Ecuador: As an Example of "Development"

   Ecuador, 1979, Jaime Roldos was the democratically elected President. Roldos ran on principles of Nationalism or Populism. That is, as simple as possible, the people of a state should benefit from the resources of that state. Foreign investors should not be allowed to come in, exploit the resources and give nothing to the people. Jaime Roldos was killed in a plane crash on May 24, 1981. He was killed because of those policies, because he didn't support the United States vision of "development" and he was tired of his country being exploited by the bully from the North.
   The United States has been operating this way since the end of WW2. After the war, the United States controlled half of the world's wealth and became the World Super Power. Throughout the years, the US has used  words like "communism", "terrorism", "crime", and "socialism" to scare the public into supporting their view of "development" and "stability". But what has this actually looked like? I will get to that in just a second. I just need to emphasize the magnitude and the frequency of this sort of development. You can essentially grab a globe, spin it, and put your finger down. If you end up somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, then this sort of "development" has occurred at varying levels, some worse and some not as bad.
   The elites of the United States and the elites in Ecuador meet and decided that Ecuador would become one of the top 10 suppliers of oil to the United States. Ecuador also has bananas, gold, and timber but oil is the main resource which the US wanted to exploit. So the United States, through the World Bank and IMF, set up huge loans to Ecuador in order to build power plants, oil pipelines, highways, ports, etc.. The conditions set out in these loans are as follows: the engineering and construction companies are going to come from the United States and the recipient country is responsible to pay back the loans in full with interest. When the loans cannot be paid back, the recipient country, Ecuador, has to allow the US companies and government to have greater access to resources, the countries UN vote, and/or allow us to set up military installations. These loans set up a permanent structure of servitude and indebtedness.
   These loans that are given on the premise of "development", end up having destructive effects on the country, the environment, and the people. These results are no secret, they are actually intended. The elite know this is going to happen. It is inevitable. There is no other avenue. Rain forests are destroyed, animals are facing extinction and the people of the country die. According to John Perkins, three indigenous Ecuadorian cultures have been driven to the verge of collapse. Oil is dumped into rivers, dams are built which destroy biodiversity and rivers no longer provide usable water. These dams block flowing rivers and divert the water through huge tunnels built into the mountains. The environment is pillaged and destroyed for the benefit of a few executives, but even worse is the effect this "development" has on the people.
   Ecuador is in far worse shape than it was before the "oil boom" of the 1970s. The poverty level went from 50% of the population in the 1970s to 70%. Under or unemployment went from 15% to 70%. During this so-called "development", over half the population of Ecuador has lost their job, half of the entire country. Public debt, which is a result of those loans I was talking about earlier, which are often called Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), has increased from 240 million to 16 billion dollars. Ecuador must devote a huge amount of its National Budget to paying off this debt that resulted from these loans. The only way that the country is allowed to loosen the grip of these imposed financial hardships is by repeating the same cycle, either accepting more loans or giving up more of their natural resources to huge Corporations. It is a never ending cycle.
   Let's look at this at a very micro-level. For every 100 dollars of crude oil taken out of Ecuador, mostly from places that used to be rain forest, the oil companies get 75 dollars. Of the 25 dollars remaining, about 19 dollars goes to paying back the debt. This leaves 6 remaining. Over half of that goes to the military, government workers, and other government expenditure. This leaves about $2.50 of every 100 dollars of Ecuador's resources that go to education, health, and programs aimed at helping the poor. $2.50 goes to the people that are affected by these policies the most, the people that are driven of their lands, the people that had their jobs stolen, the people who are supposed to benefit from all the drilling, building, and infrastructure. This is the sick, twisted game that the US plays with "developing" countries.
   Jaime Roldos was killed because he wanted all 100 dollars to benefit the people of his country, he did not want American Corporations to come in and rob Ecuador of its wealth, beauty, and culture. He was killed because he stood up against us. But look around at the world, look at where our consumer products come from, where our oil comes from, our food, everything. It is not produced in the US. The US consumes 30 percent of the world's resources, while it is 5 percent of the world's population. We had to control a lot of people in order to do this. And we as citizens blindly support these policies. These policies are in effect in all of South and Central America, in almost all of Africa, and in most of Asia. Whenever you see the overthrow of a leader in a country, ask yourself two things: What was he/she saying and what resources does that country have? You will find striking similarities when comparing Roldos to Gaddafi, Ecuador to Libya. Or Sadaam, or Omar Torrijos of Panama, Salvador Allende of Chile, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Mobutu Sese Seko of the Congo and on and on and on. Just think of this. In the setting up of Indonesia as an independent nation, a meeting was held at the United Nations. Representatives from the US, British, and French government were there as well as Suharto (the incoming dictator), and representatives from Ford, General Electric, BP, Nike, and other large corporations to ensure our "economic interests" in that country. To ensure "development" on our terms.