverty by more than 70%, has greatly increased educational opportunities for the poor, has provided health care to all and presided over astonishing economic growth, 2003 to 2008, with the most growth in the private sector.

Next was Evo Morales who re-negotiated Bolivia's gas contracts, increasing Bolivia's revenues by half (from one billion/yr to TWO billion/yr). Morales is also committed to using the increased revenue to bootstrap the poor. Gas is Bolivia's major resource. They also have the biggest lithium deposit on earth but it is not yet developed. Morales just got Japan to put up the R&D money for lithium with no promises whatsoever to Japanese corporations, proving once again that a country's leaders don't have to kowtow to multinational corporations and CAN successfully assert their country's sovereignty.

Then Lula da Silva--who meets every month with Chavez to discuss projects and policy--demanded similar terms for development of Brazils' new oil find--Brazil keeps majority control and a significant portion of the profits are designated for bootstrapping the poor.

Rafael Correa is doing nothing unusual in the new leftist democracy climate in Latin America, by telling oil corporations that they will operate in Ecuador on Ecuador's terms. The resources BELONG TO THE PEOPLE. It is THEIR sovereign power that these leaders are asserting.

Wouldn't it be great if we could elect leaders like these? My advice: Look to the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, now a plague in the U.S. They are everywhere, in all states. 80% of them are controlled by ONE, private, far rightwing-connected corporations--ES&S, which just bought out Diebold. Audit/recount controls are competely inadequate in half the states and NON-EXISTENT in the other half. We are barred, by law, from reviewing the 'TRADE SECRET' code that is tabulating all our votes. And we get what we deserve for letting this happen.

I take that back. We don't deserve corporate/war profiteer rule. We deserve better. We deserve a new "New Deal." But we won't get it until we rid ourselves of NON-TRANSPARENT vote counting. It's not the only thing wrong with our election system, our political system and our country, but it's the WORST thing that's wrong. It makes reform impossible. It means that the bad guys have the easy--EASY!--capability to fix any election in the country. And it is naive to think that they haven't.

All three of the above countries have TRANSPARENT, honest, above-board election systems. Venezuela's is one of the most transparent systems in the world, as far as electronic systems go. They use OPEN SOURCE CODE (anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated) and they do a whopping 55% audit (handcount of ballots against machine totals)--more than five times the minimum needed to detect fraud in an electronic system.

Know how much of an audit is done here in the states, with our 'TRADE SECRET' code machines? Zero percent in half the states; 1% in the others. This is SCREAMINGLY wrong! And it is why Ecuadorans will benefit from their oil, and Venezuelans are benefitting from their oil and Bolivians are benefitting from their gas and will benefit from their lithium--and why we are not only NOT benefiting from anything, but we're about to have benefits that we have earned and paid for--Social Security, Unemployment, Medicare--CUT! --along with all the other cuts--in every public service. This is not necessary. Believe me. The rich and the corporate are not suffering. The banksters are not suffering. The war profiteers are not suffering. Only the poor/middle class MAJORITY is suffering!

Venezuela proves that it CAN be done--fast, modern, TRANSPARENT electronic voting. It DOESN'T HAVE TO BE non-transparent and corporate-run. Nor does it have to be electronic. There is no U.S. law saying so. We can return to hand-counted paper ballots. (The e-voting coup was accomplished by means of CORRUPTION--a $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress and filthy, filthy lobbing of our state and local officials.) We just have to hold a real 'Boston Tea Party' all over the country.