TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  
Showing posts with label Inter-American Development Bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inter-American Development Bank. Show all posts

February 18, 2017

Bankster Defence of CIA Spying on French Elections - Ecuador Bankster Election 2017






WikiLeaks

WIKILEAKS RELEASE - #CIAFrance
WIKILEAKS RELEASE - #CIAFrance

RELEASE: CIA espionage orders for the last French presidential election
@WikiLeaks
Bankster Defence of CIA Spying on French Elections & ASSAULT on free press, WikiLeaks+ Ecuador Bankster Election 2017

OTTAWA CITIZEN

United States asked Canada to help spy on candidates during 2012 French election: WikiLeaks
Zane Schwartz 02.16.2017


>>  IN SUMMARY <<

CIA and FVEY spying on FRENCH 2012 Presidential Elections

CIA docs released by WikiLeaks
list CANADA as ONE OF SEVERAL COUNTRIES (x5)

asked to assist US while US spies on 2012 FRENCH presidential election

x5 countries working on human intelligence parts of the op

in addition to Canada
> New Zealand, Great Britain, and Australia
> all listed under a section indicating which countries are assisting with the “HUMINT” or human intelligence

> those x4 countries, plus USA
> comprise the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance

COMMENT

> ie. FVEY
> see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes


x3 CIA tasking orders
request following be closely monitored:

- current French president Francois Hollande
- then president Nicolas Sarkozy
- current first round presidential front runner Marine Le Pen

to uncover the secret strategies of the candidates
+ info re on internal power dynamics within the parties

Communications Security Establishment Canada
- Canadian Security Intelligence Service
DID NOT immediately reply to requests for comment

Ashley Lemire, senior communications advisor
Dept of National Defence, told the National Post
“The Government of Canada does not comment on leaked documents.”

revelations come amidst CLAIMS by the U.S. intelligence community
that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

orders are all marked “NOFORN”
meaning they are supposed to be restricted to U.S. eyes only
so no potential allies are offended

Canadian spying on allies have caused significant diplomatic issues before
according to leaked docs

Communications Security Establishment Canada
spied on Brazil’s mining and energy ministry
> to gain economic intelligence
> 2013, documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden showed
> NDP leader Tom Mulcair said the revelations gave Canada “a black eye in the world.”

> economic intelligence was also a focus of the spying during France’s 2012 election
> agents asked to answer questions about non-ruling political parties and candidates
> including: “What are their opinions on the German model of export-led growth?”

U.S. intelligence with compiling info on
brewing export deals or export contracts in France worth $200 million or more

United States asked Canada to help spy on candidates during 2012 French election: WikiLeaks
Zane Schwartz 02.16.2017
OTTAWA CITIZEN









Guillermo Lasso

Tu Banco del Barrio / Mi Banco
Your Bank of the Neighbourhood / My Bank

CREO en el salvataje bancario

(CREO) I BELIEVE in BANK BAILOUT


#NOMASLASSOS
NEUSTROS LOZOS NO SON UN EGACIO, NUESTROS LAZOS SON LA UNION DE UNA PATRIA ENTERA QUE GRITA:   NO MAS BANQUEROS

#NOMASLASSOS
OUR TIES ARE NOT A BUSINESS, OUR TIES ARE THE UNION OF A WHOLE COUNTRY THAT SHOUTS:

NO MORE BANKERS


Banco de Guayaquil
founded 1923
Guayaquil Bank
-  financial institution of Universal Bank
- HQ - city of Guayaquil, Ecuado
- formerly  SA Banco Italiano
- name change:  1941 - Banco de Guayaquil
- name change:  2014 -  Bank Guayaquil

- established as foreign bank
- WWII,  Italy part of the Rome-Berlin Axis
- operation Italian capital & managers
- Italy tried to nationalize the bank
- in response, name of the institution changed to:  National Bank of Ecuador
- 1941, a new deed renamed entity  -  Bank of Guayaquil
- immediately several capitalist Ecuadorians began buying all the shares

1984, group of shareholders of Financiera del Sur SA,
 better known as Finansur
 > acquired most of the shares of Banco de Guayaquil

result, Danilo Carrera Drouet
(then the CEO of Finansur)
> was appointed as executive president of the Banco de Guayaquil
> his replacement as CEO of Finansur was Guillermo Lasso Mendoza (known as:  Guillermo Lasso) - his brother-in-law

1990, refors to general banking law
> merger between:
    - Banco de Guayaquil SA
    - Financiera del Sur SA
    - Banco de Guayaquil SA
   
Guillermo Lasso Mendoza
known as:  Guillermo Lasso
exec. president of FINANSUR
> appointed EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
> thus, GENERAL MANAGER of Banco de Guayaquil

> 1997 the Banco de Guayaquil merged with Banco General Society
> becomes one of the LARGEST banks in Ecuador to date

> 1999, financial crisis
>  Bank of Guayaquil, was chaired by Guillermo Lasso


2007, joint report of the National Finance Corporation and Research Commission Salvataje Bank
launched by:  President Rafael Correa
>  to investigate those responsible for financial crisis + possible detriment of private banks
> reportedly no finding of Guillermo Lasso responsibility re 1999 crisis (wikipedia)


2011, "Major Project Bancarización Latin America 2010"
- awarded "strategies banking" awards Beyond Banking Award
> re solidarity economy
> award organized by INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Guayaquil

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
- founded: 1959
- an international financial org
- HQ city of Washington DC, USA
- Regional offices in MADRID and TOKYO
- origin dates back to AMERICAN CONFERENCE 1890

- committee of governors / uses a 14-member Executive Board to oversee the ops

- stated purpose

to finance projects - economic, social & institutional development
to promote regional trade integration - Latin America & Caribbean
to reduce poverty in Latin America & Caribbean /  promoting "sustainable growth"

LARGEST financial institution of regional development of this kind

IDB is currently the LARGEST regional development bank in the WORLD
> & serves as a MODEL for other similar institutions

-  ordinary capital of the bank amounts to 101 billion US dollars at present
- members     48 countries
- member countries that are 48 are classified into two types: non-borrowing members or borrowing members

non-borrowers are:

- Germany
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Slovenia
- Spain
- United States
- Finland
- France
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- United Kingdom
- Republic of Korea
- People 's Republic China
- Sweden
- Switzerland

OVER 50% of the net funding of the project
>  channeled to low-income citizens


born within the Organization of American States (OAS)
>  reportedly has no connection with
    -  Pan-American institution
    -  International Monetary Fund ( IMF )
    -  World Bank
   
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Interamericano_de_Desarrollo


Guillermo Lasso
Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza
described as:  Catholic
b. city of Guayaquil, 1955
family described as 'high class'
last of 11 children
father, civil servant born Quinto
parents migrated to Guayaquil in 1950s
1976, met wife Maria de Lourdes Alcívar Crespo
1980, married (x5 children)



Lasso manager ProCrédito
brother-in-law Danilo Carrera (FeCrédito founded in Panama)
ProCrédito + FeCrédito  MERGE > resulting in:   Finansu (1980)


1984, Lasso appointed by national subsidiary of COCA-COLA
- vice president to implement a rehabilitation process of the company

president / board of following private foundations:

- Fundación Ecuador Libre
- Fundación del Barrio
- Technical Center Laboral Montepiedra
- Latin American Board of GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Public foundations:

- board member of the Andean Development Corporation
- head of:  Malecón 2000 Foundation
- + other

education:
- business admin at the Business Development Institute (SDI)
-  2011 the University of the Americas awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa


his public agenda
>  classical liberals points as
- defence of the separation of powers >> to limit government <<
- fundamental rights such as >> freedom of the press <<
- in favor of >> reducing taxes and the national debt <<
- increasing >> productivity & employment in private sector <<
- >> to ELIMINATE at least x9 TAXES << if elected PRESIDENT
-  in favour of OPEN TRADE with major partners in Ecuador
    >> USA <<
    >> EUROPEAN UNION <<
- economic agenda:  "despetrolizar the economy" of Ecuador
- via diversification of domestic production by
 >> deregulation of entrepreneurship <<

- anti-abortion
- in favour of homosexual unions / civil unions, as distinct re conventional marriage
- pro immigration /  proposed controls re criminal records
- pro decriminalisation re drugs
- called the supranational body ALBA as a "third world empire"

GUILLERMO LASSO
= declared enemy of the XXI century socialism
   promoted by Venezuela and Cuba
   which Ecuador chapter identifies with Citizen Revolution led by Rafael Correa
= representative of the political forces that ruled Ecuador prior to RAFAEL CORREA eletion 2007
= Lasso's tax proposals are irresponsible with the state budget
= was involved in the financial crisis in Ecuador in 1999, according to President RAFAEL CORREA

ALBA
est. 2004
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - People's Trade Treaty
aka Treaty of Commerce of the People or ALBA-TCP
international org of regional members
LATIN AMERICA + CARIBBEAN
emphasis - fight against poverty & social exclusion, based on doctrines of LEFT

collaborative project /  supporting complementary political, social and economic reform
promoted by Cuba and Venezuela in return for USA originated:  FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)

Free Trade Area of the Americas or FTAA
expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement  (USA, Mexico and Canada)
2005, LCA entered crisis, to the point that many already consider it a dead project
intent was in USA which dates back to 1885
original version called for
- gradual reduction of tariff barriers
- investment in 34 countries in the region (except Cuba)

> change of governments in South America complicated negotiations

Latin American market
=  population of 800 million
=  gross domestic product (GDP) of US $ 21,000 combined BILLION annually

most controversial issues of the treaty proposed by USA
=  related to the rights of intellectual property and patents

RE patents, Latin American analysts have accused the US of wanting to patent everything from inventions, discoveries, Indian mythology to living beings

would prevent the scientific research in Latin America resulting in further inequality and dependence on technology


https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Lasso


University of the Americas
founded 1995 by a group of entrepreneurs Chileans and Ecuadorians

x4 campuses

affiliated to the network Laureate International Universities


Laureate International Universities 
=  subsidiary of Laureate Education Inc
- brings together 76 institutions of higher education in 27 countries around the world
- collaborators in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania
- over 100 campuses
- LARGEST worldwide network of PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Laureate International Universities
HQ - BALTIMORE, USA
Honorary Chancellor:  BILL CLINTON

2012, Chile investigation:
>> institution also falls within the framework of
 "buying and selling of universities under the control of economic and foreign groups" <<

 [wikipedia]


CREO movement, Creating Opportunities (CREO)
political party
ECUADOR

registered:  2012

President:  Guillermo Lasso

held out as:  movement is akin ideas CREO Liberal Democrats

participated in 2013 elections in ECUADOR
>  organized the electoral coalition "United for Ecuador"
> took second place
> CREO = second political force in ECUADOR, 11 parliamentary seats
>  sectional Ecuador Elections 2014, won 22 mayoralties
> since 2014, CREO formed COALITION of Ecuador group (group Compromiso Ecuador)
> comprising:  several political and union groups & political leaders
> in relation to:  draft CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS promoted by the current CORREA govt

2016, CREO was admitted as a member of the Union of Latin American Parties
/  South American regional branch of the International Democrat Union


Lasso and his movement formed the coalition ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE
-  as electoral and political platform
- Guillermo Lasso is contesting the 2017 Ecuador presidential elections


International Democratic Union

 founded:  1983

>> HQ, London <<

>> grouping of anticommunist political parties <<
mainly conservative and in some cases Christian Democrats and Liberals

International Democratic Union
founded by several heads of state and prominent members of CAPITALIST government

- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, MARGARET THATCHER
- President of USA, GEORGE H.W. BUSH
- Chancellor of Germany, HELMUT KOHL
- President of the French Republic, JACQUES CHIRAC

46 associate members

chaired by:  former PM of Australia:  JOHN HOWARD

associated with several regional org

eg.  >> International Union of Women Democrats <<

members include:

United States: Republican Party (Rep / GOP)

United Kingdom: Conservative Party (Con)

Sweden: Moderate Party

Australia: Liberal Party of Australia (Lib)

Ecuador: Social Christian Party (PSC)


Germany : Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU)

France : Republicans (LR)

Russia : Union of Right Forces

Belarus : Popular Front Party of Belarus (PBNF)
Bosnia and Herzegovina : Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Party of Democratic Progress (PDP)
Croatia : Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)
Serbia : Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)
Hungary : Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union
Greece : New Democracy (ND)


[unless otherwise marked, all notes from wikipedia]




http://www.andes.info.ec/es/actualidad/7774.html

2012 - ECUADOR

Between Guillermo Lasso and his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera contributed to the campaign of Jamil Mahuad 1,027 million sucres

Wednesday, 17/10/2012 - 04:28:49 PM

Guillermo Lasso Mendoza and his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera Drouet.

Quito, October 18 (Andes) .- Jamil Mahuad Witt, (elected president of Ecuador for the period 1998-2002 and ousted in January 2000), narrowly won the election. Álvaro Noboa, defeated candidate, requested a recount of votes that the electoral court denied.

During the campaign he had the support of powerful financiers such as Fernando Aspiazu Seminar, Banco del Progreso; Danilo Carrera Drouet and Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, Bank of Guayaquil; Ernesto Noboa Bejarano; Ernesto Estrada (Hijastro of Luis Noboa Naranjo and, at that time son-in-law of Leon Febres Cordero); Fuad Dassum; National soap; Soft drinks; Osvaldo Zavala Egas; Jhonny Czarnwinsky, My Commissariat; The Universal.

Also Mariano González Portés, Ingenio San Carlos; Oscar Orrantia; According to Wong, Reybanpac / Fertisa; Plywood; Pronaca; Coca Cola Guayaquil; Fidel Egas Group (Banco del Pichincha / Diners); Olga de Eljuri and Roque Sevilla, among others. And although Ramon Yulee, signed as campaign treasurer, Eduardo Mahuad Witt, brother of Jamil was the fundraiser.

It is curious that only between Danilo Carrera Drouet (Emperor of the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grupo Financiero Guayaquil, Manager of the Central Bank, head of the Ministry of Industries during the last military dictatorship, and President of the Monetary Board Fabián Alarcón) and Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, current candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, the two leaders of the Bank of Guayaquil at that time, added 1,027 million sucres as a contribution to that election campaign.

Fernando Aspiazu Seminary was the largest contributor with three million one hundred thousand dollars. And it was so evident that the now ex-banker and Mahuad were fined by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) for having contributed illegally.

Still, nothing could stop him and, with such support, he broke a dozen banks and similar numbers of financial institutions. Mahuad issued a bailout law that allocated state resources to address the problems of the broken private banks that financed his election campaign. This crisis caused, among other things, the emigration of compatriots to Spain and Italy.

In November 1998, Filanbanco, the parent company of the country's fifth largest financial group, presented liquidity and solvency problems, prompting a bail-out by the government of Loan, Tungurahua and Finagro banks.

After the fall of Filanbanco and other small banks, the bank of El Progreso, considered the second bank of the country by the size of its assets, and one of the most profitable institutions.

To prevent the entire financial system from collapsing, the government opted to freeze deposits. The result was a situation of insolvency in most of the financial system and distrust in the sucre.

Jamil Mahuad led the country to one of the worst economic crises of all time. Excessive printing of bills to meet state obligations triggered the dollar's trading at levels never before seen, at which point it adopted the US dollar instead of sucre, with a change from 4,500 to 25,000 sucres.

Meanwhile the "descendants of the statue", as Asaad Bucaram called them, the owners of the private media, continued talking about honesty to give false moral lessons.

Jorge Núñez, in the book "Banks and Bankers". From Urbina Jado to Aspiazu, Editorial El Conejo, 1999, said that "Throughout the twentieth century, private banking scandals have shaken the consciousness of successive generations of Ecuadorians."

"In the 1920s, the economic and political disruptions of the bancocracy, associated with a voracious and insatiable state, unleashed severe inflation, created the scene for the massacre of workers of November 15, 1922, corrupted the political system and aggravated Effects of the export crisis ".

"In the second half of the century ... the scandals of La Previsora ​​and the Bank of Guayaquil broke out in the 60s, which were solved in the same way: covering the black holes of the corrupt bank, while Rodrigo Icaza Candell and other fugitives The good life abroad or set up new companies ... "

"Years later came the fall of the Discount Bank, also caused by poor management, denounced by a sector of the same shareholders."

"... The bankruptcy of Banco Continental, whose beneficiaries were the Ortega Moreira brothers, and whose" bail-out "hurriedly attended the then President of the Monetary Board, Ana Lucía Armijos, violated the law and gave the bank owners an enormous amount of resources State, never justified ... "

But they now live Christian in Miami from the benefits provided by a bank and various real estate companies. For them there was never an extradition request and some of the brothers get angry when they are told thieves.

"Most financial institutions ended the first five years of the 1980s by owing to the Central Bank amounts greater than their equity value. By 1984, the emergency debt of the Ecuadorian banking system, with the issuing institute, exceeded 60,000 million sucres, while the capital and reserves of the banking system did not exceed 50,000 million sucres.

During the 1980s, Ecuador experienced a process of structural adjustment ordered by the multilateral credit agencies (World Bank, IMF) to pay off the external debt. The social conflicts created an atmosphere of political instability that extended until the 90s and only in the first decade of the 21st century could be stopped the voracity of the bankers.

http://www.andes.info.ec/es/actualidad/7774.html












August 13, 2014

Will US Pick Off Latin American Opportunities following 2015 Americas Summit?


Obama says yes to Africa but no to Latin America?

By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Published: 12 August 2014 07:40 PM Updated: 12 August 2014 07:40 PM

Watching President Barack Obama at his mega-summit with nearly 50 African heads of state in Washington, in which he announced $33 billion in investments and vowed to increase access to electricity to 60 million African households, many of us asked ourselves the same question: Why doesn’t he do the same with Latin America?

The conventional wisdom among the thousands of dignitaries and businesspeople who converged on Washington for the Aug. 5 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit was that the Obama administration organized the event in a desperate effort to catch up with China. In recent years, China has become Africa’s top business partner.

Well, I’ve got news for U.S. policymakers: If Washington continues to pay little attention to Latin America, the same will happen there. It’s already happening in several countries in the region.

Not only China, but also Russia and Japan — whose heads of state visited Latin America in recent weeks — have announced big plans to expand their presence in the region.

The U.S. share of Latin America’s trade has dropped from 53 percent of the region’s worldwide trade in 2000 to 35 percent in 2013. Meanwhile, China’s share has soared from 1.9 percent to 12 percent over the same period, according to Inter-American Development Bank figures.

What’s more, if current trends continue, by 2025 Latin America’s trade with the United States will have declined to 17 percent of its total trade, while Latin America’s trade with China will have reached 17 percent, says chief development bank trade economist Mauricio Moreira.

And these figures include Mexico, a huge Latin American economy that does relatively little business with China. If you exclude Mexico, China’s presence in the region will dwarf the United States’ by 2025, the projections show.

Yes, the United States holds a regular Summit of the Americas every three or four years, and the next one will be in Panama in 2015.

But recent summits have been a flop, to a large extent because of Venezuela’s petro-dollar diplomacy, which virtually controls the votes of at least 16 Central American and Caribbean countries through its Petrocaribe-subsidized oil shipments, and because of Brazil’s reluctance to work for the success of any summit it does not lead.

So what can the United States do? Here are three things:

First, the Obama administration should show the region that it cares. Everybody understands that Secretary of State John Kerry is tied up with more urgent matters in the Middle East and Ukraine, but so far this year only two of his 21 trips abroad were to the region.  ['Cares' LMAO]

And for last week’s second-term inauguration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, which was attended by the presidents of Mexico, Peru and several other countries, the White House sent U.S. State Department counselor Thomas Shannon, a highly respected diplomat but hardly a celebrity.

Second, Obama could build his legacy in the region by proposing a new plan to deepen trade and investment relations with the 11 countries in the region with which the United States has free trade agreements, including Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

The White House is negotiating free trade agreements mostly with Asian Pacific Rim countries and the 28-nation European Union. Kerry told me in an exclusive interview in December that he is exploring a regional trade initiative in the Americas, starting with deepening ties with Mexico and Canada, but that’s the last I heard of it.  [Bet that's the shale gas / oil ties.]

Third, Obama should counter Petrocaribe with a U.S.-Caribe initiative, taking advantage of the fact that Venezuela has gone bankrupt and its oil facilities are crumbling, while the United States will soon become self-sufficient in energy, and may even become an oil exporter.

Petro-diplomacy may be used by Washington, just as it has been used by Venezuela, some Washington insiders are thinking.

[...] 
[...]   The U.S. economy is recovering, and China’s is slowing down. It’s time for Obama to focus on Latin America, much as he did on Africa last week.




What makes the world go around?

1.  Trade Race.
2.  Arms Race.

It's just a relentless race to have more than the other guy:  more guns, more money, more investment, more regional control, more profits, more whatever.  It never lets up.

US (given huge shale boom) is probably focusing on securing energy export to Europe, which is probably a more stable trade opportunity than Latin America, I'm guessing.  US now has a huge energy supply it needs to find markets for and it wants to make the most of locking Russia out of the European energy market, I'm guessing.  Europe, on the other hand, has high energy needs. 

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking but I'm new to watching politics, so don't take that as gospel.

China's hardly doing a massive take-over in South America.  Its trade's grown, but it's nowhere near as high as US trade.

Trying to work out what petro-diplomacy is, I came across this:

Politics of Oil Nationalization

Several countries have nationalised foreign-run oil businesses, often failing to compensate investors. Enrique Mosconi, the director of the Argentine state owned oil company ... YPF, which was the first state owned oil company in the world ..
.
In 1953, Iran's Premier Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown by a CIA/MI6 covert action known as Operation Ajax. The goal was to prevent Mossadegh from nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian oil company which later became British Petroleum.
Similarly Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976. [wikipedia]

How evil is this?  They violated national sovereignty and changed the course of a nation's future -- for oil!

It gets worse.  The Shah was involved in helping foreigners profit.  The wikipedia on Operation Ajax is - here.

Anyway, don't exactly know what petro-diplomacy is, but the Op Ajax was an interesting aside.

Petrocaribe - wikipedia here - is a Venezuela and Caribbean countries alliance for purchase of oil from
Venezuela for 'preferrential payment' (whatever that is).

Found preference payment in relation to bankruptcy, but that's not it.  Couldn't be bothered looking any further.  Guessing that it has something to do with making payment to Venezuela a priority or something like that.

Venezuela's gone bankrupt, according to the article.  So how can that be?  (Should know this from prior look-ups, but I've got a shocking memory.  LOL)

At a quick glance, looks like Venezuela going bust is to do with 'pillaging' (ie social spending and SUBSIDISED PRICE selling, as well as no investment and low production) the oil companies - Economist - here.

Haven't checked to see what other oil producers there is in Latin America.  

So what's the US likely to do?  

Well, the summit in 2015 isn't a long way off.  The bet is that if the US can make a dollar in Latin America it will pursue that avenue as well.