President Rafael Correa of Ecuador managed to tear himself away from Twitter to give a speech condemning the U.S., and portraying Latin America (and especially Ecuador) as a paragon of freedom and human rights.
Barack Obama was next, and he agreed with Correa!
Obama stated, “I wanna make one last comment, er, addressing er, some of the points that er, president Correa raised that I’m sure will be raised by a few others during this discussion. Er, I always enjoy the history lessons that I receive, er, when I’m here.
Having prefaced that, Obama continued, “I am a student of history so I tend to actually be familiar with many of these episodes that have been mentioned. I am the first one to acknowledge that America’s application to concern around human rights has not always been consistent. And, I’m certainly mindful that there are dark chapters in our own history in which we have not always observed the principles and ideals upon which the country was founded. Just a few weeks ago I was in Selma, Alabama celebrating the 50th anniversary of a march across a bridge that resulted in horrific violence and the reason I was there and the reason it was a celebration is because it was a triumph of human spirit in which ordinary people without resort to violence were able to overcome systematic segregation. There voices were heard and our country changed. America never makes a claim about being perfect, we do make a claim about being open to change.”
Fausta’s Blog then provides links to a few indicators of Ecuador’s “high standing.”
They include:
* Heritage Foundation & Wall Street Journal's Index of Economic Freedom — Ecuador #147
* Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index — Ecuador #119
* Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index — Ecuador #146
* Institute for Economics and Peace/Economist Intelligence Unit: Global Peace Index — Ecuador #109
How’s that for history lessons?