Rafael Correa: Now they’ll come after us!

By Abner D. Barrera

Several days have elapsed since the presidential elections in Venezuela, where Chavismo inflicted a serious defeat to the Venezuelan oligarchy, but the Right continues to wail in Caracas, Miami and Madrid.

Also weeping are the publicity mongers in CNN, Univisión, El Nuevo Herald and the Spanish daily El País. Before the Oct. 7 elections, those traffickers in information openly backed the candidacy of Henrique Capriles, Washington’s new flunky. For several weeks, they insisted (deceiving themselves) that Capriles would win the elections but the Chavist home-run “caught them by surprise.”

For proof of the harsh impact of the defeat, all you needed to do was look at the faces of Jorge Ramos (Univisión), Patricia Janiot, Claudia Palacios and Fernando del Rincón (CNN). That’s how they express their professional ethics.

After the Bolivarian sweep, several Latin American leaders sent greetings and congratulations to the Bolivarian leader, Hugo Chávez. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador wrote in his Twitter account: “Chávez wins with almost 10 points advantage. Long live Venezuela, long live the Great Motherland, long live the Bolivarian Revolution!”

Correa pointed out that the usual lies again collapsed and warned his compatriots: “Now they’ll come after us. We’ll be ready. We shall win,” alluding to the tricks and deceits of the enemies of the Ecuadorean government. As we know, the elections for president, vice president and National Assembly members in Ecuador are set for February 2013.

The attacks and slander from the Empire’s media against the progressive political processes in Latin America are unending. The demonization of popular leaders such as Fidel and Raúl Castro, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa is unlimited. Hundreds of radio and TV programs and thousands of printed and digital pages hammer lies and messages of hatred into the minds of the people, seeking to create conditioned reflexes against those leaders.

When President Rafael Correa says “Now they’ll come after us,” he’s talking about the enemies of his Citizens’ Revolution. Among Correa’s many virtues is his ability to enter into the adversary’s terrain (some of whom are simply the puppets of the commercial communications media), fight them and win. This year, in two interviews with European TV networks, he defended his country’s sovereignty and independence and unmasked the deceits and slander against his government.

The first interview came in March, in “Breakfast with TVE” (Madrid). Star journalist Ana Pastor (now with CNN), in an effort to harass Correa on the subject of freedom of expression, asked him “How do you explain that The New York Times, in a very harsh editorial, says that you are leading a merciless campaign against freedom of expression?”

With fine humor, Correa answered: “Ask The New York Times if it knows where Ecuador is.” Blushing, the reporter said, “Of course it must know!” and added that, because it is an important newspaper, The Times was right in its assessment.”
Convincingly, Correa said: “If I have learned anything in this office is to answer the people, not the media. You all think you own public opinion. You don’t! You own published opinion. Public opinion belongs to our people, and it is them that we must answer.”

To put the interviewer in her place, Correa added: “Abandon those myths of wicked politicians who persecute the communications media, because it’s all the reverse. It is the media that persecutes the politicians.” Weeks later, the reporter said that she felt uncomfortable during the interview.

The second interview came in August, in Quito, for the RT network’s program “The Interview.” The Spanish hostess Mónica Rodríguez Carballo asked him to talk about the communications media.

Correa said: “Here and in Latin America – I hope the world understands this – even asking the media to pay taxes is seen as an attack on freedom of expression. All their lives they were used to being above the law. They were the worst exploiters of labor.

“Now they are asked to respect their labor obligations. An attack on freedom of expression indeed! They used to set the political agenda, the presidential agenda. They judged, sentenced or absolved; they legislated. No longer, they no longer have that power. An attack on freedom of expression! No! Finally we’re living under an authentic rule of law here.”

Rodríguez asks: “Do you feel persecuted in any way? Are you afraid?” Correa answers: “Precisely because of what I tell you. Every day one has to look for whatever new lie certain media have published. Look, here in Ecuador those businesses devoted to communications are handled by six families, six families that also owned economic markets.

“We did a constitutional reform, barring the communications media from owning other kinds of business. An attack on freedom of expression! In other words, to avoid that conflict of interests, it’s also ‘an attack on freedom of expression.’ Anything that’s done on behalf of ethics, the law, but affects the interests of this media dictatorship in Ecuador is ‘an attack on freedom of expression.’”

Correa concludes by saying: “The press in Latin America has been terribly corrupt, allied to the dictatorships: Pinochet, the Argentine dictatorships, etc., with major conflicts of interest because – what was the practice? – ‘I have an economic emporium and I start a television channel.’ To inform? No. To defend the economic emporium. All that is changing and for that reason we get a daily volley of discredit. But nobody believes that.”

The type of journalism that Correa faces does not question but accuses; does not investigate but invents. The media watch Latin Americans and treat them with ethnocentricity; they think they own orthodoxy and become the judges of our political processes. They’re annoyed when they hear the truth, firm and brave, spoken by our progressive leaders.

When Correa says “Now they’ll come after us,” he knows that the struggle will be inside and outside Ecuador and that the hegemonic media at the service of the transnational corporations will attack him in an effort to topple him.

Last month, a Mexican survey on presidential performances showed that President Rafael Correa of Ecuador was the Latin American leader with the highest rating, 75 percent, surpassing his previous rating of 58 percent, obtained in January 2012.

Peruvian-born journalist Abner D. Barrera is a professor at the Latin American Studies Institute of the National University of Costa Rica. He lives in Costa Rica.