Oliver Stone heads 'South of the Border' to chat up Chavez and others

Reed Johnson
Los Angels Times
September 1, 2009

The director's new documentary seeks to change U.S. perceptions of South America's leftist leaders.

South of the Border
Directed by Oliver Stone
Produced by Oliver Stone
Written by Tariq Ali
Cinematography Carlos Marcovich, Albert Maysles
Editing by Alexis Chavez
Release date(s) September, 2009
Running time 102 minutes
Country United States
Language English

In his new documentary "South of the Border," Oliver Stone is shown warmly embracing Hugo Chávez, nibbling coca leaves with Evo Morales and gently teasing Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner about how many pairs of shoes she owns.

These amiable, off-the-cuff snapshots of the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina, respectively, contrast with the way these left-leaning leaders often are depicted in U.S. political and mass media circles. That's especially true of Chávez, the former military officer turned democratically elected socialist leader, who has become the ideological heir apparent to Fidel Castro and the bête noire of Bush administration foreign policy officials.

In setting out to make "South of the Border," which is scheduled to have its world premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival, Stone, a lightning-rod figure himself for the better part of three decades, says that he wanted to supply a counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez, who's frequently represented in stateside op-ed pieces and political cartoons as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.

"I think he's an extremely dynamic and charismatic figure. He's open and warmhearted and big, and a fascinating character," says the director of "JFK" and "Wall Street," speaking by phone from New York, where he's working on a much-publicized "Wall Street" sequel. "But when I go back to the States I keep hearing these horror stories about 'dictator,' 'bad guy,' 'menace to American society.' I think the project started as something about the American media demonizing Latin leaders. It became more than that as we got more involved."

In addition to Chávez, Stone sought to flesh out several other South American leaders whose policies and personalities generally get scant media attention in the United States and Europe: Morales; Cristina Kirchner and her husband, Argentine former president Néstor Kirchner; Rafael Correa of Ecuador; Raúl Castro of Cuba; Fernando Lugo Méndez of Paraguay; and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

"The press in America, I think you're aware, has divided the Latin continent into the 'bad Left' and the 'good Left,' " Stone says. "They've now listed Correa as the bad Left, along with Morales and with Chávez. They call . . . Lula, the good Left. I don't know what they make of Kirchner yet, because they go back and forth, but I think they're turning against Kirchner more and more. You get this distinction, and I think it's a false distinction."

Both Stone and the film's writer, the Pakistani-British historian, novelist and commentator Tariq Ali, say that the roughly 90-minute documentary isn't intended to be a comprehensive analysis of current South American political trends. It doesn't try to parse the radically divergent views of a figure as polarizing as Chávez. Nor does it substantially address the ongoing criticisms of his incendiary rhetoric (he once called Bush the devil), his frequent dust-ups with Venezuela's opposition media (which supported a 2002 coup against him), or his disputed role in aiding leftist rebels fighting the government of neighboring Colombia.

"We had not set out in the spirit of, like, making this a contentious debate," says Stone, who first met the Venezuelan president in 2007. "When you try to get into every single rightist argument against Chávez, you're never going to win. You're going to bore the audience."

Instead, the filmmakers decided to make what Ali calls "a political road movie" by visiting Chávez's peers throughout the hemisphere and asking what they think of him. Stone and his crew travel from the Caribbean down the spine of the Andes trying to explain the Chávez phenomenon and account for the continent's recent leftward tilt.

A big part of the explanation the film advances is that the free-market economic policies pushed by the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund over the last several years largely have failed to alleviate Latin America's chronic income inequality. The film suggests that financial calamities such as the Argentine peso collapse of 2001, combined with Latin suspicions of U.S. drug-eradication efforts and resentment over the selling off of natural resources through multinational companies, also have contributed to the rise of socialist and social-democratic leaders across the region.

Ali believes that many United States foreign policy officials still are operating on a Cold War paradigm that prevents them from grasping the changing social realities that have brought a new generation of politicians to power.

"These changes that are taking place are not coming about through armed struggle or guerrilla warfare or Che Guevara," Ali says, speaking from London. "All these changes have come about through democratic elections. And that makes it a very, very significant development in that continent."

For some viewers and critics, the political nuances in "South of the Border" may register less than the sight of Stone playfully kicking a soccer ball with Morales or listening empathetically as Chávez articulates his dream of spreading what he calls his "Bolivarian Revolution" across the continent. Stone was roundly criticized for taking too chummy a tone with Fidel Castro in his 2003 documentary "Comandante." He then produced a harder-edged follow-up, "Looking for Fidel," in which he pressed the Cuban leader about his treatment of dissidents and other sensitive matters.

In an era when few Hollywood directors bother to deal with historical or political topics at all, Stone frequently has been targeted for playing loose with historical facts in movies including "JFK" and "Alexander," about Alexander the Great. On this score, he vigorously defends his record.

"You do your homework, you do your research, we always did, whatever you think of my work," he says. "Even going back to 'JFK,' I've always done as much research as we could. And there's mistakes made, but there's a lot of truth, you know, as much as we can put into these movies."

He's alert to accusations of "being soft-hearted or human-hearted" to politicians with whom he sympathizes. But he freely acknowledges where his sympathies lie in "South of the Border."

"I'm rooting for this Bolivarian movement," he says. "I'm rooting for their independence because I think that America has a new role to play in this world, and that's not of an oppressor, but that of a cooperative and, let's call it equal, partner."

The director says that the broader theme behind "South of the Border," and much of his other film work, is the question of "why does America reach out to make enemies." He plans to develop this theme in a 10-part cable TV documentary series "The Secret History of America" that is scheduled to premiere in 2010.

"I'm fascinated by that subject, whether it's the Taliban or whether it's Iran or whether it's South Vietnam, going back to those days," Stone says. "As a young man I [was] brainwashed into believing we had enemies left and right. And now that I've traveled the world, I mean you have to wonder why. Why do we constantly do this? Where is this paranoia born in us?"

Official Trailer : South of the Border

Ecuador Calls foreign Debt 'Illegal,' Defaults on Payments

Daniel Denvir
AlterNet
December 15, 200

Daniel Denvir (daniel.denvir [at]gmail.com) is an independent journalist from the United States in Quito, Ecuador and a 2008 recipient of NACLA's Samuel Chavkin Investigative Journalism Grant. He is the Editor-in-Chief at www.caterwaulquarter
d reluctantly blogs at www.glocalcircus.blogspot.com.

The default totals $9.937 billion, 19 percent of the country's GDP.

President Rafael Correa declared on Friday that Ecuador would not make a $30.6 million interest payment on $510 million in bonds due in 2012, calling the debt illegal.

The default on the Global Bonus 2012 bonds means that Ecuador is also defaulting on Global 2015 and 2030 bonds. The default totals $9.937 billion, 19 percent of the country’s GDP. Ecuador has assembled a legal team to fight expected lawsuits and hopes to use the default as leverage to renegotiate the debts.

Civil society organizations have long criticized foreign debt as a means of exploiting impoverished countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The anti-debt organization Jubilee USA says “countries are paying debt service to wealthy nations and institutions at the expense of providing these basic services to their citizens.” In addition, lending institutions often use indebtedness to force cuts in social spending and impose business friendly economic policies.

The Confederation of Ecuadorian Kichwas (ECUARUNARI), the powerful Andean branch of the country’s indigenous peoples movement, has long called the foreign debt illegal and illegitimate. “We have not acquired any debt. The so-called public debt really belongs to the oligarchy. We the peoples have not acquired anything or been benefited, and thus we owe nothing.”

Mainstream analysts immediately predicted the move would hurt Ecuador economically, cutting off access to international credit from banks and multilateral institutions like the World Bank. Enrique Alvarez, head of research for Latin America Financial Markets at IDEAglobal in New York, told the Associated Press, "They were already sort of headed into isolation. Essentially now they've drawn shut the gate." Critics also say that financial institutions will see Ecuador as risky and may be reluctant to loan to the country’s private sector.

But Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that those claims are exaggerated. He says that the government does not currently require foreign funds and that any decision to not lend to Ecuador’s private sector would be purely ideological. "Ecuador doesn't need to borrow right now, especially if they're not paying the debt. They haven't been borrowing on international markets recently."

Osvaldo León of the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI) in Quito says that international banks and businesspeople are defending a corrupt and unjust system. “Of course the establishment is going to come out and protest this. This is going to affect the interests of capital. There’s going to be an offensive from both inside and out.” He charges that business friendly economists and financiers unfairly frame their arguments as scientific and opponents’ views as ideologically driven. “Ecuador has decided on a political response to a political problem. They always want things like this to be seen as a technical issue, a problem that only economists can deal with.”

Although Ecuador currently has the capacity to pay, dropping oil prices and squeezed credit markets are putting President Rafael Correa's plans to boost spending on education and health care in jeopardy. Correa has pledged to prioritize the "social debt" over debt to foreign creditors.

Ecuador is undertaking a diplomatic offensive in an effort to win political support. Correa will be attending a summit in Brazil next week with presidents from throughout Latin American and Caribbean. Ecuador has called on Latin America to forge a united response to foreign debt. Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay have recently created debt audit commissions. Ecuador has also asked the United Nations to help develop international norms to regulate the foreign debt market.

But relations between Brazil and Ecuador have been tense since the September expulsion of the Brazilian firm Odebrecht over accused accusations of shoddy work on a hydroelectric plant and contract violations. Most recently, Ecuador filed suit in the International Chamber of Commerce to stop payment on a $286 million debt to The Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), credit that was allotted for Odebrecht’s hydroelectric project. Many activists in Ecuador see Brazil as a regional bully.

Last month, a special debt audit commission released a report charging that much of Ecuador's foreign debt was illegitimate or illegal. The commission found that usurious interest rates were applied for many bonds and that past Ecuadorian governments illegally took other loans on. The report also accused Salomon Smith Barney, now part of Citigroup Inc., of handling the 2000 restructuring without Ecuador's authorization, leading to the application of 10 and 12 percent interest rates. Ecuador's military dictatorship (1974-1979) was the first government to lead the country into indebtedness.

Commercial debt, or debt to private banks, made up 44% of Ecuador's interest payments in 2007, considerably more than the 27% paid to multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A glance at Ecuador's draft constitution

The Associated Press
September 28, 2008

Highlights from Ecuador's 444-article draft constitution, which would be the Andean nation's 20th. Voters decide Sunday whether to adopt it.

_ The president can dissolve Congress once, and Congress can unseat the president once.

_ The president controls monetary and credit policy, supplanting the Central Bank.

_ The president can run for one additional four-year term (Correa could serve through 2017).

_ Same-sex unions will be afforded the same rights as heterosexual marriages.

_ Those who work in the home are eligible for social security.

_ New fathers have the right to paternity leave, joining new mothers.

_ Military service will no longer be mandatory.

_ The voting age will be lowered to 16, and soldiers and police will gain the right to vote.

_ Foreign military bases or installations will be prohibited on Ecuadorean soil. The United States has operated anti-drug surveillance flights out of Ecuador's Manta air base since 1999. The 10-year lease expires next year and will not be renewed.

_ Among civic responsibilities is the Quichua Indian ancestral code of conduct: "Be not lazy and neither lie nor steal."

Ecuador Constitution: A Starting Point

Prensa Latina

Quito, Sep 29 The overwhelming support given to the new Constitution in a Sunday referendum proved Ecuadorans are longing for a revolutionary change.

Preliminary results shows that between 66 and 70 percent of the population voted in favor of the new charter drafted by a Constituent Assembly.

For President Rafael Correa, such a resounding victory just proves his felow citizens´confidence in the people's revolution he started in January 2007.

People overwhelmingly voted Yes for a Charter supporting the implementation of a deeply humanist, solidarity economic model, he said.

By voting Yes, voters also backed Correa´s government, which has been making radical changes in the Andean country for the last 20 months.

The President gave opposition the opportunity to join forces in the construction of an egalitarian society, as stated in the new constitution.

The country´s 20th constitution will spur rapid, profound change, benefiting the hard-working, humble majority and helping him eradicate a political class that made Ecuador one of Latin America's most corrupt countries.

It also guarantees free education through university and social security benefits for stay-at-home mothers.

The new measures would supplement already-popular Correa programmes that provide low-interest micro-loans for small businesses, building-material giveaways for homes and free seeds for growing crops.

Change Triumphs in Ecuador's Constitutional Referendum

Helga Serrano N. and Eduardo Tamayo G.
Translated from: Referéndum en Ecuador: Triunfa la esperanza de cambio
Translated by: Katie Kohlstedt
Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc-online.org
October 2, 2008

[ Helga Serrano works at the Christian Youth Association of Ecuador and coordinates the No Bases Ecuador Coalition. Eduardo Tamayo is a journalist with ALAI—they are analysts for the Americas Program found at www.americaspolicy.org. ]

Ecuador's new constitution was approved with 64% voting "yes" on Sept. 28. "No" won 28% of the votes, 7% were invalid, and 0.7% left blank, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

The results of the referendum reflect the high expectations for change that the majority of Ecuadorians are feeling, and which they have ratified with their votes in the last four elections. This desire for a profound transformation also extends to the immigrants that have left for the United States and Europe, who have been hit by the economic crisis. People voted for a more participative democracy and for the ability to intercede actively in political life.

The constitution combines a series of progressive traits that overcome some of Ecuador's current inequalities, discrimination, and injustices, such as the following: the balanced living concept (sumak kawsay), which implies living in harmony with oneself, society, and nature; nature's right to assure "the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes"; national diversity and collective rights; the right to water and the prohibition of its privatization; food sovereignty and the permanent right to secure food sources; the right to communication, and access to public, private, and community media.

The constitution also has articles that are significant in terms of sovereignty and the prohibition of foreign military bases, as Article 5 states: "Ecuador is a peaceful territory. We will not permit the establishment of foreign military bases nor foreign facilities with military aims. It is prohibited to cede national military bases to foreign armed or security forces." Ecuador defines itself as a country that promotes peace, universal disarmament, condemns the use of weapons of mass destruction, and the imposition of bases or facilities with military purposes of some states in the territory of other nations (Article 416, 4). This is a victory not only for Ecuadorian organizations, but also for continental and worldwide networks that have struggled to abolish foreign military bases.

Rethinking the Economic Model
The new constitution also has a chapter on the prioritization of national production in its economy. In regards to development, it recognizes the "group of economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental systems that guarantees the realization of the balanced life, sumak kawsay." This means that economic growth is not the only priority as a means to reach development; instead, it is considered an integrated vision. It proposes, among other things, "to build a fair, democratic, productive, solidarity-based, and sustainable economic system founded on the equitable distribution of development benefits, means of production, and the generation of dignified and stable work" (Article 276).

The constitution recovers the role of the state in participatory development planning in areas such as healthcare, education, housing, and water supply, among other things. Some of these had been turned over to the private sector during years of neoliberal implementation. Now the state will maintain control of the financial sector and develop policies to avoid the concentration or hoarding of means of production.

It also proposes the development of specific policies to eradicate inequality and discrimination toward women, including the valuation of non-paid work in the home, and universal social security.

Strategic sectors are recognized in the new constitution, such as all forms of energy, telecommunications, non-renewable natural resources, transportation, and refining of hydrocarbons, biodiversity, genetic heritage, and water.

The state reserves the right to "administer, regulate, control, and manage" these sectors because of their decisive economic, social, political, or environmental influence.

Though this is fundamental, concern also exists in some sectors that a door has been left open in terms of exploitation of protected areas, if the National Assembly should choose to do so. The indigenous movement proposed that the policy of "previous informed consent" be used, as in the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Native Peoples, but the Constitutional Assembly approved the "previous informed consultation" policy, which is now part of the constitution.

Despite this limitation, Humberto Cholango, indigenous director of ECUARUNARI, the largest organization of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, celebrated the approval of the constitution and its inclusion of the diverse nationalities that make up the nation, which "is of historical importance, because it has been proposed as such since the first indigenous uprising 18 years ago," according to Cholango.

A key player in the "yes" decision was without a doubt President Rafael Correa, whose administration stands out for its reorientation of public investment away from the usual elite classes, and instead toward health, education, and public works. This has been favored by the high price of oil and increased tax revenue collection, as many businesspeople have been forced to pay.

Foreign Military Forces Sent Home
Another positive element is the defense of national sovereignty, expressed as a rejection of the warmongering politics of the government of Colombia and President Alvaro Uribe. It also puts an end to the agreement with the United States that allowed it to have a military base "for the drug war" in Manta, Ecuador. In reality this base was used for other purposes such as the interception of boats transporting migrants and also for Plan Colombia. American military personal will leave Ecuador next year.

Another important theme was the impulse toward political, economic, and social integration into Latin America as a region, with emphasis on the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

Although some of the proposals initiated by the government have been questioned by the indigenous and environmental movements—such as oil exploration, mining, and agricultural policies based on agrochemicals and agrofuels—the organizations recognize that this can be limited through the use of the constitution to ensure the defense of natural resources, life, and biodiversity.

It's important to recognize that the constitution compiles varied aspirations from diverse social sectors that have fought for more than a decade against neoliberalism and policies that assured the payment of external debt to the detriment of social programs.

The Constitutional Assembly and the triumph of President Correa are the result of social struggles against the successive governments that opted to govern on the side of economic interests and not of the people. Many mobilizations have caused the ousting of president after president that deceived the people, which was the reason Ecuador had seven presidents between 1995 and 2005.

Citizen Participation and Who Voted "No"
Thousands of organizations took part in the Assembly in order to present their proposals (3,500 in all) and dozens of forums were held on topics such as water, food sovereignty, heath, etc. Citizen demands were incorporated into the 444 articles that make up the constitution. This was a participatory process, but it also had contradictions, precisely because of the different positions of the political parties in the Assembly and "Acuerdo Pais."

This process, as well as the thousands of forums and debates in neighborhoods, schools, universities, and communities prior to the Referendum, allowed the people to take ownership of the constitution's content.

Those that bet on "no" votes were those who didn't want to lose their privileges and maintain the neoliberal policies that have deepened poverty, inequality, and the concentration of wealth. According to sociologist Mario Unda, the real losers were from the right, that has been reduced to the city of Guayaquil, massive media outlets that did an open "vote no" campaign, as well as the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that led the opposition from the pulpits, spreading lies about the new constitution being pro-abortion and gay marriage.

This referendum has ended a phase that began with the second round of the 2006 election when Correa won by a significant margin over banana magnate Alvaro Noboa. The old elites that had monopolized the economy and politics and had once run things were defeated at the ballot box. A new era is beginning while the new balance of power adjusts and new actors define their new policies and strategies.

The institutional transition period starts with the provisional delay of the Constitutional Assembly, in order to create several laws and name the National Electoral Commission and the Electoral Tribunal, which will convene a new general election in 30 days. The election is predicted for January or February 2009. Correa will most likely run for his second four-year term.

This will be a time of intense struggle, during which the character of the government will be defined—it now has the option to shift its positions to the left according to the demand of the majority of Ecuadorians. They're gaining traction on a new road paved with hope.