SouthernLedger
Ecuador wants citizen committees to defend gov't
By JEANNETH VALDIVIESO
Published: Aug 14, 2009 00:39:49 UTC
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador wants to create local citizen committees that would defend the government and its "revolution" — sparking criticism that the president aims to control opponents in a system reminiscent of Cuba or Venezuela.
Citizen Participation Minister Doris Soliz told Ecuador TV on Thursday that local citizen groups are needed to defend against coups like the one that recently deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, or against outside agitators, noting U.S. military plans to use Colombian bases.
"The great challenge in this new phase of the revolution is to create in each home a revolutionary committee, in each neighborhood a committee to defend the national government ... and to prepare for those who wish to destabilize us," President Rafael Correa said during his inauguration Monday to a second, four-year term.
Neither Correa nor Soliz provided details on how the committees would be governed or exactly what they would do, though Soliz said they would not be armed.
Critics say the neighborhood groups could evolve into Cuban-style community groups used to monitor and repress "counterrevolutionary" activities.
Venezuela has "communal councils" that decide how to spend government funds for community projects. President Hugo Chavez tried to give the groups intelligence-gathering duties last year, though he later withdrew his decree under protest from critics.
"What they want to do is control us in our neighborhoods, in our families, to know what we are doing and thinking to throw us in prison," said Lucio Gutierrez, former Ecuadorean president and an opposition candidate who lost to Correa in April.
Gutierrez said he will promote "democracy" and "liberty" committees to oppose Correa's neighborhood groups.
Attribution: http://www.southernledger.com/Ecuador_wants_citizen_committees_to_defend_gov%27t
Eerily reminiscent in general nature to Castro's Cuban Revolutionary Council Committees. It will be interesting to see if the direction taken by these "committees" is focused on social development, external threat militia training, or domestic community policing and espionage. The first two would concern me much less than the latter. It should also be noted that within the context of yet another U.S. military build up (Colombia), it becomes much more difficult to gauge the potentially "ominous nature" of these Committees. If these events were happening in a vacuum, with no perceived external threat, I would show a high degree of concern with regard to these "committees". However, with a clear regional threat, it might just be the Ecuadorian equivalent of raising a citizen's militia to augment military forces, which, fwiw, is a stated component of the U.S. Constitution - a completely ignored stated component, but one nonetheless. Still, on the heels of the relatively new financial reporting requirements, issues with media regulations unresolved, and, now, the committees, I was forced to downgrade Ecuador from "moderate risk" to"high risk" for my clients today. I continue to rate it a "buy", but only for high risk tolerance clients. No sovereign nation should be enslaved by foreign capital, but, likewise, no sovereign nation should allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to dwindle to a trickle. I fear the latter could happen rather quickly in Ecuador, if Correa does not tread more carefully in pushing his reforms.
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