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[Translation of an article from AlterPresse of Port-au-Prince for April 12, 2013. See original here. The writer is communications coordinator for the Jesuit Refugee Service for Latin America and the Caribbean.]

By Wooldy Edson Louidor

Bogota, Colombia, April 12 – Several South American governments are showing a clear tendency toward a hardening of their migration policies in regard to Haitian migrants who reach their border or are already in their territory.

From Ecuador to French Guiana (an overseas territory of France), Haitian migrants face an ever more complex series of difficult situations like the closing of borders, threats of deportation, increases in requirements for entering their territories and humanitarian crises. (more…)

Chamber of Deputies president says Treasury Committee will seek advise from Ecuador

[Translation of an article from Listín Diario of Santo Domingo for March 25, 2013.  See original here and related article here.]

By Ramón Pérez Reyes

Chamber of Deputies President Abel Martínez has announced that once Holy Week is over, if there have been no significant advances in the negotiations between President Danilo Medina and executives of the Barrick Gold mining company, the lower chamber will hold public hearings in the National Assembly hall.

He said the object is to hear all sectors of the nation who have concerns, suggestions and opinions about the contract covering exploitation of the mine in Pueblo Viejo, Cotuí

Meanwhile, Senator Félix Nova said senators are awaiting only the president’s decision before taking action against the mining company. (more…)

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for February 22. See original here.]

by Blanche Petrich

Quito, February 21 – Viewed from other latitudes in Latin America, dominated as they are by backwardness and conflicts, Ecuador these days is a model. And it is better than under any of its previous governments. Opposition leader Alberto Acosta recognizes that. “But if we make an objective review of what is being done and what we set out to do in the original project of the citizen revolution, and what the constitution requires us to do,” he warns, “we have gotten off track.”

This is the implacable criticism of Alberto Acosta, who was Rafael Correa’s mentor in his university days and the days of citizen activism. It was he who convinced him to run for the presidency in 2006. This is how he describes him now: “He is a driver who sets his turn signal for a left turn and then turns right.” (more…)

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for February 19. See original here.]

By Blanche Petrich

Quito, February 18 – The elections on Sunday buried the old political class that had governed Ecuador during the 20th century. As the official vote count by the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) of the races for members of the national and provincial assemblies goes on, a new map is being drawn: the parties of the bankers, the banana merchants and the portions of the military that shaped the destiny of the country between coups d’état, conspiracies, uprisings and plunder have disappeared from the national geography.

Legislating during the new term of the [unicameral] Assembly, with a total of 137 members, will be the ruling party, the Alianza Patria Altiva y Soberana (PAIS), with between 91 and 94 seats. The exact count is not yet certain. As a very diminished second electoral power comes Creando Oportunidades (CREO) with between 20 and 25 seats.

PAIS was only formed as a party in 2006 for Rafael Correa’s first electoral campaign. CREO appeared last year to champion the conservative Guillermo Lasso. (more…)

((Aline Sasahara photo))

On Wikileaks, on the Mexican student movement, on freedom of the press

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for June 22. See original here.]

by Stella Calloni

Rio de Janeiro, June 21 – The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, said on Thursday that countries should struggle to achieve real freedom of the press, as part of a broader concept, as well as the right of all citizens to freedom of expression, which the powerful media are intent on privatizing with the goal of making profits. In this respect, he pointed hopefully to the rebellion of the university students of Mexico in the face of the power of the media, which he described as at some times dictatorial. (more…)

[Translation of an article from El Expreso of Guayaquil, based on a dispatch by the Spanish news agency Efe, from April 5. See original article here and diplomatic cable in question here.]

Ecuador has declared the US ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges, persona non grata and has asked her to leave the country in response to a cable signed by her and released by Wikileaks concerning corruption in the Ecuadorian police force.

“We have asked her to leave the country as soon as possible,” Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño said today in a press conference. (more…)

Bolivian says they are conspiring against democratic process in ALBA countries

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for November 19 based on Prensa Latina and Agence France Presse material. See original article here.]

La Paz, November 18 – In separate statements, the governments of Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador today charged that representatives of the far right of their countries met with Republican legislators in the United States congress to conspire against the countries making up the Alianza Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA – Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America).

“The right and the far right are meeting to evaluate and analyze and to see how they can conspire against the democratic process our country is living through,” Iván Canelas, spokesman for the Bolivian government, said in a press conference.

“This is an exteme right that has the support of political sectors” of the United States and of the media, “and is destabilizing,” warned Bernardo Álvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador in Washington.
(more…)

[Translation of an article from TeleSUR of Venezuela for November 10. See original article here.]

A video recording released on Tuesday by Televisión Pública of Ecuador shows the moment in which several uniformed police agents in rebellion attempted to enter the National Police hospital to assault President Rafael Correa on the day they attempted to overthrow him.

The images confirm the account by Ecuadorian Interior Minister Gustavo Jalkh, who said several days ago that last September 30 some of the police in rebellion had attempted to enter the hospital by force with the aim of an attempt on the life of President Correa. (more…)

“All the intelligence cadres in the country were working for the CIA.”

[Abridged translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for October 25. See original article here and related article here.]

By Blanche Petrich

Quito, October 24 – President Rafael Correa is a little late getting to his office in the Palacio de Carondelet, where he has arranged a meeting with La Jornada, because he has gone to the children’s hospital to visit an 11-year-old boy who, amid the chaos and violence of September 30, was wounded in the leg by an expanding bullet. The boy suffered two cardiac arrests but at last, almost a month afterward, is recovering satisfactorily.

During the interview, Correa expresses himself with a frankness unusual in chiefs of state: “We are blind, at the zero level, in matters of intelligence for internal security.” Angered by those who took part in the conspiracy, including the indigenous organizations that now perform political acts in alliance with the rightist opposition. Wary of recognizing the loyalty of his government’s armed forces: “They acted very professionally. Not all of them, but in general. There is infiltration there too.” (more…)

Four articles

Recordings disclose police called for murder of president

[Translated from Diario Expreso of Guayaquil, Ecuador, for September 5. See original article here.]

A recording of the police radio includes voices of supposed officers calling for the killing of President Rafael Correa during a rebellion that left ten dead and 274 injured, according to audio distributed on Tuesday by the Andes public agency.

“Let them kill Correa so this can be over with, kill him and it will be done!” and “Kill him, kill the president!” are some of the comments heard on the half-hour recording of messages from the central radio facility released by Andes.

Last Thursday, protests against a law that eliminated bonuses for the police developed into a violent disturbance during which the president was detained for several hours in a hospital in Quito.

“Don’t let that son of a bitch [hijo de puta] go, make him sign (the police petitions) first, then he can leave; otherwise, that bastard [cabrón] doesn’t leave,” a voice demands. (more…)

[Translations of two articles from La Prensa of Riobamba, Ecuador, the first, from May 12, based on an Agence France Presse dispatch, the second, from May 13, by La Prensa staff.]

Water war continues in Ecuador
Indigenous demonstrators close Panamerican Highway North

Quito, May 12 – On Tuesday, indigenous people of the province of Imbabura again temporarily blocked the Panamerican highway North in protest of a bill on the management of water that they consider privatizes it.

Police re-opened the roadway without incident, according to authorities.

“We don’t believe what the government is saying,” declared Luis Quilumba, who claims  the bill will privatize water, a claim denied by the government, who in turn accuse the indigenous protestors of trying to depose leftist President Rafael Correa. (more…)

[Translation of an article from El Mercurio of Cuenca, Ecuador, for April 18, based on a dispatch from Agence France Presse.]

Quito – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced on Saturday that he will introduce a bill in congress to expropriate the holdings of foreign oil companies that refuse to sign new contracts giving the state control of all production.

“We are sending a bill to the legislative assembly that would give me the means of expropriating oil fields in case the petroleum companies refuse to sign new contracts for the provision of services,” the president stated in his weekly message. (more…)