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Rafael Correa

Secret Chats Expose Decade Of US Meddling In Ecuador

September 5, 2024 Oscar Leon, The Grayzone. , , , ,
Exclusive interviews and leaked messages reveal how a key ally of the US weaponized the fight against corruption and criminal organizations to selectively prosecute Ecuador’s heads of state, viciously persecuting Rafael Correa and his Revolución Ciudadana movement on flimsy evidence, while delaying investigations into much graver crimes allegedly committed by his successors. Recently-leaked secret chats obtained by The Grayzone expose how Ecuadorian prosecutor Diana Salazar leaked information to a subject of an ongoing investigation, undermining the prosecution of associates of Ecuador’s current and previous US-aligned presidents, and acted hand-in-glove with the United States government, which essentially selected and controlled prosecutions from Washington.

Latin America Condemns Ecuador’s Storming Of The Mexican Embassy

April 7, 2024 Zoe Alexandra, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
The decision by the government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to forcibly enter the Mexican Embassy in Quito with dozens of police officers to arrest former Ecuadorian official Jorge Glas has been met with widespread repudiation across Latin America and the Caribbean. Xiomara Castro, Honduran president and the president pro-tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), announced on Saturday that two emergency meetings of CELAC would be held on Monday April 8 and Tuesday April 9 to address the situation in which the American Convention on Asylum and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations were both violated by Ecuador against Mexico.

Wealthy Corporations Use Investment Agreements To Extract Millions From Developing Countries

January 25, 2024 Nicholas Kusnetz and Katie Surma, Scheer Post. , , , ,
When Rafael Correa entered Ecuador’s presidency in 2007, the nation faced an opportunity and a challenge. Ecuador’s economy depended on oil, and global crude prices were near a record high. Much of the oil was extracted by foreign companies, however, so as prices surged more wealth began flowing overseas. More than a third of Ecuadorians were living in poverty, and Correa had come to power as a leftist promising “radical, profound and quick changes to the current model of so much exploitation, of so much injustice.” Soon after taking office, Correa increased a recently enacted windfall tax on oil companies. The idea was to use the tax as leverage to extract better terms from the companies, and this fight against foreign firms quickly became a high-profile pillar of Correa’s broader campaign to assert the nation’s sovereignty.

Ecuador’s Election Could Have Lasting Consequences

October 16, 2023 Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research. , , ,
Imagine a developing country where a 43-year-old economist with a PhD from the University of Illinois, who is relatively unknown as a politician, runs for president and wins. Despite the preceding decades of corruption and institutional rot, he puts together a competent government and gets the economic policy right. The numbers tell much of the story: in the 10 years of his presidency, poverty fell by 41 percent; income per person grew at more than twice the rate of the previous 25 years; and public investment and government expenditure on health services doubled as a share of the economy.

Elections In Ecuador Unmask Western Media Dishonesty

February 17, 2023 Joe Emersberger, Mintpress News. , , ,
On February 5, Revolución Ciudadana (RC5), the political party led by former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, a leftist who was in office from 2007 to 2017, won significant victories in municipal and regional elections. RC5 candidates triumphed throughout the country but, most significantly, were elected mayors of Ecuador’s largest cities: Guayaquil, Quito (the capital) and Cuenca. Notably, in Guayaquil, RC5 ended three decades of rightwing rule. It also won the prefectures of the most populous provinces: Guayas and Pichincha. Indeed, it won the most mayor and prefect elections of any political party on February 5.

Ecuador: The Crumbling Of Another Neo-liberal Restoration Project

February 9, 2023 Gustavo A. Maranges, Resumen Latinoamericano English. , , ,
Last Sunday, regional elections were held in Ecuador. Thirteen million people were called to elect 5,700 (governors, mayors, counselors, and parish board members) and the seven Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control (Citizen Council or CPCCS)’s counselors and their substitutes. In addition, the executive led by Guillermo Lasso submitted eight Constitutional Referendum questions, which were grouped into three topics: security, environment, and the country’s political work. The process took place amid an economic crisis, the highest insecurity levels in the last 30 years, and a president’s approval rate that barely reaches 20%. All these elements played against this neoliberal administration’s odds, although the crushing defeat suggests a much deeper cause beyond the current situation.

Ecuador: Presidential Elections Could Bring Back The Citizens’ Revolution

February 3, 2021 Danny Shaw, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. , , ,
On February 7, Ecuador will hold elections for President and for its legislative body, with 137 positions to be decided for the National Assembly. Though 16 presidential candidates participated in the debates, there are three major candidates. Andrés Arauz and his vice presidential candidate, Carlos Rabascall, represent La Unión por la Esperanza (The Union of Hope, UNES), what was Alianza País led by former president Rafael Correa before the party split in 2017. Guayaquil banker Guillermo Lasso and Alfredo Borrero are the candidates for the conservative alliance Creando Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities, CREO). Carlos “Yacu” Pérez is the candidate of the indigenous Pachakutik Party.

Max Blumenthal Meets Rafael Correa In Venezuela

December 14, 2020 Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. , , ,
Max Blumenthal interviews former Ecuador President Rafael Correa, who was in Venezuela to observe its legislative elections and show support to a government under sustained economic and political attack by the US. Correa addresses issues ranging from the repression in his country under the watch of its outgoing neoliberal president, Lenin Moreno, to the persecution of Julian Assange and the role of a CIA contractor in targeting him and the Wikileaks founder. Blumenthal and Correa also discuss the prospect of a left-wing victory in Ecuador’s upcoming national elections, and what the US-backed government is doing to stop it.

How Ecuador’s Democracy Is Being Suffocated

October 1, 2020 Vijay Prashad and Pilar Troya, Counterpunch. , , ,
A recent poll showed that if Andrés Arauz Galarza were allowed to run in Ecuador’s presidential election of 2021, he would win in the first round with 45.9 percent of the vote. The pollsters found that Arauz—who was the minister of knowledge and human talent from 2015 to 2017—wins across “all the social strata and regions of the country, with a slight weakness among the richest voters in the country.” Andrés Arauz entered policymaking and government when Rafael Correa was the president of the country, from 2007 to 2017.

Political Trials And Electoral Bans

September 20, 2020 Guillaume Long, Open Democracy. , , ,
Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and his allies have gone to great lengths to prevent former president Rafael Correa and his political movement from returning to power. In order to achieve this goal, the current government has persecuted opponents and barred candidates from running. Moreno’s authoritarianism has, so far, gone largely unnoticed internationally. With elections scheduled for February 2021, it is crucial that the international community keeps a vigilant eye on the Ecuadorian government’s persistent attempts at perverting the course of democracy.

Ecuadorean President Moreno Accused Of Helping The CIA

October 27, 2019 Sputnik News, translated Resumen English. , , ,
Former Foreign Minister of Ecuador Ricardo Patiño has accused President Lenin Moreno of working for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “Moreno became a CIA insider due to blackmailing… We are absolutely sure that while Moreno was in Geneva (working as the United Nations Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility), he established a very close relationship with the CIA and the U.S. Administration because they may have found his secret bank accounts in Panama, opened by his brother to save money from corruption,” Patiño told Sputnik. Deputy Ronny Aleaga, member of the now opponent Citizen Revolution party founded by former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), filed documents with the Attorney’s Office on Anti-Corruption accusing Moreno of purchasing an apartment by means of bribery during his term as Correa’s vice-president.

Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution: Retaking Power From Old Elites

January 17, 2016 Staff, www.telesurtv.net , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Staff for Telesur. President Rafael Correa marks nine years in office Jan. 15, 2016, having overseen the transformation of Ecuador. It will be his last full year in power after his recent decision not to stand again. Correa will go down in history as one of the most successful Ecuadorean presidents. Ecuador before Correa was defined by its political and economic instability, with seven presidents forced out of office in a decade. Neoliberal measures applied by previous administrations left the country one of the poorest and least-developed in the region, but the government of Rafael Correa has undertaken a series of deep reforms, which have delivered remarkable changes for Ecuador's long-excluded majority. President Rafael Correa said in 2014, “People must prevail over capital,” adding that politics is about whose interest governments serve: “Elites or the majority? Capital or humankind? The market or society? Policies and programs depend on who holds the balance of power."
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