April 10, 2011

Ecuador's populist President Rafael Correa has made big headlines with his decision to expel the U.S. ambassador from his country. But the U.S. diplomat's expulsion may just be just a sideshow of something much worse that is cooking in Ecuador.

Correa, who's following the script of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is continuously rewriting his country's laws to amass absolute powers, is about to hold a new national referendum May 7. This time, his not-so-hidden goal is to further curtail freedom of the press in the country, and eliminate any form of government criticism.

The decision to expel the U.S. envoy and the May 7 referendum may not be unrelated. While several well-informed Ecuadorans tell me that Correa is an erratic leader who acts by impulse, others tell me that the much-publicized ouster of U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges is a political propaganda ploy by the president to cast himself as a champion of national sovereignty, and win the upcoming referendum.

Hodges was asked to leave the country Tuesday for signing a 2009 confidential cable leaked a day earlier by the Spanish newspaper El País, in which she wrote that corruption within the ranks of Ecuador's police is "generalized" -- a fact that few Ecuadoreans would dispute. Hodges further wrote that "some U.S. Embassy officials" believed that Correa knew about a former police chief's corrupt activities when he had appointed him.

Correa's brother Fabricio Correa, who parted ways with his brother after press reports that he had signed lucrative contracts with the current government, told me in a telephone interview that while the president is a "very temperamental" man, the decision to ask Hodges to leave the country "was most likely taken by (foreign minister Ricardo) Patiño, who is totally anti-American."

He added, "The president is campaigning, and probably had to stage this whole thing in order not to project an image of weakness."

Joyce de Ginatta, a journalist and business leader, believes that the president's decision was more likely politically motivated. "In the short run, it will give him more votes for the May 7 referendum, because hitting the United States is always good for getting votes," she told me.

The Correa-proposed referendum contains 10 questions, some of which are obvious baits to draw people to the polls and vote for the whole package. One of the questions aimed at luring voters reads, "In order to avoid the death of animals for pure amusement, do you agree with prohibiting ... public shows in which animals are killed?"

Further down are the more worrisome questions, such as one asking whether "in order to avoid the excesses of communications media" there should be a law setting up a "Regulatory Council" that would scrutinize the content of television, radio and print media.

This comes amid an all-out Correa government offensive against the few independent media surviving in Ecuador. The president has filed an $80 million lawsuit against the daily El Universo's opinion pages editor Emilio Palacio and the newspaper's owners for allegedly slandering him in a February opinion column, and another $10 million suit against Juan Carlos Calderon y Christian Zurita, two journalists who wrote a book about Fabricio Correa's contracts with his brother's government.

In addition, the Correa government has begun to interrupt news shows while on the air when it doesn't like what it sees; has already forced management changes of two major television stations -- Telecentro and Gamavision -- and has intimidated most other electronic media into exercising self-censorship.

"Anybody who says something against his government is crushed," El Universo opinion page editor Palacio told me. "If Correa wins the referendum, all of the media will be silenced. We will have a government regulator who will decide what we can write."

My opinion: I'm not terribly worried about the U.S. envoy's expulsion. Correa has a history of acting precipitously -- if not irrationally -- and later making amends.

In 2008, Correa expelled the Colombian ambassador after Colombia attacked a guerrilla base inside Ecuador, and two years later welcomed a new Colombian ambassador to his country. Also in 2008, Correa amid much fanfare, expelled Brazil's giant Odebrecht construction firm, and then silently welcomed it back.

The U.S. ambassador's expulsion will be no different. What's much more worrisome is Correa's plan to turn Ecuador into a country without a system of checks and balances. That will only help increase corruption, disinvestment and poverty.

 

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(C) 2011 Andres Oppenheimer, The Miami Herald Distributed by Tribune Media Services