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On the 22nd of December of 2009 the television chain Teleamazonaswas closed down for three days due to a direct order from the Palace of Carondelet, the seat of president Rafael Correa- a self-avowed “Socialist Of The XXI Century.” The order given by the Superintendent Of Telecommunications violates all procedures and has been given without the option of appeal.

The shutdown occurs at a key moment for President Correa: 5pm, only a few hours before the National Assembly prepares to debate about a new law known as Gag Order.

At 7pm tonight hundreds of people could be found outside of the station in solidarity with Teleamazonas and against the measure, which attempts against the liberty of Ecuadoreans everywhere. For Marcos Cadena, one of the protesters, this is nothing more than a reflection of the totalitarian nature of today’s Ecuadorean government.

Teleamazonas has set up a twitter feed athttp://twitter.com/teleamazonasec

However, despite the hundreds of protesters, there a many who, likeVictor M. Abad (who is conveniently residing in New York and is therefore exempt from all suppression) , are in favor of totalitarianism and the violation of freedom of speech. Mr. Abad writes:

“Para los ignorantes como Orlado Zuñiga, me pregunto hasta cuando los periódicos y radios van a hacer y decir lo que les plazca sin miedo a ser reprendidos o en el mejor de los casos sacados de circulación.”

Translated, it reads:

“For the ignorants such as Orlando Zuñiga, I wonder for how long will newspapers and radios be able to say and do whatever it pleases them without fear of being reprehended or, in the best of cases, taken out of circulation altogether.”

To Mr. Abad we must ask: What kind of country do you wish you live in? You have two choices:

a) A country in which the government has the right and force to censure and infringe upon the individual’s freedom of speech, in accordance with whatever it is the government deems ‘appropriate’ to be said.

b) A free country.

If it is a free country he wants, then Mr. Abad has to live with a very unpleasant fact of reality (for him): The fact that he will live in a country in which any person may say whatever stupidity comes forth from their mouths (Mr. Abad being a case in point) without the risk of government sanction (unless they are performing legal slander or libel, which is raising false accusations) for expressing themselves. If it is freedom that Mr. Abad wants, then there is only one path to it: Remove Rafael Correa from power and purge every cabinet, committee and office appointed by him, embrace capitalism and individual rights and restore a proper set of laws so that Ecuador is not a ‘Social Democracy’ but a full Republic.

It is, however, the first kind of government that Mr. Abad wants. In this case we suggest to Mr. Abad to buy a one-way ticket to Iran, a country that is now famous around the world for having exactly the kind of government that he wants. Iran is so efficient in controlling everything by what the government deems ‘acceptable’ that some remarkable progress has been made in every aspect of Iranian life. For example, the government has banned makeup on female TV hosts, has banned those harbingers of sexual perversion known as curvaceous mannequins from store windows, has banned male clerks from selling women’s underwear, banned English words, and banned local and foreign media within Iran from covering things such as the brutal assassination of Neda Agha Soltani by government thugs – which is something the government would obviously find ‘inappropriate.’ Obviously Iran is the perfect choice for Mr. Abad: the full logical conclusion of his sickening ideology.

There is more than a passing resemblance between Iranian totalitarianism and Ecuadorean Socialism. It is important that everybody realize that the kind of ideology that is now taking full bloom in Ecuador is the same totalitarian tyranny that drove Augusto Pinochet, Francisco Franco and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the ideological ‘giants’ (if one can be a giant in depravity) that Rafael Correa wishes to emulate. In the end it is valuable and intelligent individuals such as Neda Agha Soltani who are destroyed whilst government cronies and sympathizers, like Mr. Abad, feed on the carcasses.

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