Selling the Amazon for a Handful of Beads

Miss Equador 2006
Oil is not the only "natural resource" here
This gives a partial glimpse of how foreign oil companies get at the oil in other countries. Latin America is interesting in that there is some resistance to this now.

In the midst of an Amazonian oil boom, classified documents reveal deep links between oil companies and Ecuador's military.

The documents raise human rights questions as Amazonian indigenous groups push back against Big Oil.

It's unusual, to say the least, that a foreign-owned business, dedicated to oil exploration and production, should choose to advise the Ecuadorian Armed Forces as to where best to base their soldiers, and it is a sad reflection on the power relations in Ecuador that the advice not only did not offend, but was followed. The danger is that, now that the oil companies have established their authority over the military, and now that indigenous lands have become a target for military intervention, it is a short step to the military terror that has been seen in Burma, Nigeria and Colombia.

Read on . . . .

OK then, more about Miss Equador and other contestants....