Correa and the media
Rafael Correa's aggressive attacks against the media in Ecuador puzzle me a bit. He is a popular president with a considerable amount of power, and really doesn't gain much. Sure, he muzzles some opposition but they're weak to begin with. Plus, it does nothing to quell any discontent there may be in the police and military.
Instead, he shows himself to be terribly thin-skinned and brings a negative international spotlight to the country. In a country with a recent history of military intervention and instability, feeling insecure is understandable. I just don't see how going after the media makes Correa any more secure.
3 comments:
I don't think it's that hard to understand. One of the few reasons why a cynic might argue Hugo Chavez hasn't been able to fully consolidate his dictatorship (obstensibly of the proletariat) in Venezuela, even in the face of incompetent domestic political opposition, has been a failure to muzzle the opposition media.
Once Correa has the Ecuadorean media thoroughly cowed, the opposition will find it very difficult to get their message to the mass public, as the right-wing authoritarians in Singapore and Russia have already discovered. Indeed, Correa's tactics are right out of Lee Kuan Yew's playbook.
Well, Correa is essentially doing the same as Chavez, which did not make it harder for the opposition to organize (indeed, the opposition is now more organized). I don't think Correa will thoroughly cow the media, and given the Venezuelan model it's hard to see Correa believing that he can. But maybe he does.
I feel very ashamed and embarrassed that these two guys exist and perform as presidents : Correa and Chavez. Add Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and I just want the earth to swallow me
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I do not include Evo Morales of Bolivia because there are indian or indigenous things that I don't understand.
And Cuba is perhaps a gigantic an painful historic mistake that has to be repaired with some charity and understanding of all other nations.
I feel a lot of sadness and also shame of "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" in Haiti and their brutal police the "Tonton Macoutes".
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