Propaganda as “News”: Ecuador Sells out Indigenous and the Environment to China

Written on February 15th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on Dissident Voice, by Stansfield Smith, Feb 13, 2016.

The end of January a news article appeared, “Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies,” and has resurfaced again and again on the internet. Posted on progressive websites such as Reader Supported News, Daily Kos, “The PeoplesVoice.org,” “ThinkGlobalGreen.org,” the story often comes with maps of the affected area, and include pictures of indigenous peoples living peaceably with nature or protesting against oil drilling.  

Almost all these stories refer back to one article three years ago, in March 2013, in Australian online journal Business Insider:

– “Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country’s 8.1 million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, Jonathan Kaiman of The Guardian reports.” And, “Ecuador owed China more than $7 billion — more than a tenth of its GDP — as of last summer. In 2009 China began loaning Ecuador billions of dollars in exchange for oil shipments. It also helped fund two of the country’s biggest hydroelectric infrastructure projects, and China National Petroleum Corp may soon have a 30 per cent stake in a $10 billion oil refinery in Ecuador” … //

… The Amazon Watch campaign against President Correa: … //

… It may not be clear why Amazon Watch engages in this disinformation against this target of the US government, President Correa. But it is clear this NGO relies on corporate backed funders, and markets to corporate elite clientele tours to the “pristine” Amazon and its “natives.”

It is also clear the US rulers are preoccupied with combating China as the only world power it sees directly threatening its global domination, a central reason for the anti-China TransPacific Partnership (TPP).

In fact, China provides loans at low interest rates, does not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, respects other countries’ paths of economic and political development, and encourages South-South cooperation as a counter to Western hegemony. It cannot be coincidence that Amazon Watch – or the Guardian – portray China as the new colonizer, as the global power responsible for the concocted environmental and human rights abuses they attribute to Correa.

(full text, text links).

(Stansfield Smith, Chicago ALBA Solidarity Committee, co-administrator of Facebook page, Friends of Ecuador –North America, leader of former Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5, has been on delegations to Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia in 2015 …).

More from Stansfield Smith:

Links:

Each generation should be better off than their parents? Think again, on The Guardian, by Larry Elliott, Feb 14, 2016: From baby boomers through to generation X, the idea was that children would become better off than their parents. That dream is now dead – just ask generation rent;

UK needs Trident to play ‘outsized’ role in world affairs, says US defence secretary, on The Guardian, Feb 13, 2016: Ash Carter says it is important the UK has military might that backs up ‘its moral standing and its historical standing’ in world;

Is affordability improving for seniors? on Daily Herald, by Tyler Clarke, Feb 11, 2016;

Sexism and Islam – Where I’m From, This is Handled By Men, on Spiegel Online International, by Christiane Hoffmann, Julia Jüttner, Sarah Kempf, Ann-Kathrin Müller, Cornelia Schmergal, Katja Thimm, Andreas Ulrich, Jan 28, 2016 (Photo Gallery – translated from the German by Christopher Sultan): the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne have led to a new discussion within Germany about the treatment of women in Islamic societies. The issue has become central to the country’s heated refugee debate;

THE JFRP: FOR A NEW COMMUNIST PARTY, on AntidoteZine, by Ed Sutton, Jan 23, 2016;

The Empire Files – The Tyranny of Big Oil, 28.25 min, on The Real News, Jan 18, 2016: The oil industry is a powerhouse with control over land, resources, politics and more. In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin uncovers big oil’s strong-arm reach–its growth, its crimes, its power and its impunity;

… und no daas - Basler Fasnacht.

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