correa Pres

=<div>10 22 running VP indig party</div><div>=
<div>wiki hist ecuador:</div><div>
</div><div><div><h5 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Economic crisis (1990–2000)[</h5><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998-99_Ecuador_banking_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="1998-99 Ecuador banking crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1998-99 Ecuador banking crisis</a></div>In 1992, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixto_Dur%C3%A1n_Ball%C3%A9n" title="Sixto Durán Ballén" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sixto Durán Ballén</a> won his third run for the presidency. His tough <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroeconomics" title="Macroeconomics" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">macroeconomic</a> adjustment measures were unpopular, but he succeeded in pushing a limited number of modernization initiatives through Congress. Durán Ballén's vice president, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Dahik" title="Alberto Dahik" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Alberto Dahik</a>, was the architect of the administration's economic policies, but in 1995, Dahik fled the country to avoid prosecution on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption" title="Political corruption" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">corruption</a> charges following a heated political battle with the opposition. A war with Peru (named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenepa_War" title="Cenepa War" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">the Cenepa War</a>, after a river located in the area) erupted in January–February 1995 in a small, remote region, where the boundary prescribed by the 1942 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Protocol" title="Rio Protocol" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rio Protocol</a> was in dispute. The Durán-Ballén Administration can be credited with beginning the negotiations that would end in a final settlement of the territorial dispute.In 1996, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdal%C3%A1_Bucaram" title="Abdalá Bucaram" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Abdalá Bucaram</a>, from the populist Ecuadorian Roldosista Party, won the presidency on a platform that promised populist economic and social reforms. Almost from the start, Bucaram's administration languished amidst widespread allegations of corruption. Empowered by the president's unpopularity with organized labor, business, and professional organizations alike, Congress unseated Bucaram in February 1997 on grounds of mental incompetence. The Congress replaced Bucaram with Interim President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabi%C3%A1n_Alarc%C3%B3n" title="Fabián Alarcón" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fabián Alarcón</a>.In May 1997, following the demonstrations that led to the ousting of Bucaram and appointment of Alarcón, the people of Ecuador called for a National Assembly to reform the Constitution and the country's political structure. After a little more than a year, the National Assembly produced a new Constitution.Congressional and first-round presidential elections were held on May 31, 1998. No presidential candidate obtained a majority, so a run-off election between the top two candidates – Quito Mayor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamil_Mahuad" title="Jamil Mahuad" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jamil Mahuad</a> of the DP and Social Christian Álvaro Noboa Pontón – was held on July 12, 1998. Mahuad won by a narrow margin. He took office on August 10, 1998. On the same day, Ecuador's new constitution came into effect.In July 1998, Christian Democrat Jamil Mahuad (who was the former mayor of Quito) was elected president. It is facing a difficult economic situation, linked in particular to the Asian crisis. The currency is devalued by 15%, fuel and electricity prices increase fivefold, and public transport prices increase by 40%. The government is preparing to privatize several key sectors of the economy: oil, electricity, telecommunications, ports, airports, railways and post office. The repression of a first general strike caused three deaths. The social situation is critical: more than half of the population is unemployed, 60% live below the extreme poverty line, public employees have not been paid for three months. A further increase in VAT, combined with the abolition of subsidies for domestic gas, electricity and diesel, triggers a new social movement. In the provinces of Latacunga, the army shoots the indigenous people who cut the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-American_Highway" title="Pan-American Highway" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pan-American Highway</a>, injuring 17 people with bullets.The coup de grâce for Mahuad's administration was Mahuad's decision to make the local currency, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_sucre" title="Ecuadorian sucre" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sucre</a> (named after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Jos%C3%A9_de_Sucre" title="Antonio José de Sucre" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Antonio José de Sucre</a>), obsolete and replace it with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.dollar" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. dollar" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. dollar</a> (a policy called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollarization" class="mw-redirect" title="Dollarization" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">dollarization</a>). This caused massive unrest as the lower classes struggled to convert their now useless sucres to US dollars and lost wealth, while the upper classes (whose members already had their wealth invested in US dollars) gained wealth in turn. Under Mahuad's recession-plagued term, the economy shrank significantly, and inflation reached levels of up to 60 percent.In addition, corruption scandals are a source of public concern. Former Vice President Alberto Dahik, architect of the neoliberal economic programme, is fleeing abroad after being indicted for "questionable use of reserved funds". Former President Fabián Alarcón is arrested on charges of covering more than a thousand fictitious jobs. President Mahuad is implicated for receiving money from drug trafficking during his election campaign. Several major bankers are also cited in cases. Mahuad concluded a well-received peace with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peru</a> on October 26, 1998.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a><h4 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ecuador since 2000[</h4>flagged]
On January 21, 2000, during demonstrations in Quito by indigenous groups, the military and police refused to enforce public order, beginning what became known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Ecuadorean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" class="mw-redirect" title="2000 Ecuadorean coup d'état" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2000 Ecuadorean coup d'état</a>. Demonstrators entered the National Assembly building and declared, in a move that resembled the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coups_d%27%C3%A9tat" class="mw-redirect" title="Coups d'état" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">coups d'état</a> endemic to Ecuadorean history, a three-person <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dictatorship" title="Military dictatorship" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">junta</a> in charge of the country. Field-grade military officers declared their support for the concept. During a night of confusion and failed negotiations, President Mahuad was forced to flee the presidential palace for his own safety. Vice President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Noboa" title="Gustavo Noboa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Gustavo Noboa</a> took charge by vice-presidential decree; Mahuad went on national television in the morning to endorse Noboa as his successor. The military triumvirate that was effectively running the country also endorsed Noboa. The Ecuadorean Congress then met in an emergency session in Guayaquil on the same day, January 22, and ratified Noboa as President of the Republic in constitutional succession to Mahuad.Although Ecuador began to improve economically in the following months, the government of Noboa came under heavy fire for the continuation of the dollarization policy, its disregard for social problems, and other important issues in Ecuadorean politics.Retired Colonel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucio_Guti%C3%A9rrez" title="Lucio Gutiérrez" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lucio Gutiérrez</a>, a member of the military junta that overthrew Mahuad, was elected president in 2002 and assumed the presidency on January 15, 2003. Gutierrez's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_21_Patriotic_Society_Party" class="mw-redirect" title="January 21 Patriotic Society Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Patriotic Society Party</a> had a small fraction of the seats in Congress and therefore depended on the support of other parties in Congress to pass legislation.In December 2004, Gutiérrez unconstitutionally dissolved the Supreme Court and appointed new judges to it. This move was generally seen as a kickback to deposed ex-President Abdalá Bucaram, whose political party had sided with Gutiérrez and helped derail attempts to impeach him in late 2004. The new Supreme Court dropped charges of corruption pending against the exiled Bucaram, who soon returned to the politically unstable country. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption" title="Political corruption" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">corruption</a> evident in these maneuvers finally led Quito's middle classes to seek the ousting of Gutiérrez in early 2005. In April 2005, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces declared that it "withdrew its support" for the President. After weeks of public protests, Gutiérrez was overthrown in April. Vice President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Palacio" title="Alfredo Palacio" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alfredo Palacio</a> assumed the Presidency and vowed to complete the term of office and hold elections in 2006.On January 15, 2007, the social democrat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa" title="Rafael Correa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Correa</a> succeeded Palacio as President of Ecuador, with the promise of summoning a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_assembly" title="Constituent assembly" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">constituent assembly</a> and bringing focus on poverty. The 2007-8 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_Constituent_Assembly" title="Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly</a> drafted the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador" title="2008 Constitution of Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2008 Constitution of Ecuador</a>, approved via the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_constitutional_referendum,2008" class="mw-redirect" title="Ecuadorian constitutional referendum, 2008" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ecuadorian constitutional referendum, 2008</a>.In November 2009, Ecuador faced an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Ecuador_electricity_crisis" title="2009 Ecuador electricity crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">energy crisis</a> that led to power rationing across the country.Between 2006 and 2016, poverty decreased from 36.7% to 22.5% and annual per capita GDP growth was 1.5 percent (as compared to 0.6 percent over the prior two decades). At the same time, inequalities, as measured by the Gini index, decreased from 0.55 to 0.47.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a><div class="thumb tleft" style="float: left; clear: left; margin: 0.5em 1.4em 1.3em 0px; width: auto;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa" title="Rafael Correa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Correa</a> (left) attends President-elect <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%ADn_Moreno" title="Lenín Moreno" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none;">Lenín</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%ADn_Moreno" title="Lenín Moreno" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"> Moreno</a>'s (middle) 'changing of the guard' ceremony. The two <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAIS_Alliance" title="PAIS Alliance" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">PAIS</a> leaders were considered close allies before Moreno's "De-correaization" efforts started after he assumed the presidency.</div></div></div>Beginning in 2007, President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa" title="Rafael Correa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Correa</a> established <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Citizens%27_Revolution" title="The Citizens' Revolution" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">The Citizens' Revolution</a>, a movement following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing" class="mw-redirect" title="Left-wing" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">left-wing</a> policies, which some sources describe as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism" title="Populism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">populist</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WORLDsocialist-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[19]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[20]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-PBS-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WSJ2013-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:32-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[23]</a> Correa was able to utilize the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_commodities_boom" title="2000s commodities boom" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2000s commodities boom</a> to fund his policies,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WSJ2013-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a> utilizing China's need for raw materials.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:03-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[24]</a> Through China, Correa accepted loans that had few requirements, as opposed to firm limits set by other lenders.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:03-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a> With this funding, Ecuador was able to invest in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_welfare" class="mw-redirect" title="Social welfare" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">social welfare</a> programs, reduce <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty" title="Poverty" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">poverty</a> and increase the average <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living" title="Standard of living" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">standard of living</a> in Ecuador, while at the same time growing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Ecuador" title="Economy of Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ecuador's economy</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> Such policies resulted in a popular base of support for Correa, who was re-elected to the presidency three times between 2007 and 2013.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WSJ2013-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a> Media coverage in the United States viewed Correa's strong popular support and efforts to re-found the Ecuadorian State as an entrenchment of power.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WSJ2013-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:24-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a>As the Ecuadorian economy began to decline in 2014, Correa decided not to run for a fourth term<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[29]</a> and by 2015, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ecuadorian_protests" title="2015 Ecuadorian protests" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">protests occurred against Correa</a> following the introduction of austerity measures and an increase of inheritance taxes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WORLDsocialist-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[19]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-WSJjune25-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[30]</a> Instead, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%ADn_Moreno" title="Lenín Moreno" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Lenín Moreno</a>, who was at the time a staunch Correa loyalist and had served as his vice-president for over six years, was expected to continue with Correa's legacy and the implementation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_of_the_21st_century" title="Socialism of the 21st century" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">21st century socialism</a> in the country, running on a broadly left-wing platform with significant similarities to Correa's.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:24-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-apnewscorrea-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a>In the weeks after his election, Moreno distanced himself from Correa's policies<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:12-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a> and shifted the left-wing PAIS Alliance's away from the left-wing politics and towards the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" title="Neoliberalism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">neoliberal</a> governance.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:24-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a> Despite these policy shifts, Moreno continued to identify himself as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democrat" class="mw-redirect" title="Social democrat" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">social democrat</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[35]</a> Moreno then led the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Ecuadorian_referendum_and_popular_consultation" title="2018 Ecuadorian referendum and popular consultation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2018 Ecuadorian referendum</a>, which reinstated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_limit" title="Term limit" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">presidential term limits</a> that were removed by Correa, barring Correa from running for a fourth presidential term in the future.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:24-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[28]</a> At his election, Moreno enjoyed an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%ADn_Moreno#Approval_rating" title="Lenín Moreno" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">approval rating of 79 percent</a>. Moreno's distancing from his predecessor's policies and his electoral campaign's platform, however, alienated both former President Correa<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[36]</a> and a large percentage of his own party's supporters.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[37]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-cuenca-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[38]</a> In July 2018, a warrant for Correa's arrest was issued after facing 29 charges for alleged corruption acts performed while he was in office.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:32-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:02-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-APcoup-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a>Due to increased borrowing by Correa's administration, which he had used to fund social welfare projects, as well as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010s_oil_glut" title="2010s oil glut" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2010s oil glut</a>, public debt tripled in a five-year period, with Ecuador eventually coming to use of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bank_of_Ecuador" title="Central Bank of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Central Bank of Ecuador's</a> reserves for funds.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:4-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:2-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[42]</a> In total, Ecuador was left $64 billion in debt and was losing $10 billion annually.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:2-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[42]</a> On 21 August 2018, Moreno announced economic austerity measures to reduce public spending and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_budget_balance" title="Government budget balance" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">deficit</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:6-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:7-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[44]</a> Moreno stated that the measures aimed to save $1 billion and included a reduction of fuel subsidies, eliminating subsidies for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline" title="Gasoline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">gasoline</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_fuel" title="Diesel fuel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">diesel</a>, and the removal or merging of several public entities, a move denounced by the groups representing the nation's indigenous groups and trade unions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:6-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:7-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[44]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:24-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a>In August 2018, Ecuador withdrew from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alliance_for_the_Peoples_of_Our_America" class="mw-redirect" title="Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America</a> (Alba), a regional bloc of leftwing governments led by Venezuela.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[45]</a>In October 2018, the government of President Lenin Moreno cut diplomatic relations with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_Maduro" title="Nicolás Maduro" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nicolás Maduro</a> regime of Venezuela, a close ally of Rafael Correa.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[46]</a>In March 2019, Ecuador withdrew from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_South_American_Nations" title="Union of South American Nations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Union of South American Nations</a>. Ecuador was an original member of the block, founded by left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008. Ecuador also asked UNASUR to return the headquarters building of the organization, based in its capital city, Quito.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-47" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[47]</a>In June 2019, Ecuador agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-48" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[48]</a>On 1 October 2019, Lenín Moreno announced a package of economic measures as part of a deal with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" title="International Monetary Fund" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">International Monetary Fund</a> (IMF) to obtain US$4,209 millions in credit. These measures became known as "el paquetazo" and they included the end of fuel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy" title="Subsidy" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">subsidies</a>, removal of some import tariffs and cuts in public worker benefits and wages.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-bbc-4reasons-49" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[49]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-nodal-paquetazo-50" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[50]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:1-51" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[51]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Ecuadorian_protests" title="2019 Ecuadorian protests" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">This caused mass protests</a> which began on 3 October 2019. On 8 October, President Moreno relocated his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Ecuador" class="mw-redirect" title="Government of Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">government</a> to the coastal city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil" title="Guayaquil" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Guayaquil</a> after anti-government protesters had overrun Quito, including the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carondelet_Palace" title="Carondelet Palace" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Carondelet Palace</a>. On the same day, Moreno accused his predecessor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa" title="Rafael Correa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Correa</a> of orchestrating a coup against the government with the aid of Venezuela's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_Maduro" title="Nicolás Maduro" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nicolás Maduro</a>, a charge which Correa denied.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-:5-52" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[52]</a> Later that day, the authorities shut down oil production at the Sacha oil field, which produces 10% of the nation's oil, after it was occupied by protesters. Two more oil fields were captured by protesters shortly thereafter. Demonstrators also captured repeater antennas, forcing State TV and radio offline in parts of the country. Indigenous protesters blocked most of Ecuador's main roads, completely cutting the transport routes to the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuenca,Ecuador" title="Cuenca, Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Cuenca</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-53" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[53]</a>On 9 October, protesters managed to briefly burst into and occupy the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly(Ecuador)" title="National Assembly (Ecuador)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">National Assembly</a>, before being driven out by police using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_gas" title="Tear gas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">tear gas</a>. Violent clashes erupted between demonstrators and police forces as the protests spread further.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-54" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[54]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-55" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[55]</a> During the late-night hours of 13 October, the Ecuadorian government and CONAIE reached an agreement during a televised negotiation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-56" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[56]</a> Both parties agreed to collaborate on new economic measures to combat overspending and debt. The government agreed to end the austerity measures at the center of the controversy and the protesters in turn agreed to end the two-week-long series of demonstrations. President Moreno agreed to withdraw Decree 883, an IMF-backed plan that caused a significant rise in fuel costs.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-57" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[57]</a>The relations with the United States improved significantly during the presidency of Lenin Moreno. In February 2020, his visit to Washington was the first meeting between an Ecuadorian and U.S. president in 17 years. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-58" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[58]</a>The 11 April 2021 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2021 Ecuadorian general election" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">election</a> run-off vote ended in a win for conservative former banker, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Lasso" title="Guillermo Lasso" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Guillermo Lasso</a>, taking 52.4% of the vote compared to 47.6% of left-wing economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Arauz" title="Andrés Arauz" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Andrés Arauz</a>, supported by exiled former president, Rafael Correa. Previously, President-elect Lasso finished second in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-59" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[59]</a> On 24 May 2021, Guillermo Lasso was sworn in as the new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ecuador" title="President of Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President of Ecuador</a>, becoming the country's first right-wing leader in 14 years.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ecuador#cite_note-60" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[60]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See also[</h2><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1830_Constitution_of_Ecuador" title="1830 Constitution of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">1830 Constitution of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador" title="2008 Constitution of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">2008 Constitution of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Ecuador" title="Economic history of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Economic history of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Latin_America" title="History of Latin America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">History of Latin America</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_America" title="History of South America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">History of South America</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Americas" title="History of the Americas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">History of the Americas</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Ecuador" title="Francisco Pizarro" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Military history of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Ecuador" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Politics of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ecuador" title="President of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">President of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Americas" title="Spanish colonization of the Americas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Spanish colonization of the Americas</a></li></ul><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">References</h2></div><div>...</div><div>
</div><div></div></div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador</a></div><div>
</div><div><div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr;"><div class="mw-parser-output" style="">Constitution of Ecuador is the supreme law of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ecuador</a>. The current constitution has been in place since 2008. It is the country's 20th constitution.<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="margin: 0px; direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading" style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: inline;">Contents</h2><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" style="cursor: pointer;" /></div><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1History</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Analysis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Analysis</a><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Environmental_rights" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1Environmental rights</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#International_investment" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2International investment</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Food_sovereignty" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.3Food sovereignty</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Drug_liberalization" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.4Drug liberalization</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Recognition_of_same-sex_relationships" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.5Recognition of same-sex relationships</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Recognition_of_sexual_orientation_and_gender_identity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.6Recognition of sexual orientation and gender identity</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#Notes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Notes</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">History[</h2>Ecuador has had new constitutions promulgated in 1830, 1835, 1843, 1845, 1851, 1852, 1861, 1869, 1878, 1884, 1897, 1906, 1929, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1967 and 1978.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[1]</a> Following his election as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ecuador" title="" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President of Ecuador</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa" title="Rafael Correa" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Correa</a> called for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_Constituent_Assembly_referendum,2007" class="mw-redirect" title="Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly referendum, 2007" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">referendum on establishing a Constituent Assembly</a> to write a new constitution for the country, which was held on April 15, 2007, and passed with over 80.0% approval. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_Constituent_Assembly_election,2007" class="mw-redirect" title="Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly election, 2007" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">elections for the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly</a> were held on September 30, 2007. With 74 seats, Rafael Correa's political party, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAIS_Alliance" title="PAIS Alliance" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">PAIS Alliance</a>, won the majority of the 130 available seats. The assembly first convened on November 29, 2007, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montecristi,Ecuador" title="Montecristi, Ecuador" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Montecristi</a>, and was given six months to write a new constitution, with a possible two-month extension. In late July 2008, the assembly approved a draft constitution consisting of 494 articles.When Ecuador began the process of writing a new constitution, they received help from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Community_Environmental_Legal_Defense_Fund&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (page does not exist)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</a> to draft environmental laws giving nature and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem" title="Ecosystem" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ecosystems</a> rights.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[2]</a>The Constitution was approved by the electorate in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_constitutional_referendum,2008" class="mw-redirect" title="Ecuadorian constitutional referendum, 2008" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">constitutional referendum in September 2008</a> by 63.93% to 28.10%.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Analysis[</h2><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">Environmental rights[</h3><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Nature" class="mw-redirect" title="Rights of Nature" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rights of Nature</a></div>The Constitution is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[3]</a> Article 71-74 prohibits the extraction of non-renewable resources in protected areas. Moreover, the production of monocultures will be avoided for reforestation and rehabilitation of the soil. The state will also protect the intellectual property of collective work based on national biodiversity and begin to recognize the Rights of Nature.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-foodfirst.org-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">International investment[</h3>The Constitution prohibits Ecuador from yielding <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisdiction" title="Jurisdiction" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">jurisdiction</a> over private trade or contract disputes to external organizations. As a result, Ecuador was forced to withdraw from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Settlement_of_Investment_Disputes" title="International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes</a> (ICSID).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">Food sovereignty[</h3>The constitution is one of the first in the world to recognise the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_food" title="Right to food" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">right to food</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>Article 281, labelled Food Sovereignty, reads: "Food Sovereignty constitutes an objective and strategic obligation from the State to guarantee its people, communities, pueblos and nationalities self sufficiency in healthy food, culturally appropriate in a permanent form." This entails the following state responsibilities:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-foodfirst.org-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><ol style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Incite production, transformation of the agro-food and fishery of small to medium size units of production, communities and social and solidarity economies.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Adopt fiscal politics, tributaries and tariffs to protect the agro-food sector and national fishery to avoid dependency on food imports.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Strengthen diversification and the introduction of ecological and organic technologies in the production of agriculture.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Promote <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redistribution_of_income_and_wealth" title="Redistribution of income and wealth" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">redistributive politics</a> to permit access of farmers to soil, water and other productive resources.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Establish preferential financial mechanisms for small and medium producers, facilitating the acquisition of the means of production.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Promote the preservation and rehabilitation of agro biodiversity linked to ancestral knowledge; likewise its use, conservation and free seed exchange.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Ensure that animals destined for human consumption are healthy and raised in sound environments.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Assure the development of scientific investigation and innovative technologies are appropriate to guarantee food sovereignty.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Regulate under bio-security standards the use and development of biotechnology, including experimentation and commercial use.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Strengthen the development of organizations and networks of producers and consumers and the commercialization and distribution of food to promote equity within rural and urban spaces.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Generate just and solidarity systems of distribution and commercialization of food. Impede monopolistic practices and any type of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_speculation" title="Food speculation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">speculation with food products</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Supply food to the victims of anthropogenic or natural disasters in risk of accessing food. International food donations should not affect health or future production of local food.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Prevent and protect the population from consuming contaminated food or places their health in risk or if science has uncertainties of its effects.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Acquire food and primary materials for social and food programs, prioritizing in associative networks of small producers.</li></ol>Article 15 protects agricultural, wild and genetic biodiversity by prohibiting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food" title="Genetically modified food" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">genetically modified</a> seeds and crops. The President and the National assembly can introduce exceptions, but genetic modification are not allowed if its intervenes with food sovereignty.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-foodfirst.org-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">Drug liberalization[</h3>According to Article 364 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador, the Ecuadorian state does not see drug consumption as a crime but only as a health concern.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-telegrafo.com.ec-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> Since June 2013 the State drugs regulatory office, CONSEP, has published a table that establishes maximum quantities carried by persons so as to be considered in legal possession and that person as not a seller of drugs.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-telegrafo.com.ec-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">Recognition of same-sex relationships[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Recognition of same-sex relationships" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h3><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Ecuador" class="mw-redirect" title="Recognition of same-sex unions in Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Recognition of same-sex unions in Ecuador</a></div>Within the Ecuadorian Constitution adopted in 2008, Article 67<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> limits marriage to the union of a man and a woman.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-Georgetown-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a> ("El matrimonio es la unión entre hombre y mujer...")<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> Same-sex couples became eligible for de facto <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union" title="Civil union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">civil unions</a> based on Article 68,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a> which specifies that unmarried couples in stable and monogamous unions enjoy the same rights and obligations of married couples. In 2015, the civil code was updated to allow for civil unions to be contracted without a requirement for prior cohabitation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a>An unofficial English language translation of Article 68:<blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 8px 32px; border-left: none;">The stable and monogamous union between two persons without any other marriage ties who have a common-law home, for the lapse of time and under the conditions and circumstances provided for by law, shall enjoy the same rights and obligations of those families bound by formal marriage ties.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-Georgetown-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[Note 1]</a></blockquote>Article 68 also limits adoption rights to opposite-sex couples.In 2019, Ecuador's Constitutional Court legalized same-sex marriage.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6;">Recognition of sexual orientation and gender identity[</h3>Article 11, paragraph two of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador reaffirmed as a fundamental right to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation" title="Sexual orientation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sexual orientation</a> and included for the first time and even globally <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity" title="Gender identity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">gender identity</a>. Until 2008, no constitution in the world recognized gender identity.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">See also[</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1830_Constitution_of_Ecuador" title="1830 Constitution of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1830 Constitution of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_Constituent_Assembly" title="Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution" title="Constitution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitution</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_law" title="Constitutional law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitutional law</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_economics" title="Constitutional economics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitutional economics</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutionalism" title="Constitutionalism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitutionalism</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_No.111-97-TC" title="Case No. 111-97-TC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Case No. 111-97-TC</a> (1997), a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_decision" class="mw-redirect" title="Landmark decision" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">landmark decision</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Tribunal_of_Ecuador" class="mw-redirect" title="Constitutional Tribunal of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitutional Tribunal of Ecuador</a> on 25 November 1997 regarding the country's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_laws" class="mw-redirect" title="Sodomy laws" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sodomy laws</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Ecuador" class="mw-redirect" title="Recognition of same-sex unions in Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Recognition of same-sex unions in Ecuador</a> (2009), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union" title="Civil union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">civil unions</a> for same-sex couples were legalized by the approval of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Marie_Rodriguez_Zambrano" class="mw-redirect" title="Diane Marie Rodriguez Zambrano" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Legal Precedent</a> (2009), right to change legal names female to male and vice versa for people <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender" title="Transgender" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">transgender</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex" title="Intersex" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">intersex</a> by the approval of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador</li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Notes[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Notes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2><div class="reflist" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.5em; list-style-type: decimal;"><div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references" style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-parent 0 list-item 0; list-style-type: inherit;"><li id="cite_note-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-15" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }In Spanish, the official version of Article 68 reads as follows:<blockquote style="overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 8px 32px; border-left: none;">La unión estable y monogámica entre dos personas libres de vínculo matrimonial que formen un hogar de hecho, por el lapso y bajo las condiciones y circunstancias que señale la ley, generará los mismos derechos y obligaciones que tienen las familias constituidas mediante matrimonio. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/ecuador08.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Article 68, Constitución de la República del Ecuador</a></blockquote></li></ol></div></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">References[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.5em; list-style-type: decimal; margin-top: 0.3em; column-width: 30em;"><ol class="references" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-parent 0 list-item 0; list-style-type: inherit;"><li id="cite_note-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-1" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite id="CITEREFLinz1994" class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Linz, Juan José (1994). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=F0wPAAAAYAAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"The Failure of Presidential Democracy: The Case of Latin America"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=The+Failure+of+Presidential+Democracy%3A+The+Case+of+Latin+America&rft.date=1994&rft.aulast=Linz&rft.aufirst=Juan+Jos%C3%A9&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DF0wPAAAAYAAJ&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-2" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=537" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">[1]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091110010418/http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=537" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2009-11-10 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wayback Machine</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=538" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">[2]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090212204300/http://celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=538" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2009-02-12 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wayback Machine</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.feature/id/1529/page/1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">[3]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120207073216/http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.feature/id/1529/page/1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2012-02-07 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wayback Machine</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=519" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">[4]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080511060802/http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=519" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2008-05-11 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wayback Machine</a></li><li id="cite_note-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-3" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081003211008/http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=548" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Archived copy"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid%3D548" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">the original</a> on 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-09-30.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Archived+copy&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celdf.org%2FDefault.aspx%3Ftabid%253D548&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-foodfirst.org-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;">^ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-foodfirst.org_4-0" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="user-select: none; top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-foodfirst.org_4-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">b</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-foodfirst.org_4-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">c</a> Pena, Karla (2008) "Putting Food First in the Constitution of Ecuador," Food First Institute for Food & Development Policy, <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2301" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word">https://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2301</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120429030026/http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2301" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2012-04-29 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wayback Machine</a>, (updated 31 October 2008, accessed 21 May 2008).</li><li id="cite_note-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-5" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite id="CITEREFTawil2011" class="citation book cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Tawil, Guido Santiago (2011). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QeyYCCG10yAC&pg=PA346" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">On the Internationalization of Administrative Contracts, Arbitration and the Calvo Doctrine</a>. Arbitration Advocay in Changing Times. 15. Kluwer Law International. pp. 345–346. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9789041133663" title="Special:BookSources/9789041133663" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><bdi>9789041133663</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=On+the+Internationalization+of+Administrative+Contracts%2C+Arbitration+and+the+Calvo+Doctrine&rft.series=Arbitration+Advocay+in+Changing+Times&rft.pages=345-346&rft.pub=Kluwer+Law+International&rft.date=2011&rft.isbn=9789041133663&rft.aulast=Tawil&rft.aufirst=Guido+Santiago&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DQeyYCCG10yAC%26pg%3DPA346&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-6" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }Olivier de Schutter (2010) "Countries tackling hunger with a right to food approach. Significant progress in implementing the right to food at national scale in Africa, Latin America and South Asia" United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Briefing Note 01, 14 May 2010. <www.srfood.org images="images" stories="stories" pdf="pdf" otherdocuments="otherdocuments" briefing-note-01_en.pdf="briefing-note-01_en.pdf"> Downloaded 3 May 2012</www.srfood.org></li><li id="cite_note-telegrafo.com.ec-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;">^ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-telegrafo.com.ec_7-0" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="user-select: none; top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-telegrafo.com.ec_7-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">b</a> <cite class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.webcitation.org/6Htk0c74z?url=http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/item/la-nueva-tabla-para-consumo-de-drogas-es-una-guia-para-jueces.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">""La nueva tabla para consumo de drogas es una guía para jueces" in El Telegrafo"</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tel%C3%A9grafo(Ecuador)" title="El Telégrafo (Ecuador)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">El Telégrafo (Ecuador)</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/item/la-nueva-tabla-para-consumo-de-drogas-es-una-guia-para-jueces.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">the original</a> on 2013-07-06. Retrieved 2013-06-24.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=El+Tel%C3%A9grafo+%28Ecuador%29&rft.atitle=%22La+nueva+tabla+para+consumo+de+drogas+es+una+gu%C3%ADa+para+jueces%22+in+El+Telegrafo&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegrafo.com.ec%2Fnoticias%2Fjudicial%2Fitem%2Fla-nueva-tabla-para-consumo-de-drogas-es-una-guia-para-jueces.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-8" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.elcomercio.com/seguridad/Dosis-maximas-droga-consumo-vigentes_0_941905849.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Dosis máximas de droga para consumo ya están vigentes"</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Comercio(Ecuador)" title="El Comercio (Ecuador)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">El Comercio</a>.com. Accessed 2013-06-24. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.webcitation.org/6Htk128QF?url=http://www.elcomercio.com/seguridad/Dosis-maximas-droga-consumo-vigentes_0_941905849.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2013-07-05.</li><li id="cite_note-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-9" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802644.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Voters in Ecuador Approve Constitution", Washington Post, reported by Joshua Partlow and Stephan Küffner, 29 September 2008</a></li><li id="cite_note-Georgetown-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;">^ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-Georgetown_10-0" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="user-select: none; top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-Georgetown_10-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">b</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, Political Database of the Americas, 31 January 2011</a></li><li id="cite_note-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-11" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite id="CITEREFAsamblea_Constituyente2008" class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Asamblea Constituyente (2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/sp/ecu/sp_ecu-int-text-const.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Constitución del Ecuador"</a> (PDF). Retrieved 13 June 2019.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Constituci%C3%B3n+del+Ecuador&rft.date=2008&rft.au=Asamblea+Constituyente&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oas.org%2Fjuridico%2Fmla%2Fsp%2Fecu%2Fsp_ecu-int-text-const.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-12" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }(in Spanish) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/files/hulCda/I0844.%20Apoyo%20al%20matrimonio%20entre%20personas%20del%20mismo%20sexo%20en%20Amrica%20Latina.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Apoyo al matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo en América Latina", Perspectivas desde el Barómetro de las Américas, authored by Germán Lodola and Margarita Corral, 2010 (No. 44), retrieved 23 January 2013</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.webcitation.org/6HtmLdoDp?url=http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/files/hulCda/I0844.%20Apoyo%20al%20matrimonio%20entre%20personas%20del%20mismo%20sexo%20en%20Amrica%20Latina.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> 2013-07-05.</li><li id="cite_note-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-13" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.towleroad.com/2008/09/ecuador-approve.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">""Ecuador Approves New Constitution Including Same-Sex Civil Unions",Towleroad, posted by Andy Towle, 30 September 2008, retrieved 23 January 2013"</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.webcitation.org/6HtmM3RnB?url=http://www.towleroad.com/2008/09/ecuador-approve.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Archived</a> from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-24.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=%22Ecuador+Approves+New+Constitution+Including+Same-Sex+Civil+Unions%22%2C+Towleroad%2C+posted+by+Andy+Towle%2C+30+September+2008%2C+retrieved+23+January+2013&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2008%2F09%2Fecuador-approve.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-14" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite id="CITEREFLópez2015" class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">López, Andrés (2015-05-01). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2015/04/30/ecuador-aprueba-la-union-civil-para-parejas-del-mismo-sexo/" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Ecuador aprueba la unión civil para parejas del mismo sexo"</a>. CNN (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-06-13.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=CNN&rft.atitle=Ecuador+aprueba+la+uni%C3%B3n+civil+para+parejas+del+mismo+sexo&rft.date=2015-05-01&rft.aulast=L%C3%B3pez&rft.aufirst=Andr%C3%A9s&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fcnnespanol.cnn.com%2F2015%2F04%2F30%2Fecuador-aprueba-la-union-civil-para-parejas-del-mismo-sexo%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-16" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite id="CITEREFAFP2019" class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">AFP (2019-06-13). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190613-ecuador-highest-court-approves-same-sex-marriage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Ecuador's highest court votes to legalise same-sex marriage"</a>. France 24. Retrieved 2019-06-13.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=France+24&rft.atitle=Ecuador%27s+highest+court+votes+to+legalise+same-sex+marriage&rft.date=2019-06-13&rft.au=AFP&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.france24.com%2Fen%2F20190613-ecuador-highest-court-approves-same-sex-marriage&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A2008+Constitution+of+Ecuador" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0; break-inside: avoid-column;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador#cite_ref-17" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }(in Spanish) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.institut-gouvernance.org/es/analyse/fiche-analyse-463.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">"Ecuador un estado constitucional de Derechos", retrieved 23 January 2013</a></li></ol></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">External links[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2008_Constitution_of_Ecuador&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: External links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080817050225/http://asambleaconstituyente.gov.ec/%23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Constitutional Assembly</a> (in Spanish)</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090320002938/http://www.asambleaconstituyente.gov.ec/documentos/constitucion_de_bolsillo.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">2008 Constitution</a> (in Spanish)</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/ecuador.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" external-link-ltr-icon.svg="external-link-ltr-icon.svg" e54="e54" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right" px="px">Constitutions of Ecuador (Georgetown)</a></li></ul><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Constitutions_of_states_and_dependencies_in_the_Americas" style="background-color: rgb(253, 253, 253); box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); width: 1041.4px; clear: both; text-align: center; padding: 3px; margin: 1em auto 0px;"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-made-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width: 1032.8px; border-spacing: 0px; background: transparent;"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3" style="padding: 0.25em 1em; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 255);"><span class="mw-collapsible-toggle mw-collapsible-toggle-default mw-collapsible-toggle-collapsed" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-expanded="false" style="float: right; user-select: none; cursor: pointer; font-weight: normal; text-align: right; padding-right: 0.2em; padding-left: 0.2em;"><a class="mw-collapsible-text" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; white-space: nowrap;">show</a><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini" style="font-weight: normal; float: left; text-align: left; margin-right: 0.5em;"><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit"><li class="nv-view" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Americas_topic" title="Template:Americas topic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><abbr title="View this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Americas_topic" title="Template talk:Americas topic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><abbr title="Discuss this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Americas_topic&action=edit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none !important; padding: 0px !important;"><abbr title="Edit this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Constitutions_of_states_and_dependencies_in_the_Americas" style="margin: 0px 4em;">Constitutions of states and dependencies in the Americas</div></th></tr></tbody></table></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Ecuador_articles" style="background-color: rgb(253, 253, 253); box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); width: 1041.4px; clear: both; text-align: center; padding: 3px; margin: -1px auto 0px;"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-made-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width: 1032.8px; border-spacing: 0px; background: transparent;"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3" style="padding: 0.25em 1em; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 255);"><span class="mw-collapsible-toggle mw-collapsible-toggle-default mw-collapsible-toggle-collapsed" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-expanded="false" style="float: right; user-select: none; cursor: pointer; font-weight: normal; text-align: right; padding-right: 0.2em; padding-left: 0.2em;"><a class="mw-collapsible-text" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; white-space: nowrap;">show</a><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini" style="font-weight: normal; float: left; text-align: left; margin-right: 0.5em;"><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit"><li class="nv-view" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Ecuador_topics" title="Template:Ecuador topics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><abbr title="View this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Ecuador_topics" title="Template talk:Ecuador topics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><abbr title="Discuss this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; word-spacing: -0.125em;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Ecuador_topics&action=edit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none !important; padding: 0px !important;"><abbr title="Edit this template" style="border: none; cursor: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; background: none transparent; box-shadow: none; padding: 0px;">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Ecuador_articles" style="margin: 0px 4em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">Ecuador</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Ecuador-related_articles" title="Index of Ecuador-related articles" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">articles</a></div></th></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 5px; margin-top: 1em; clear: both;"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Categories</a>: <ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em 0px 0.25em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Constitutions_of_Ecuador" title="Category:Constitutions of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Constitutions of Ecuador</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 0px 0.5em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Government_of_Ecuador" title="Category:Government of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Government of Ecuador</a></li></ul></div></div></div><div>
</div><div>=
<div>
</div><div>https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48</div><div>
</div><div><div id="enumeration" class="enumeration" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5625; margin-bottom: 8px; max-width: 100%; min-height: auto; zoom: 1; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; letter-spacing: 0.238px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/book/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1" data-track="click" data-track-action="Book title" data-track-label="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; text-decoration-line: none; outline-width: 0px;">Why Life Matters</a> pp 377-383</div><div class="MainTitleSection" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 24px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);"><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">
</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Ecuador’s Vice President Lenin Mor?no, 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Reflects on Human Welfare and the Rights of Nature</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Authors</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Authors and affiliations</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Michael Charles Tobias Email author  mtobias@dancingstarfoundation.org</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Jane Gray Morrison</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">1.</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">Chapter</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;" /><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3;">First Online: 04 November 2014</h1><div style="letter-spacing: 0.238px;">
</div><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="letter-spacing: 0.008em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3; font-weight: 400;">
</h1><h1 class="ChapterTitle" lang="en" style="letter-spacing: 0.008em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.3; font-weight: 400;">Mr. Vice President, in 1998, you were nearly murdered by thieves, as I understand it; shot in the back. Your survival, abetted by that infectious smile and goodwill of yours, has become legendary. And much more: for now, you have been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR1" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">1</a>] in recognition of your extraordinary, and wide-ranging commitments to those with physical challenges and mental anguish—through “Ecuador sin barreras” (Ecuador Without Barriers) [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR2" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">2</a>]—as it has been widely hailed. As an ecologist I find the notion of breaking down barriers extremely critical. And, it would appear, so does Ecuador’s Constitution which, in 2008, added an Amendment [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR3" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">3</a>] to declare that all of Nature is deemed to be vital, interdependent, and that if we erect barriers between ourselves and Nature, we are likely to ignore her; to exploit places like Ecuador’s Amazon—at our peril. Two of Ecuador’s ecological jewels, the Galapagos [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR4" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">4</a>] and Yasuní National Park, [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR5" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">5</a>] are among the most biologically diverse protected areas on the planet, particularly Yasuní, a UNESCO World Heritage site [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR6" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">6</a>] that is theorized to contain as many as 100,000 species per hect are—an astonishing biodiversity zenith [<span class="CitationRef" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#CR7" title="View reference" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="popup-references" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial; padding: 0px 0.1em;">7</a>].</h1></div><div><div style="">Surely, Yasuní is a fitting tribute to this “Ecuador Without Barriers” concept, wouldn’t you agree? An explicit relationship between human health and happiness and the environment. And in your case, specifically … (Fig. <a href="https://link-springer-com.oca.ucsc.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07860-1_48#Fig2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">48.2</a>)....And the odyssey leading you into politics?
LM:President Rafael Correa invited me to accept the nomination as Vice President. We won on two occasions and now surely the President is going to have a third chance.
MT:But I understand you are preparing to retire from politics?
LM:I would like to devote myself to my health, my family and personal activities; promoting respect, optimism, transparency, truth, delicacy, solidarity.
MT:“Delicacy, solidarity…” These are beautiful concepts, juxtapositions. You’ve also mentioned to me the concept of “devaluated values?”
LM:Yes, I think it is worth rescuing them, insisting on them, identifying with them.
MT:When I hear you speak of such values, as an ecologist I am immediately wonderstruck by Ecuador.
LM:The ecological jewels of the Ecuador that you have mentioned [earlier], not only encompass the Galapagos Islands and the Yasuní, but all of the natural wealth that exists in the world. The first concept [to consider] is the defense of “Pachamama” (Mother Earth), a Nature that we have to respect, love and care for.
MT:There are countless NGOs around the world who are advocating “in defense of the earth;” the very concept—Mother Earth—leading us far back into time, at least to the ancient Greek Goddess of Earth, Gaia. What is Pachamama as those in Ecuador think of it, feel it?
LM:Pachamama has rights which can be claimed by any person at the time in which they are violated.
MT:I’m already thinking of U.S. Supreme Court precedents, as well as the World Court. A great concept, and one that comports with international community standards, ethical standards, quality of life standards. It opens up the prospect for international ecological standards not unlike hard-won treaties, trans-national environmental alliances, and the like. Pachamama also reminds me of Aristotle’s concept of the ultimate in life, namely, holistic happiness, human welfare, the Greek word, Eudaimonia, one of the classic philosophical injunctions of Western thought.
LM:Michael, this great concept is combined with the right of persons to have a nice, quiet, happy life: the so-called Sumak Kawsay [8] which is the sum of well-being.
MT:Mr. Vice President, how does one even begin to hope to achieve Sumak Kawsay?
LM:This is achieved through a respect for people, [for one’s] neighbor. [It presupposes] a respect for [those peoples’] situation, their capacity, education, and even one’s personal wealth. And it puts into practice the provisions of Ecuador’s Constitution, namely, the rights of Nature and the rights of all human beings to be able to have a good living (Fig. 48.4)....<h2 class="Heading" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.3; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.008em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -17.4375px; width: 744.438px; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-top: 2px solid rgba(51, 51, 51, 0.2); padding: 12px 0px 12px 17.4375px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">references</h2><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0.102px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);"><ol class="BibliographyWrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">1.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Williams SP (2012) From an Amazon backwater to the Nobel Peace Prize. Huffington Post. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-p-william/from-an-amazon-backwater-nobel-peace-prize_b_1522663.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-p-william/from-an-amazon-backwater-nobel-peace-prize_b_1522663.html</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">2.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Vicepresidencia de la República del Ecuador (nd) Programas. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ec/programas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ec/programas/</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">3.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (nd) Ecuador adopts rights of nature in Constitution. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://therightsofnature.org/ecuador-rights/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://therightsofnature.org/ecuador-rights/</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">4.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Directorate of the Galapagos National Park (2012). <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.galapagospark.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.galapagospark.org/</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">5.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR5" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Wikipedia (nd) Yasuní National Park. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuni_National_Park" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuni_National_Park</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">6.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (nd) Biosphere Reserve information, Yasuní, Ecuador. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?code=ECU+02&mode=all" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?code=ECU+02&mode=all</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">7.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">The University of Texas at Austin (2010) Scientists identify Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park as one of most biodiverse places on Earth. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.utexas.edu/news/2010/01/19/ecuador_biodiversity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.utexas.edu/news/2010/01/19/ecuador_biodiversity/</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">8.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR8" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">The Pachamama Alliance (nd) Sumak Kawsay: ancient teachings of Indigenous peoples. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.pachamama.org/sumak-kawsay" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.pachamama.org/sumak-kawsay</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">9.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR9" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Yasuní-ITT Initiative (2012). <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.yasuni-itt.gob.ec/inicio.aspx" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.yasuni-itt.gob.ec/inicio.aspx</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">10.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR10" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Tobias MC (2011) Ecuador’s Imperilied paradise—One of the world’s most important, if least-known battles: a conversation with Dr. Ivonne Baki. Forbes. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltobias/2011/09/27/ecuadors-imperilled-paradise-one-of-the-worlds-most-important-if-least-known-battles-a-conversation-with-dr-ivonne-baki/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltobias/2011/09/27/ecuadors-imperilled-paradise-one-of-the-worlds-most-important-if-least-known-battles-a-conversation-with-dr-ivonne-baki/</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">11.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR11" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">United Nations Development Group, Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (nd). Ecuador Yasuní ITT Trust Fund. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://mptf.undp.org/yasuni" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://mptf.undp.org/yasuni</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li><li class="Citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="CitationNumber" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-width: 2em; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">12.</div><div class="CitationContent" id="CR12" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Yasuní-ITT (2012) Yasuni, a meditation on life, short documentary. <a target="blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJP_jlw3brw" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: initial;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJP_jlw3brw</a>. Accessed 6 April 2014</div></li></ol></div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/how-ecuadors-democracy-is-being-suffocated/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/how-ecuadors-democracy-is-being-suffocated/</a><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">   <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/globetrotter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Globetrotter</a></div>A recent <a href="https://www.atlasintel.org/media/encuesta-atlas-elecciones-presidenciales-ecuador-2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">poll</a> 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. A stint at the Central Bank led to a career in the planning department (SENPLADES), before Arauz became a minister in the last two turbulent years of Correa's government. There was not a whiff of corruption or incompetence around Arauz in his decade of service; when Correa left office, Arauz went to Mexico to pursue a PhD at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).Far behind Arauz in the polls is Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, the candidate of the right. Lasso, who is a wealthy banker, had run against the current President Lenín Moreno in 2017 but lost. He is the consensus candidate of the right wing, which cannot seem to advance his standing in the polls. He sits frozen at 32 percent.Those polled said that Arauz was by far the most attractive candidate. But, if the ruling bloc in Ecuador has its way, Arauz will not be sworn in as the next president of the country next year. They will use every means to suffocate democracy in their country.Correa and MorenoThe government of Rafael Correa, who is now living in Belgium, attempted to move a broadly left agenda while in office from 2007 to 2017. The Citizens' Revolution that Correa led passed a progressive <a href="https://www.asambleanacional.gob.ec/sites/default/files/private/asambleanacional/filesasambleanacionalnameuid-29/constitucion-republica-inc-sent-cc.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">constitution</a> in 2008, which put the principle of good living (buen vivir in Spanish and sumak kawsay in Quechua) at its heart. Government investment to strengthen social and economic rights came alongside a crackdown on corporate (including multinational) corruption. Oil revenue was not parked in foreign banks, but used to invest in <a href="https://confirmado.net/2020/05/08/la-educacion-fue-la-bandera-en-la-decada-de-correa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">education</a>, <a href="https://www.presidencia.gob.ec/presidente-la-salud-no-es-una-mercancia-es-un-derecho/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">health care</a>, <a href="https://www.obraspublicas.gob.ec/mas-de-558-millones-de-dolares-en-obras-viales-ha-invertido-el-gobierno-nacional-en-loja/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">roads</a>, and other basic infrastructure. From Ecuador's population of 17 million, nearly 2 million people were lifted out of <a href="https://www.inclusion.gob.ec/presidente-correa-19-millones-de-personas-dejaron-de-ser-pobres-en-seis-anos/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">poverty</a> in the Correa years.Correa's government was anathema to the multinational firms—such as the U.S.-based oil company Chevron—and to the Ecuadorian oligarchy. Chevron's dangerous case for compensation against Ecuador, brought before Correa took office, was nonetheless fiercely resisted by Correa's government; the Dirty Hand (Mano Negra) campaign put enormous international pressure against Chevron. Chevron worked <a href="https://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0921-wikileaks-cables-expose-chevron-lobbying-of-ecuador-government-to-kill-environmental-case" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">closely</a> with the U.S. embassy in Quito and the U.S. government to undermine Correa and his campaign against the oil giant. Not only did they want him out, but they wanted the political tradition of the left—called Correistas by shorthand—out as well. Moreno, who was once close to Correa, switched sides and became the main instrument for the fragmentation of the Ecuadorian left.In the election of 2017, Moreno defeated Guillermo Lasso, who is running again in 2021. But, within a short time, Moreno sharply moved rightward. He worked closely with Lasso in the National Assembly to <a href="https://dolarizacion.ec/2019/02/06/privatizaciones-2-0-lecciones-del-pasado-traidas-a-valor-presente/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">undermine</a> each advance made by the government of Correa. They defunded education and health care, withdrew labor rights and rights to housing, wanted to sell off Ecuador's refinery, and deregulated parts of the financial system. A consequence of these policies has been Ecuador's appalling response, including accusations of <a href="https://vocesecu.com/2020/09/03/moreno-escondio-mas-de-20-mil-muertos-bajo-la-alfombra/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">deliberate</a> undercounting, to the COVID-19 pandemic.Attack on the CorreistasMoreno and his right-wing allies needed to inoculate themselves from any criticism. They went on a frontal attack against the Correistas.The first battleground was to fragment the Correista political organization and to deny the Correistas a political platform. A February 2018 referendum was <a href="https://elestado.net/2020/06/23/referendum-2018-ecuador-consulta-corrupcion/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">barreled</a> through the country that allowed the government to destroy the democratic structures of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Judiciary Council, the attorney general, the comptroller general, and others. With the assistance of the CNE, Moreno <a href="https://www.larepublica.ec/blog/2018/01/15/contencioso-electoral-reconoce-directiva-morenista-al-frente-de-alianza-pais/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">divided</a> and took control of Correa's party, the Alianza Pais.When the Correistas tried to regroup and form a party, the institutions of the state <a href="https://bit.ly/3mXPbyl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">blocked</a> them. They said that the proposed names were misleading or that the signatures collected were invalid. By 2019, the Correistas used the Fuerza Compromiso Social platform to <a href="https://bit.ly/346tQtK" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">run</a> for local elections in 2019. This platform was then <a href="https://ww2.elmercurio.com.ec/2020/09/17/el-cne-elimina-a-fuerza-compromiso-social-de-rafael-correa-y-a-otros-tres-movimientos/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">banned</a> in 2020.In Brazil, the oligarchy prevented former president Lula from contesting the 2018 election; that process resulted in a new concept, <a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Dossier5_LulaAndTheBattleForDemocracyInBrazil.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lawfare</a>—using the law as a political instrument. The same sort of lawfare was used in Ecuador to ensnare Correa and to prevent him from running for office. Correa was accused of bribery—with the bizarre notion of "psychic influence" (influjo psíquico) at the root of the <a href="https://issuu.com/la_hora/docs/17721-2019-00029g_pdf_boletas_sentencia_apelaci_n" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">case</a>. The eight-year sentence inflicted upon him prevented him from running for office in Ecuador; that he was in Belgium meant that he could not, however, be arrested and imprisoned.Election of 2021The Correistas, using their platform of Union for Hope (Unión por la Esperanza), made an alliance with the Movimiento Centro Democrático to be able to run a candidate for the presidential election of 2021. Arauz won the primaries and was <a href="https://bit.ly/3j9ucpM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">nominated</a> as the presidential candidate. The party decided to have two vice-presidential candidates—both Correa and Carlos Rabascall.The CNE's president Diana Atamaint <a href="https://ecuador221.com.ec/2020/09/22/cne-analizara-si-descalifica-al-binomio-correista/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">indicated</a> that the CNE would disqualify Correa from the ballot, and even suggested that Arauz's candidacy is illegal as a consequence of having Correa as his running mate. Matters are at a stalemate, as lawyers scurry about trying to find a solution to this crisis. The CNE has until October 7 to fix the matter. The first round for the election is on February 7, 2021.Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is the chief editor of <a href="https://mayday.leftword.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">LeftWord Books</a> and the director of <a href="https://thetricontinental.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a>. He is a senior non-resident fellow at <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y2hdjcpo" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies</a>, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Darker-Nations-Peoples-History-Third/dp/1595583424/?tag=alternorg08-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Darker Nations</a> and <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Poorer-Nations-Possible-History-Global/dp/1781681589/?tag=alternorg08-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Poorer Nations</a>. His latest book is <a href="https://mayday.leftword.com/catalog/product/view/id/21820" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Washington Bullets</a>, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.Pilar Troya is a researcher at <a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a>. She is an Ecuadorian anthropologist interested in the feminist movement and social public policies, especially concerning gender equality. She served as a member of the board of Ecuador's former Women's National Council (CONAMU), an adviser to the <a href="https://www.planificacion.gob.ec/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ministry of National Planning</a>, and an adviser and deputy minister in the <a href="https://www.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology</a>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div><div></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa</a></div><div>
</div><div>Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (Spanish pronunciation: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Spanish" title="Help:IPA/Spanish" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none !important;">[rafaˈel βiˈsente koˈre.a ðelˈɣaðo]</a>; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heads_of_state_of_Ecuador" class="mw-redirect" title="List of heads of state of Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">President</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Ecuador</a> from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAIS_Alliance" title="PAIS Alliance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">PAIS Alliance</a> political movement from its foundation until 2017, Correa is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism" title="Democratic socialism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">democratic socialist</a> and his administration focused on the implementation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics" title="Left-wing politics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">left-wing</a> policies. Internationally, he served as president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_tempore" title="Pro tempore" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">pro tempore</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_South_American_Nations" title="Union of South American Nations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Union of South American Nations</a>.</div>Born to a lower middle-class <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo" title="Mestizo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">mestizo</a> family in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil" title="Guayaquil" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Guayaquil</a>, Correa studied economics at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universidad_Cat%C3%B3lica_de_Santiago_de_Guayaquil" title="Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A9_catholique_de_Louvain" title="Université catholique de Louvain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">University of Louvain (UCLouvain)</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana%E2%80%93Champaign" title="University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">University of Illinois</a>, where he received his PhD. Returning to Ecuador, in 2005 he became the Minister for the Economy under President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Palacio" title="Alfredo Palacio" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alfredo Palacio</a>, successfully lobbying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Congress(Ecuador)" title="National Congress (Ecuador)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Congress</a> for increased spending on health and education projects.Correa won the presidency in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2006 Ecuadorian general election" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2006 general election</a> on a platform criticizing the established political elites. Taking office in January 2007, he sought to move away from Ecuador's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" title="Neoliberalism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">neoliberal</a> economic model by reducing the influence of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank" title="World Bank" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">World Bank</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" title="International Monetary Fund" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">International Monetary Fund</a>. He declared Ecuador's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt" class="mw-redirect" title="National debt" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">national debt</a> illegitimate and announced that the country would default on over $3 billion worth of bonds; he pledged to fight creditors in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_court" title="International court" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">international courts</a> and succeeded in reducing the price of outstanding bonds by more than 60%.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-TRN2009Win-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> He oversaw the introduction of a new constitution, being <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2009 Ecuadorian general election" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">re-elected in 2009</a> and again <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2013 Ecuadorian general election" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">2013 general election</a>.Correa's presidency was part of the Latin American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide" title="Pink tide" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">pink tide</a>, a turn toward leftist governments in the region, allying himself with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez" title="Hugo Chávez" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Hugo Chávez</a>'s Venezuela and brought Ecuador into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alliance_for_the_Americas" class="mw-redirect" title="Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas</a> in June 2009.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBCfeb2017-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> Using its own form of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_century_socialism" class="mw-redirect" title="21st century socialism" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">21st century socialism</a>, Correa's administration increased government spending, reducing poverty, raising the minimum wage and increasing the standard of living in Ecuador.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBCfeb2017-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-ECONfeb2017-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FTfeb2017-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> By the end of Correa's tenure, reliance on oil, public expenditures, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ecuador_earthquake" title="2016 Ecuador earthquake" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2016 earthquakes</a> (more than 650 deaths and damage estimated at the equivalent of about 3% of GDP), and international pressure caused Ecuador's economy to enter a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession" title="Recession" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">recession</a>, resulting in government spending being slashed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBCfeb2017-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-ECONfeb2017-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FTfeb2017-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-STfeb2017-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a>Between 2006 and 2016, poverty decreased from 36.7% to 22.5% and annual per capita GDP growth was 1.5 percent (as compared to 0.6 percent over the prior two decades). At the same time, inequalities, as measured by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient" title="Gini coefficient" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Gini coefficient</a>, decreased from 0.55 to 0.47.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-auto-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>On 3 July 2018, a judge in Ecuador ordered the arrest of Correa after he failed to appear in court during a trial surrounding the kidnapping of his political opponent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Balda" title="Fernando Balda" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fernando Balda</a>. Correa, who lived in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium" title="Belgium" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Belgium</a> at the time, denied the allegations regarding the kidnapping.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-:0-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> In July 2018 Interpol rejected an Ecuador-issued arrest warrant and called it "obviously a political matter."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a>On 7 April 2020, The Criminal Court of the National Court of Justice found the former president guilty of aggravated passive bribery in the Casos Sobornos 2012-2016. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison in absentia for leading the corruption network that between 2012 and 2016 received "undue contributions" at the Carondelet Palace to finance his political movement in exchange for awarding state contracts to businessmen along with Alexis Mera, former Judiciary Secretary of the Presidency, former Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, María de los Angeles Duarte, former congresswoman Viviana Bonilla and former Constitutional Judge and his secretary Pamela Martínez.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a>
<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;">
</div><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Early_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Early life</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Childhood" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.1Childhood</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.2University</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Into_politics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Into politics</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Minister_of_Finance:2005" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1Minister of Finance: 2005</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Presidential_campaign:2006" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2Presidential campaign: 2006</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Presidency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Presidency</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#First_presidential_term:2007%E2%80%932009" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1First presidential term: 2007–2009</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Economic_policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.1Economic policy</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Foreign_policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.2Foreign policy</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#2008_Constitution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.32008 Constitution</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-4 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Relations_with_Congress_and_Legislative_crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.3.1Relations with Congress and Legislative crisis</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Constituent_Assembly" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.4Constituent Assembly</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Environmental_conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.5Environmental conservation</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-4 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Oil_politics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.5.1Oil politics</a></li><li class="toclevel-4 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Yasun%C3%AD-ITT_Initiative" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.5.2Yasuní-ITT Initiative</a></li><li class="toclevel-4 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Sea_conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.5.3Sea conservation</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Security_and_defense" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1.6Security and defense</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Second_presidential_term:2009%E2%80%932013" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2Second presidential term: 2009–2013</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Health" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.1Health</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Closure_of_Teleamazonas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.2Closure of Teleamazonas</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#2009_Ecuador_electricity_crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.32009 Ecuador electricity crisis</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Mining_protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.4Mining protests</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Hydrocarbon_production_reforms" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.5Hydrocarbon production reforms</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Higher_Education_Law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.6Higher Education Law</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#2010_Ecuador_crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.72010 Ecuador crisis</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-27" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#President_of_UNASUR" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.8President of UNASUR</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-28" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Lawsuit_against_the_El_Universo_newspaper_and_Big_Brother_authors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.9Lawsuit against the El Universo newspaper and Big Brother authors</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-29" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Ecuadorian_constitutional_referendum,2011" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.10Ecuadorian constitutional referendum, 2011</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-30" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Chinese_credits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.11Chinese credits</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-31" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Restructuring_of_the_justice" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.12Restructuring of the justice</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-32" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#2012_Ecuadorian_protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.132012 Ecuadorian protests</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-33" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Sex_education_and_contraceptive_services" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2.14Sex education and contraceptive services</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-34" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Third_presidential_term:2013%E2%80%932017" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3Third presidential term: 2013–2017</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-35" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Economy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3.1Economy</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-36" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#People_with_disabilities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3.2People with disabilities</a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-37" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Post-presidency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Post-presidency</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-38" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Arrest_of_Julian_Assange" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1Arrest of Julian Assange</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-39" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Controversy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5Controversy</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-40" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Relationship_with_the_media" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.1Relationship with the media</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-41" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Edward_Snowden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.2Edward Snowden</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-42" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Odebrecht_scandal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.3Odebrecht scandal</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-43" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#2015_Ecuadorian_protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.42015 Ecuadorian protests</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-44" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Kidnapping_allegations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.5Kidnapping allegations</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-45" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#University_of_Illinois%22Exceptional_Achievement%22_award" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.6University of Illinois "Exceptional Achievement" award</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-46" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Public_image_and_personal_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6Public image and personal life</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-47" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Political_ideology" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7Political ideology</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-48" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Honours_and_awards" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8Honours and awards</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-49" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Recognition" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1Recognition</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-50" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Honorary_degrees" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2Honorary degrees</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-51" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Work_published" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9Work published</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-52" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Books" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1Books</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-53" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Academic_articles" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.2Academic articles</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-54" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-55" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11References</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-56" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Sources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.1Sources</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-57" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">12External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Early life[</h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Childhood[</h3>Correa's father was Rafael Correa Icaza, born in the Province of Los Ríos, Ecuador, (23 March 1934 – 10 June 1995) while his mother is Norma Delgado Rendón (b.1 September 1939).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a> He had three siblings; Fabricio Correa, Pierina Correa and Bernardita Correa.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>] Having grown up in the coastal city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil" title="Guayaquil" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Guayaquil</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKozloff200813-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a> he has described his family background as being that of the "lower middle class".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKozloff200813-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a>
When Correa was five, his father was arrested and imprisoned for three years after attempting to smuggle illegal narcotics into the United States.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-drug_smuggling-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-OpenDemocracy-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a> Publicly acknowledging this incident while president, Correa stated that "I do not condone what he did (but) drug smugglers are not criminals. They are single mothers or unemployed people who are desperate to feed their families".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-drug_smuggling-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a> Correa was 18 years of age before he was told about his father's actions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-OpenDemocracy-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a>...<h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Economic policy[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=9&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Economic policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4><blockquote class="templatequote" style="overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Socialism will continue. The Ecuadorian people voted for that. We are going to emphasize this fight for social justice, for regional justice. We are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital. Nobody is in any doubt that our preferential option is for the poorest people, we are here because of them. Hasta la victoria siempre! (Until victory, for ever)<div class="templatequotecite" style="line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-top: 0px;">— <cite style="font-style: inherit;">Rafael Correa, April 30, 2009<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-64" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[64]</a></cite></div></blockquote>Correa adopted a confrontational approach to both the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" title="International Monetary Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Monetary Fund</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank" title="World Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">World Bank</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPhilipPanizza201190-52" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[52]</a> Correa's administration has suggested that the new government will not sign an agreement allowing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" title="International Monetary Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Monetary Fund</a> to monitor its economic plan. In February 2007, Correa's economy minister Ricardo Patiño stated: "I have no intention … of accepting what some governments in the past have accepted: that (the IMF) tell us what to do on economic policy." "That seems unacceptable to us," Patiño added. However, as a member of the IMF, the annual report known as the "Article IV" report will be submitted.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-65" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[65]</a>In May 2007, evidence surfaced that some of the Ecuadorian government rhetoric might have been part of an alleged <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_manipulation" title="Market manipulation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">market manipulation</a> to benefit Ecuador from movements in the price of financial instruments linked to Ecuadorian Bonds.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-66" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[66]</a> A fall in Ecuador bond prices, ignited by aggressive default rhetoric, would trigger a buyback by Ecuador, financed by Venezuelan banks. This strategy collapsed due to operations engaged by Venezuelan financial institutions who profited from the market swings. Correa referred to the allegations as a conspiracy from a powerful banker.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-67" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[67]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-68" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[68]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-69" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[69]</a> On 26 July 2007, Rafael Correa replaced finance minister Patiño, due to Patiño's appearance in a video recording, apparently discussing the market manipulation. Patiño then assumed a newly created position responsible for the Pacific coast region and later assumed the Politics Affairs Ministry.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-70" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[70]</a> In a radio address on 13 December, Correa said that he wanted to force a "big discount" on creditors, whom a day earlier he called "true monsters who won’t hesitate to crush the country".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-71" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[71]</a> "I have lost sleep over this … this will cost us tears and sweat but I think we are doing the right thing."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-reuters1-72" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[72]</a> Correa, who endorses anti-debt NGO <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_2000" title="Jubilee 2000" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jubilee 2000</a>'s slogan "life before debt", is popular among Ecuadorians for his stance against foreign investors.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-reuters1-72" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[72]</a>Correa has criticized the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal" class="mw-redirect" title="Neoliberal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">neoliberal</a> policies of previous presidents, particularly former president Mahuad's adoption of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.dollar" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. dollar" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. dollar</a> as Ecuador's domestic currency in 2000 to combat the country's inflation. Correa has characterized American dollarisation as a "technical error" which has effectively eliminated Ecuador's ability to set its own currency and exchange policy. However, Correa has also acknowledged that it would be politically and economically impossible to abandon that policy now. After his election victory of 15 April 2007, he pledged to maintain dollarisation during the entire four years of his administration, though he also indicated his support for the idea of replacing the US dollar with a regional South American currency at some point in the future.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-73" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[73]</a>On 16 April 2009, Finance Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maria_Elsa_Viteri&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Maria Elsa Viteri (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Maria Elsa Viteri</a> embarked on a trip to Europe in a mission to present Ecuador's offer to buy back global bonds 2012 and 2030 at 30% of their current value. In May 2009, Ecuador announced that it had successfully bought 91% of the bonds at a cost of 35 cents on the dollar.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-74" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[74]</a>In May 2008, the Ecuadorian government renegotiated radio spectrum franchises for mobile phone operators <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9rica_M%C3%B3vil" title="América Móvil" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Porta</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movistar" title="Movistar" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Movistar</a> for a total price of 700 million dollars, far more than that recommended by studies conducted under previous governments, which had proposed granting the same franchises for only 70 million dollars.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-75" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[75]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Foreign policy[</h4><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_Rafael_Correa" class="mw-redirect" title="Foreign policy of Rafael Correa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Foreign policy of Rafael Correa</a></div><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Presidents of South American countries meet in Rio de Janeiro. From left to right: Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) and Nicanor Duarte (Paraguay)</a></div></div></div><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">
</a><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Presidentes18012007.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitry_Medvedev_with_Rafael_Correa-1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitry_Medvedev_with_Rafael_Correa-1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Rafael Correa with Dmitry Medvedev</a></div></div></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitry_Medvedev_with_Rafael_Correa-1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">During Rafael Correa's tenure as president he took some radical alternative steps to change the course of Ecuador's relations with the rest of the world. Amongst these were economic moves to correct Ecuador's debt imbalance, distancing from the United States, a rift with its northern neighbor Colombia, and a strengthening of ties with ALBA (including Venezuela and Bolivia), as well as Iran.</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitry_Medvedev_with_Rafael_Correa-1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Correa adopted a confrontational approach to the governments of both the United States and neighboring Colombia.</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPhilipPanizza201190-52" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[52]</a> At the time of his election, Ecuador contained <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_Air_Base" class="mw-redirect" title="Manta Air Base" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Manta Air Base</a>, the only U.S. military base in South America, with Correa refusing to renew the base's lease when it expired in 2009.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKozloff200877-76" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[76]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-77" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[77]</a>On 1 March 2008 at 00:25 local time (05:25 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time" title="Coordinated Universal Time" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">UTC</a>), Colombia launched a military operation, 1.8 kilometers (1.1 mi) into Ecuador.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-MSNBC-rebel-leader-78" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[78]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBC20080301-79" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[79]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-Bloomberg-80" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[80]</a> According to Colombian authorities, the guerrillas responded militarily to this initial bombardment from a position in the vicinity of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa_de_Yanamaru" class="mw-redirect" title="Santa Rosa de Yanamaru" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Santa Rosa de Yanamaru</a>, on the Ecuadorian side of the border, killing a Colombian soldier, Carlos Hernández. A second bombardment was then carried out, resulting in the deaths of Raúl Reyes and at least 20 more FARC members.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBC20080325-81" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[81]</a> Two bodies, several documents and three laptops found in the guerrilla camp were returned to Colombia.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-MSNBC-rebel-leader-78" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[78]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-Bloomberg-80" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[80]</a> This was the first time the Colombian military had killed a member of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FARC-EP_Chain_of_Command#Central_High_Command" class="mw-redirect" title="FARC-EP Chain of Command" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">FARC's leadership council</a> in combat.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-regional-82" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[82]</a> After this operation, the Colombian authorities increased its security measures nationwide, fearing FARC retaliation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-83" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[83]</a>According to the Ecuadorian government, the attack happened 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) inside its own territory, lacked its permission and was a planned strike, intended to be followed by the incursion of Colombian troops by helicopter. It pointed out that the attack had left a total of more than 20 people dead in Ecuadorian territory, many of whom were found to be wearing underwear or sleeping clothes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-autogenerated1-84" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[84]</a> The government of Ecuador concluded that the attack was a "massacre" and not the result of combat or "hot pursuit". Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa had reason to believe that the Colombian warplanes had penetrated 10 km into Ecuador's territory and struck the guerrilla camp while flying north, followed by troops in helicopters who had completed the killings. He claimed that some of the bodies had been found to be shot from behind.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-85" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[85]</a>The Ecuadorian authorities found three wounded women in the camp, including a Mexican student who was identified as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc%C3%ADa_Andrea_Morett%C3%81lvarez" title="Lucía Andrea Morett Álvarez" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lucía Andrea Morett Álvarez</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-El_Tiempo-86" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[86]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-87" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[87]</a> Lucía Morett claimed that she was visiting the guerrilla group as part of an academic investigation, refusing to answer other questions about the circumstances surrounding her presence there.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-MexicanaHerida-88" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[88]</a> Regarding the attack on the camp, she has stated: "I was asleep when we received a first aerial attack. Two or three hours later we were attacked again".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-MexicanaHerida-88" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[88]</a> Ecuador said that it was cooperating with Mexico to investigate whether any Mexicans had been killed during the raid.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-89" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[89]</a> According to the director of the Ecuadorian military hospital which treated the three women, they had received some sort of medical attention from both the attacking Colombian forces and the Ecuadorian soldiers who later found them.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-90" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[90]</a>President Uribe of Colombia spoke by telephone with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, early on the morning of the raid, to inform him of the incident.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBC_Mundo_48_horas-91" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[91]</a> In a press conference that evening, Correa denounced the attack as "aggression" against Ecuador, calling it a "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massacre" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:massacre" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">massacre</a>", and claiming that the rebels had been killed in their sleep using "advanced technology". He announced that he was summoning his ambassador in Colombia for consultations.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBC_Mundo_48_horas-91" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[91]</a> On Sunday, 2 March, Correa said that a diplomatic note would be sent in protest at the incursion,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-92" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[92]</a> claiming that the action had been a violation of Ecuador's airspace.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-IHT_20080302-93" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[93]</a> Ecuador formally recalled its ambassador from Colombia and expelled the Colombian ambassador from Quito.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-BBC_Mundo_48_horas-91" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[91]</a>Correa withdrew his government's ambassador in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogot%C3%A1" title="Bogotá" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bogotá</a>, Colombia, and ordered troops to the country's border following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Andean_diplomatic_crisis" title="2008 Andean diplomatic crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2008 Andean diplomatic crisis</a> in early March 2008.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-94" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[94]</a> On 3 March 2008, Colombia's police said that documents found in a camp in Ecuador where Colombian troops killed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Reyes" class="mw-redirect" title="Raul Reyes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Raul Reyes</a>, a top guerrilla boss, showed ties between the FARC rebels and Correa, including contacts about political proposals and local military commanders.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-95" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[95]</a> Correa denied the accusations, calling them lies.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-96" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[96]</a> Correa also said that a deal to release political prisoners – including former Colombian Sen. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Betancourt" class="mw-redirect" title="Ingrid Betancourt" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ingrid Betancourt</a> – was nearly complete before the 1 March 2008 Colombian raid into his country.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-97" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[97]</a> On 5 March 2008, Correa and Venezuelan president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez" title="Hugo Chávez" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hugo Chávez</a> met to discuss Colombia's attack and made a series of accusations against Colombia's government.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-98" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[98]</a> During the meeting, Correa dismissed Colombia's president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Uribe" title="Álvaro Uribe" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Álvaro Uribe</a> as just a "puppet" while others are the "puppet masters".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-99" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[99]</a> On 18 May 2011, Colombia's Supreme Court ruled documents found on computers of slain FARC commander "Raul Reyes" are inadmissible as evidence in court as the material is illegally obtained and provides no evidence.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-100" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[100]</a><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%B3rum_Social_Mundial_2008-AL.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%B3rum_Social_Mundial_2008-AL.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Presidents Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Evo Morales of Bolívia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brasil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, in Fórum Social Mundial for Latin America</a></div></div></div><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%B3rum_Social_Mundial_2008-AL.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">2008 Constitution[</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=11&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: 2008 Constitution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4><h5 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Relations with Congress and Legislative crisis[</h5>In February 2007, Correa's plan to have a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Ecuadorian_Constituent_Assembly_referendum" title="2007 Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly referendum" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">referendum on the convening of a constituent assembly</a> was approved by Congress. The referendum took place on 15 April 2007. However, after this date was set, the "statutes" for the referendum were modified by Correa to allow more powers to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_assembly" title="Constituent assembly" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">constituent assembly</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-Gulfnews-101" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[101]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-102" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[102]</a> One of these powers was the ability to dismiss Congress, a power which Congress never approved. The newer version of the referendum was approved by the majority of the seven-seat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electoral_Tribunal_of_Ecuador&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Electoral Tribunal of Ecuador (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Electoral Tribunal</a>. In early March, Congress, which was controlled by Correa's opposition, reacted by trying to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeach" class="mw-redirect" title="Impeach" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">impeach</a> the President of the electoral tribunal.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-103" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[103]</a> The electoral tribunal then removed from office the 57 members of Congress who tried to impeach the President of the Electoral Tribunal, on the grounds of attempting to intervene an electoral process. Correa backed the electoral tribunal (which approved his version of the referendum) while stating that the removal of the 57 congressmen was constitutional. The situation escalated to a feud between the opposition in Congress and the Executive and marches in the street against Congress and police intervention to prevent the Congressmen from entering the legislative building.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-104" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[104]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-105" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[105]</a>...<h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Environmental conservation[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=14&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Environmental conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>The President affirmed that his was a "green" Government for its defense of the environment."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-114" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[114]</a> In line with this, he had decided to return to the International Whaling Commission to impede the restart of the hunt of whales;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-115" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[115]</a> established a prohibition on the extraction of prized types of wood;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-116" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[116]</a> and announced that for an annual compensation of 350 million dollars from the international community it would give up the exploitation of an oil field with around 1,000 million barrels, one of their biggest reserves of petroleum<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-117" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[117]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-118" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[118]</a> located in a reservation of the Yasuní National Park biosphere<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-119" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[119]</a> in the Amazon Basin. The proposal hoped to collect contributions starting from 2010.<h5 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Oil politics[</h5>In 2013 Ecuador announced that it would auction more than three million hectares of Amazonian rainforest in the Yasuni Nature Reserve to Chinese oil companies. The indigenous people inhabiting the land protested the deal. They claim that the oil projects would threaten their traditional way of life and devastate the area's environment. Ecuador's Shuar people's women's leader, Narcisa Mashienta, said that the government lied when claiming that the people would have given their consent.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-auction-120" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[120]</a>The NGO Amazon Watch claims that the reason for the projects is the government's 7 billion dollar debt to China and the desire to get Chinese funding to build a 12.5 billion dollar oil refinery.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-auction-120" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[120]</a>An 11,000-barrel oil spill in the Amazon was considered problematic to Correa's desire to win a third term, because he had tried to assure his critics of him being environment-friendly.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-gp-121" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[121]</a><h5 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Yasuní-ITT Initiative[</h5><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasun%C3%AD-ITT_Initiative" title="Yasuní-ITT Initiative" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Yasuní-ITT Initiative</a>, The aim of the initiative is to provide a creative solution for the threat posed by the extraction of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crude_oil" class="mw-redirect" title="Crude oil" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">crude oil</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha (page does not exist)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha</a> (ITT) oil fields, which are located in the highly vulnerable area of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasun%C3%AD_National_Park" class="mw-redirect" title="Yasuní National Park" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Yasuní National Park</a>. The proposal would contribute to preserving biodiversity, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and their way of life.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]President Correa has stated that Ecuador's first option is to maintain the crude oil in the subsoil. The national and international communities would be called on to help the government implement this costly decision for the country. The government hopes to recover 50% of the revenues it would obtain by extracting the oil. The procedure involves the issuing of government bonds for the crude oil that will remain "in situ", with the double commitment of never extracting this oil and of protecting Yasuní National Park. If Ecuador succeeds in receiving the hoped for-amount – estimated at 350 million dollars annually <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-122" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[122]</a> – it would only be for a period of ten years beginning after the sixth year, since production, and thus potential revenues, would progressively decline after those ten years.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]A more promising alternative[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research" title="Wikipedia:No original research" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">original research?</a>][<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">failed verification</a>] would be a strategy to provide the government with the 50% of resources in such a way as to provide a consistent income for an indefinite period of time. This resource would be channeled towards activities that help to free the country from its dependency on exports and imports and to consolidate food sovereignty.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-123" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[123]</a>In August 2013, Correa abandoned the initiative and approved oil drilling, blaming lack of support from the international community for the decision.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-124" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[124]</a><h5 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Sea conservation[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=17&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Sea conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h5>Correa overturned a ban on the sale of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark" title="Shark" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">shark</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fin" title="Fin" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fins</a>, which are popular in Asia, but stipulated that the fins can only be sold if the sharks are caught accidentally and by artisan fishermen. He did not say how authorities would determine whether the shark had been caught accidentally or deliberately.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-125" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[125]</a>On 3 August 2007, Correa ordered the deportation of Sean O'Hearn-Gimenez, director of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Shepherd_Conservation_Society" title="Sea Shepherd Conservation Society" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sea Shepherd Conservation Society</a>, saying that he would not allow "gringuitos" (literally, "little <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo" title="Gringo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">gringos</a>") to tell Ecuadorians what to do or to pursue local fishermen. However, a local newspaper noted that O'Hearn-Gimenez had signed a 5-year agreement with Ecuador's own Environmental Police rather than acting unilaterally (as a foreigner with no authority of his own), and was married to an Ecuadorian.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-126" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[126]</a> The deportation was ordered because Sea Shepherd, in partnership with the Ecuadorian National Environmental Police, exposed and stopped the biggest shark-fin shipment in the port city of Manta.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-127" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[127]</a> Correa later rescinded the extradition order because O'Hearn-Gimenez was married to an Ecuadorian woman. All the arrested fishermen were released, too, and the confiscated shark fins returned to them.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-128" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[128]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Security and defense[</h4>In June and July 2007 in several communities of the Amazonía and domestic South, protests were carried out against oil and mining concessions to transnational companies (PetroChina, PetroBras and mining Canadian). According to some media, the Government repressed abusing from the force to these mobilizations.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-129" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[129]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Second presidential term: 2009–2013[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=19&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Second presidential term: 2009–2013" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Rafael Correa was re-elected for a second term in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2009 Ecuadorian general election" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">April 2009 general election</a>, where he gained 52% of the vote.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPhilipPanizza2011111-63" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[63]</a> He was the first Ecuadorian President to serve a second consecutive term since the 19th century.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPhilipPanizza201191-130" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[130]</a> It was the first time in thirty years that the country had re-elected a president and the first elected president from Guayaquil (The coast) who could finished his term after Leon Febres Cordero (1984–1986).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-Ecuador's_Correa_aims_for_citizens_revolution_in_2nd_term-131" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">[131</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-Ecuador's_Correa_aims_for_citizens_revolution_in_2nd_term-131" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none;">]</a> He won by a large margin over the other...<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality" title="Infant mortality" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Infant mortality</a>, from 24.4 per 1000 in 2005, declined to 18.3 in 2015. Between 2008 and 2016, new public hospitals have been built, the number of civil servants has increased significantly and salaries have been increased. In 2008, the government introduced universal and compulsory social security coverage. In 2015, corruption remains a problem. Overbilling is recorded in 20% of public establishments and in 80% of private establishments.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-136" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[136]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Closure of Teleamazonas[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=21&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Closure of Teleamazonas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>In June 2009, CONARTEL (a radio and television regulating body) imposed fines on a television station, Teleamazonas. A third fine could lead to a temporary or permanent ban on this private television channel. In December 2009, the station was taken off the air by the Superintendent of Telecommunications [es], under a provisional suspension of 72 hours for purportedly "spreading false information."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-137" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[137]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">2009 Ecuador electricity crisis[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=22&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: 2009 Ecuador electricity crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Ecuador_electricity_crisis" title="2009 Ecuador electricity crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2009 Ecuador electricity crisis</a></div>Beginning 5 November, rolling blackouts took place across Ecuador for two to six hours per day.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-wsj-138" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[138]</a> Government officials also urged citizens to conserve energy.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-laht2-139" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[139]</a> Economic losses from the blackouts are estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars; factory output slowed, and storage of perishables was disrupted.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-laht2-139" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[139]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-upi-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[140]</a>On 6 November, the government declared an emergency in the power sector, which was expected to "allow the Finance Ministry to seek to guarantee fuel imports for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric" class="mw-redirect" title="Thermoelectric" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">thermoelectric</a> plants".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-wsj-138" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[138]</a> The government also agreed to purchase an additional 5,200 MW per hour of electricity from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peru</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia" title="Colombia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Colombia</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-laht-141" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[141]</a> Government officials aimed to end power rationing before Christmas.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-laht-141" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[141]</a>The power crisis led to criticism of the Correa administration's management of the power sector as water levels of the reservoirs became depleted.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-upi-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[140]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Mining protests[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=23&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Mining protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>In January, Ecuador was shaken by mass protests against large-scale mining. Indigenous people were demanding that they not be exploited at all and were blockading highways to make their point. Correa cited a constitutional article that prohibited the blocking of roads.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-142" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[142]</a> Police officers were also injured in attempting to clear blockades.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-143" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[143]</a> Eye Witnesses leader claimed "The response from the government was gunfire from the ground and the air," The leader said that police, backed by a helicopter, opened fire on the protesters unprovoked.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-autogenerated3-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a> In an interview with the state-run media on Thursday, Correa said that the police were not armed and had only riot gear to protect them from demonstrators who were wielding shotguns. The Shuar man that died was killed by protesters' own weapons, and police were also injured by the same shotgun pellets that killed the brother Shuar, Correa said.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-autogenerated3-144" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[144]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Hydrocarbon production reforms[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=24&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Hydrocarbon production reforms" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>Correa announced that on Monday 26 July 2010 Ecuador would enact reforms to a hydrocarbons law that aims to expropriate foreign-company operations unless they sign service contracts increasing state control of the industry. Correa reminded oil companies that if they did not abide by the state's policies, they would have their fields nationalized and would be forced from the country.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-145" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[145]</a>...<h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Chinese credits[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=30&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Chinese credits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>In 2010 and 2011, Ecuador received Chinese credits for around US$5 billion. One of this financing model's projects is the hydroelectric Coca Codo Sinclair that the Asian giant builds and it finances with something more than US$2 billion.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-192" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[192]</a>Correa pointed out that China gives credits to Ecuador at 7.0 percent, but the credits are to finance projects with 23 or 25 percent of profitability, that is extremely good business, when referring to two thousand million dollars which will be dedicated to public investment initiatives. The Chinese credits are a "good business" with interests of 7 percent to finance projects with a profitability that goes from 23 to 25 percent.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-193" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[193]</a> Correa discarded the idea that Ecuador is delivered to or have mortgaged its petroleum to China.On this point he mentioned that in the year 2006 75% of the Ecuadorian petroleum went to United States, in exchange for nothing. "Now we have 50% of the committed petroleum with China, in exchange for thousands of millions of dollars to finance the development of this country.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-194" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[194]</a>In 2012, China loaned Ecuador 240 million dollars for the purpose of overhauling the Ecuadorian security system. This system comprises 4,300 new surveillance cameras, drones, automated evidence processing systems, and increased manpower to manage each of these new technologies, which have been collectively dubbed the ECU 911 Integrated Security Service.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-:1-195" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[195]</a> Much of this new hardware has been developed in Ecuador, but in laboratories designed and set up by China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), which is a state-owned company and a subsidiary of national defence contractor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Electronics_Corporation" title="China Electronics Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">China Electronics Corporation</a> (CEC). The CEC has also undertaken similar surveillance overhauls in Venezuela and Bolivia, and has also introduced technology to monitor the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-196" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[196]</a> The Ecuadorian government has highlighted the benefits of this extensive security system, which has been installed across the nation's 24 provinces. They argue that it has been able to decrease the response time for everyday emergencies such as life-threatening illness,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-197" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[197]</a> and have cited the system as a large factor in the dramatic drop in crime in Ecuador since its installation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-198" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[198]</a> Some individuals have expressed concern about the nature and the pervasiveness of these technologies, however, and how they may be used to create an Ecuadorian police state.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-:1-195" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[195]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Restructuring of the justice[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=31&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Restructuring of the justice" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h4>After the results of the popular consultation<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-199" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[199]</a> was created the Council of the Transitory Judicature integrated by three members Tania Aryans (delegate of the Legislative), Paulo Rodríguez (delegate of the Executive) and Fernando Yávar (delegate of the Function of Transparency).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-200" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[200]</a> This advice has 18 months to restructure the Judicial Function Among its functions it was the one of creating the new National Court of Justice whose possession was given January 2012,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-201" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[201]</a> 21 whose members will be in the positions for nine years.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-202" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[202]</a> The court of justice was created through a competition of merits and opposition. Correa who participated of the act of possession of the new domestic magistrates,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-203" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[203]</a> said that the administration of justice is an imperium of the state and at the same time, it is a public service, also it expressed his total back to the new judges of the National Court of Justice (CNJ)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-204" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[204]</a>In 2014, the law is amended to allow same-sex unions to benefit from legal recognition.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-205" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[205]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">2012 Ecuadorian protests[</h4><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Ecuadorian_protests" title="2012 Ecuadorian protests" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2012 Ecuadorian protests</a></div>Ecuador's largest advocacy group for Indians, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_Indigenous_Nationalities_of_Ecuador" title="Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador</a>, planned a two-week march to Quito beginning on Thursday to protest Correa's land and water policies that they say were hurting their way of life. Correa condemned the action and accused them of being hypocrites for having allied with the extreme right,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-206" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[206]</a> of seeking to exploit mining for themselves<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-207" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[207]</a> and of trying to destabilize his government, urging his followers to mobilize against them. The Indians were supported by the Popular Democratic Movement, a leftist party, the National Union of Educators and CONAIE, which supported Correa at the start of his administration in 2007 but soon moved to the opposition.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-208" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[208]</a>The support march on the Government concentrated on thousands of demonstrators coming from different zones that met in a park where they enjoyed artistic shows put on to celebrate the Woman's International Day.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-209" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[209]</a> The march began in an Amazon region to the southeast and it arrived in Quito on 22 March. It had the support of the teachers' organizations and students.Correa declared that the protests were intended to destabilize his government and he encouraged his followers "to keep mobilized until March 22"... "to resist peacefully. Those in favor of the Government also announced countermarches in various localities,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-210" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[210]</a> such as in Cuenca where they had a concentration that gathered around fifteen thousand people.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-211" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[211]</a><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Sex education and contraceptive services[</h4>Correa established the National Interagency Strategy for Family Planning and the Prevention of Teen Pregnancies (ENIPLA) in 2011. It had an annual budget of $2 million and focused on preventive doctor visits and family planning, including access to the morning-after pill. In the four years since ENIPLA was established pregnancies amongst women between the ages of 11 and 14 decreased by 18 percent.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-212" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[212]</a> At the end of 2014 Correa replaced ENIPLA with Plan Familia (a family-based abstinence only program). One study found that this shift led to an increase in teenage pregnancy in Ecuador.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-213" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[213]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Third presidential term: 2013–2017[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=34&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Third presidential term: 2013–2017" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Ecuadorian_general_election" title="2013 Ecuadorian general election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2013 Ecuadorian general election</a></div><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paris,Presidentes_de_Ecuador_y_Francia_se_re%C3%BAnen(10724467276).jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paris,Presidentes_de_Ecuador_y_Francia_se_re%C3%BAnen(10724467276).jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Correa and French President </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francois_Hollande" class="mw-redirect" title="Francois Hollande" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Francois Hollande</a>, 7 November 2013</div></div></div><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PAPA_FRANCISCO_EN_CARONDELET(19294390829).jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PAPA_FRANCISCO_EN_CARONDELET(19294390829).jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Rafael Correa with </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis" title="Pope Francis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pope Francis</a>, 6 July 2015</div></div></div>General elections were held in Ecuador on 17 February 2013 to elect the President, the National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and members of the Andean Parliament. Correa was reelected president, winning by a large margin in the first round of the presidential election.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-214" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[214]</a> According to the quick count released by Participación Ciudadana, the Alianza PAIS movement (AP) reached two-thirds of the new National Assembly. The results gave the movement 100 of the 137 seats contested in the polls.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-215" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[215]</a> Correa's closest electoral rival, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Lasso" title="Guillermo Lasso" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Guillermo Lasso</a> (with 11 of the 137 seats in the new National Assembly), conceded shortly after the election concluded....<h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height">Post-presidency[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=37&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Post-presidency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>After finishing his term, Correa maintained an active position in national politics expressing his opinion on the situation of the country and the performance of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%ADn_Moreno" title="Lenín Moreno" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lenín Moreno</a>'s government through articles and editorials in the newspaper <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tel%C3%A9grafo(Ecuador)" title="El Telégrafo (Ecuador)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">El Telégrafo</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-220" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[220]</a> as well as in its social networks in which issued several pronouncements on several similar topics.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-221" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[221]</a>Within months of winning the elections, President Moreno began to move away from his voting platform,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-222" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[222]</a> igniting a feud with Correa.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-223" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[223]</a>Correa also led "No" campaign the during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Ecuadorian_referendum_and_popular_consultation" title="2018 Ecuadorian referendum and popular consultation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2018 Ecuadorian referendum and popular consultation</a>.On 3 July 2018, a judge in Ecuador ordered the arrest of Correa after he failed to appear in court during a trial surrounding the kidnapping of his political opponent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Balda" title="Fernando Balda" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fernando Balda</a>. Correa, who lived in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium" title="Belgium" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Belgium</a> at the time, denied the allegations regarding the kidnapping.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-:0-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a>Correa's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_in_absentia" title="Trial in absentia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">trial in absentia</a>, on charges of bribery, began on February 10, 2020.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-224" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[224]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Arrest of Julian Assange[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=38&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Arrest of Julian Assange" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Correa maintained his support for Australian activist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange" title="Julian Assange" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Julian Assange</a> throughout his post-presidential life. On April 11, 2019, the Ecuadorian government withdrew Assange's asylum and invited <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard" title="Scotland Yard" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Scotland Yard</a> into its embassy to arrest Assange. In response Correa called Moreno a traitor and said "“Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-225" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[225]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-226" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[226]</a> Correa's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook" title="Facebook" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Facebook</a> account, which had more than 1.5 million followers, was blocked on 11 April 2019 for disclosing personal data. Correa had been using his Facebook account since March to publish details of the "INA Papers" case involving a company linked to Lenin Moreno's family.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-227" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[227]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#cite_note-228" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[228]</a><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height">Controversy[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rafael_Correa&action=edit&section=39&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Controversy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Relationship with the media</h3><div>....</div><div></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"></div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"><div class="GGD0W3FBET">no lnx</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ecuadors-battle-environmental-justice-against-chevron/">https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ecuadors-battle-environmental-justice-against-chevron/</a></div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">The Nation</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISMFOSSIL FUELSFEATUREJUNE 22-29, 2015 ISSUE</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Ecuador’s Battle for Environmental Justice Against Chevron</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">For more than two decades, impoverished indigenous people have been seeking restitution from the oil giant for polluting their region.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">By James North JUNE 2, 2015</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Quito—Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s popular president, does not mince words when he talks about the Chevron Corporation. In an interview with The Nation here recently, Correa accused the oil giant—the third-largest company in the United States, as measured by gross revenue—of “deliberately polluting” the Amazon rain forest in eastern Ecuador, of “shamelessly lying” to evade its legal responsibility to clean up, and of waging a ferocious international campaign “to destroy the reputation of our justice system and government.” In a wide-ranging, hourlong interview in the centuries-old presidential palace, Correa was intense and passionate as he spoke about how Texaco—which was taken over by Chevron in 2001—had dumped toxic waste into nearly 1,000 pits and spilled billions of gallons of oil-exposed water into a 1,700-square-mile area between 1972 and 1992. Correa said that Texaco could have chosen not to pollute. “Back then, better techniques [of waste disposal] already existed,” he said. “The techniques they used here were against the law in their own country. They weren’t interested in the human beings who lived in the Amazon region. To me, it is a question of racism.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">For more on Rafael Correa, see James North at TheNation.com.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Correa’s outspoken comments are just one of the latest developments in a massive international legal case that has pitted 30,000 poor Ecuadorans who live in the rain forest against a corporation that reported $19.2 billion in profits last year—more than half of Ecuador’s entire government budget. The battle has already lasted 22 years, spanned several countries on three continents, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">The American public is largely uninformed about this epic struggle, even though it’s as important as the dispute over the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The mainstream US media, when it hasn’t ignored the case, has often taken Chevron’s side, implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) endorsing the company’s view that an alliance of Ecuadoran extortionists and crooked US lawyers is using the corrupt Ecuadoran court system to shake down an innocent corporation.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">On closer inspection, the truth is totally different. If the plaintiffs finally win in the end, the rain-forest inhabitants will not just have their habitat start to be cleansed of the oil muck that oozes into their water supply, or enjoy improved health facilities to treat what they argue are elevated levels of cancer and other diseases. They will also have proved the success of an innovative legal strategy that recruits financial help in the rich developed world to provide at least a fighting chance against a corporate colossus like Chevron, which has already spent, by some estimates, $2 billion in its massive legal and propaganda campaign. But if Chevron prevails, it will be one more depressing proof that multinational corporations can defy national and international law and pollute with impunity.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Here, as briefly as possible, is what has happened so far: Texaco left Ecuador in 1992, having disposed of its wastes by methods that in some cases would have been illegal, and in others unethical, in the United States. The company dumped a combination of drilling muds, “formation water,” and actual crude oil into unlined waste pits—a procedure that Texas outlawed back in 1969. It released billions of gallons of oil-laced “produced” waters straight into the streams and lakes, even though standard procedure in the United States was to “reinject” the potentially toxic compounds safely deep underground. In 1995, Texaco agreed to “remediate” part of the mess, which it later said cost $40 million. In 1998, Ecuador’s government certified that the purported cleanup had been successfully completed, thus relinquishing its right to bring further legal action.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">But popular movements in the rain forest that had already started organizing against Texaco’s pollution were outraged, charging that their government had sold them out. They brought their own lawsuit against Texaco in a New York federal court in 1993. Eventually, the plaintiffs would represent some 30,000 people, known as the afectados (affected ones) in Spanish.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">In 2001, Chevron took over Texaco. The oil giant’s lawyers were already fighting to dismiss the case in the United States and move it to Ecuador. That same year, federal judge Jed Rakoff finally agreed, ruling that the case “had everything to do with Ecuador and nothing to do with the United States.” So, in 2003, the legal battle reopened in the eastern oil-frontier town of Lago Agrio. The Ecuadorans would soon be led by Pablo Fajardo, a young lawyer who had grown up in the region and lived through the contamination firsthand.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">In 2007, Chevron, probably sensing that the case was going against it, sold all of its assets in Ecuador—which now meant that even if the plaintiffs won a judgment, they would struggle to collect; they would be forced to bring lengthy and costly legal action in other countries where the company still had operations. Finally, in 2011, the local court found in favor of the rain-forest residents. The original judgment was for $19 billion. Chevron appealed to higher courts, and the case ended up in Ecuador’s National Court of Justice, which in 2013 reduced the judgment to $9.5 billion. The amount may sound large, until you consider that another major oil corporation, BP, has already spent $27 billion to clean up its 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and could face an additional US fine of nearly $14 billion.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">By then, Chevron’s intransigence was drawing some unwanted attention in the financial world. A respected oil analyst, Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., said in 2013 that the litigation was damaging the corporation’s stock price and encouraged it to settle. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who is responsible for some $540 million of Chevron stock in a state pension fund, had also pointedly suggested in 2011 that Chevron come to an agreement.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Instead, Chevron launched a publicity counterattack. The oil giant’s home page includes a prominent banner linking to its views on the case. It ran large ads in print, on television, and online—not to encourage readers to buy its products, but to boast in general terms about its purported social and environmental conscience.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Other tactics in Chevron’s onslaught were vicious, and historically unprecedented in their scope and intensity. In 2011, the corporation came back to a federal district courtroom in New York, this time before Judge Lewis Kaplan, and counter-charged a group of Ecuador’s lawyers and plaintiffs under the notorious RICO Act with “racketeering” and “fraud.” The corporation’s main target was Steven Donziger, an American attorney who had been part of the Ecuadoran legal team almost from the start.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Here is where the Chevron/Ecuador legal saga becomes truly bizarre. After a three-year trial without a jury, a US judge, in a US courtroom, somehow found the predominantly Ecuadoran defendants guilty of fraud in the Ecuadoran courts, and then issued a legal injunction that would almost certainly prevent them from collecting on the judgment they’d won in Ecuador anywhere else in the world. Judge Kaplan did concede that “there is pollution” in Ecuador’s rain forest, and that “On that assumption, Texaco and perhaps even Chevron—although it never drilled for oil in Ecuador—might bear some responsibility.” But he insisted that his chief concern was the fraud that he decided had taken place in an Ecuadoran courtroom more than 3,000 miles away.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">It’s little wonder that legal scholars have been scratching their heads over Kaplan’s verdict. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had already reversed one of Kaplan’s earlier rulings in the Ecuador case, heard arguments from Donziger and his codefendants on April 20 of this year. Meanwhile, the Ecuadoran legal team remains undeterred: The plaintiffs are already taking action to collect their judgment in other countries. Canada, where Chevron has an estimated $15 billion in assets, is their first target, and a leading Canadian trial attorney is already fighting their case there.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Chevron’s ferocious counteroffensive didn’t stop in Judge Kaplan’s courtroom. Even though Ecuador’s government is not a party to the lawsuit, President Correa denounced, in our interview, what he called Chevron’s “multimillion-dollar publicity campaign” against his country and its judicial system. He also criticized Chevron for bringing a case against his government at the Permanent Court of International Arbitration in The Hague, where the corporation alleged that its rights under the Bilateral Investment Treaty between the United States and Ecuador had been violated. Chevron’s demands are brazen: It’s asking the Hague tribunal to either order the government of Ecuador to quash the lawsuit brought on behalf of the 30,000 rain-forest residents, or to financially compensate the company for any verdict against it.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Correa has visited the polluted Amazon region several times and criticized what he’s witnessed there. Chevron’s supporters contend that his comments reveal bias—and imply an interference in the judicial process. Correa was indignant at this assertion. “It is a monstrous lie,” he said. “Of course I spoke out about our citizens in the affected zone; they have all our sympathy. But it is an independent judicial system. When President Obama said that BP had to take responsibility for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that did not mean he was interfering in court cases.” Correa concluded, with feeling: “If they can show that the president interfered in this case, I will resign the same day.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Chevron doesn’t deny that there is substantial pollution in eastern Ecuador. But it blames Petroecuador, the state-owned oil company, which took over some operations after Texaco left in 1992. President Correa counters Chevron’s assertion by arguing that some of the most polluted waste pits are right alongside wells that have not pumped any oil since Texaco departed. “Just ask the people in the community: Who contaminated? I invite the readers of your magazine—the entire world—to come to Ecuador and put your hands in those waste pits. Your hands will come out black with oil.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">* * </div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">I had, in fact, already visited the polluted rainforest zone three years earlier. My guide back then was Donald Moncayo, a serious, even somber man, now in his 40s, who belongs to the Amazon Defense Coalition, a popular organization that represents the 30,000 rain-forest afectados. Over the years, he had led several hundred of what he calls “toxi-tours,” but he hasn’t gotten tired, or lost his indignation at Texaco for poisoning his home area. He seemed to know many of the waste pits by name; he said there were 953.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Our two-day tour started in Lago Agrio, the raw, ramshackle oil town 120 miles east of Quito that Texaco founded after it struck oil in the 1960s. Lago Agrio is a shabby place, with no sign that the oil boom had much local benefit. The courtroom in which Chevron first lost the historic decision is on the third floor of an unprepossessing building trimmed in yellow paint.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Here are the tools of Moncayo’s trade as a toxi-tour guide: a machete to cut through the forest underbrush; a spade for digging up the shallower waste pits; a coring device for taking soil samples at other dumps, where the waste is more deeply covered up; and rubber gloves for when he does unearth the oozing poison.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">We set off into the rain forest. Oil pipelines of various sizes run alongside the roads; in one spot, you can count dozens of them, like strands of spaghetti. Moncayo uses the tour to rebut, point by point, Chevron’s main claims, such as blaming Petroecuador for the pollution. He started at Aguarico 2, a well that has been closed for years and that Petroecuador never operated. The oily residue is still floating on the surface. Then he marched down a steep slope to a stream, where you could see and smell the oil as well.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Chevron says that during the mid-1990s, Texaco “remediated”—cleaned up—some of the waste pits where it did acknowledge responsibility for the pollution. Moncayo went to Pozo Lago 2, which is near the modest wood-frame house where he lives with his wife and baby daughter. He pulled out his core sampler and set to work. After only a meter and a half, he struck some viscosity; before two meters, he hit heavy oil soak. “Texaco said they cleaned up here,” he said. “All they really did was dump some soil over the mess.” Less than 50 yards away, people were washing in a stream. (An irony is that the word in Spanish for the waste pits—piscinas—actually means “swimming pools.”)</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Chevron’s supporters insinuate that the local people are the pawns of ambulance-chasing lawyers in the United States. Halfway through the tour, we crossed La Victoria River; people were doing their laundry as children splashed in the water. Moncayo explained that the fight against Texaco started there, back in 1986—not in the offices of US attorneys. He said that local people carried out a paro—a work stoppage and road blockade—to protest the pollution, then formed the grassroots organizations that launched the long campaign for environmental justice.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">During the two days of the toxi-tour, Moncayo regularly asked by name about cancer sufferers all over the area. The 30,000 afectados cite five peer-reviewed scientific studies that show an increased incidence of cancer and other health risks in the area; one article in the International Journal of Epidemiology reported on the “statistically significant higher rates of cancer found in people living in oil-producing areas compared to people living in similar regions of the Ecuadorian Amazon unaffected by oil operations.” (Chevron funded its own peer-reviewed study, which claimed to find no such increased cancer risk.) As Moncayo pointed out, “Our local hospital is not capable of diagnosing cancer properly, much less treating it. So we really don’t know how many cases there have been.” Some cancer patients have to travel all the way to Quito, or even farther, for treatment.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Moncayo emphasized that the legal case is not about winning cash payments. “None of us is going to get a check,” he said. “The damages will be used for environmental repair, not individual indemnifications. We have discussed this all in our Assembly of Affected People. The money will be used to genuinely clean up the piscinas and to set up a proper hospital to treat our cancer patients.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">The final stop on the toxi-tour was the Sacha 41 oil well, which Moncayo said had been truly fixed. You see a deep excavation, from which tons of earth had evidently been removed and scoured, rather than waste covered up by spreading a few feet of soil over it. “Only 28 of the 953 pits have been remediated like this,” Moncayo told me. “This is what must happen all over our region.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"> * </div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Burt Neuborne, 74, is a nationally respected human-rights attorney who is also a professor at the New York University Law School. He’s appealing on behalf of Hugo Gerardo Camacho Naranjo and Javier Piaguaje Payaguaje, two of the Ecuadoran defendants who got snared in Chevron’s “racketeering” case against Steven Donziger in Judge Kaplan’s New York courtroom. Neuborne declines to comment publicly while the Chevron/Ecuador case is pending before the federal appeals court in Lower Manhattan, where he appeared on April 20 on behalf of his clients. But his vigorous, closely reasoned, and biting arguments are publicly available in the two appellate briefs he has filed. He apparently finds it hard to hide his astonishment at Judge Kaplan’s verdict.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Neuborne notes that Kaplan’s decision included a sweeping indictment of Ecuador’s entire judicial system, but he reminds the appeals court that it was actually Chevron that argued hard and successfully back in the early 2000s to transfer the case to Ecuador. Neuborne writes that “scarcely a decade ago,” Chevron fought “to send the case to Ecuador by swearing that its courts were fully capable of resolving this dispute justly.” He argues that Chevron should not be permitted to get away with shopping around for a more sympathetic venue. In passing, he also notes that Chevron has not produced “an iota of evidence” suggesting that President Correa has interfered in the case.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Neuborne reserves some of his most compelling language for Chevron’s star witness, a disgraced former judge in Ecuador named Alberto Guerra, who testified in Kaplan’s New York courtroom that Donziger and Fajardo had agreed to pay a $500,000 bribe to let them ghost-write the Ecuadoran trial judge’s final opinion. Judge Kaplan accepted Guerra’s testimony as convincing.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Neuborne is scathing in response. He notes that Chevron admitted in court that it had given Guerra cash and benefits that added up to $2 million, including relocating his family to the United States. Neuborne’s appeal argues: “The uncorroborated word of Alberto Guerra, a conceded liar and cheat who was paid at least $2 million by Chevron for his intensely rehearsed testimony (Guerra met with Chevron’s lawyers at least 53 times to prepare his testimony), cannot possibly be deemed clear and convincing evidence of judicial bribery…. If such thin, uncorroborated testimony by a conceded liar and crook justifies a finding of judicial bribery, no verdict (or judge) is safe from corrupt collateral attack.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Neuborne observes that Judge Kaplan was forced to acknowledge that pollution had taken place in the Ecuadoran rain forest, even though he ignored the extent of the environmental poisoning. His brief asserts that “the District Court’s preoccupation with Mr. Donziger’s alleged wrongdoing in the Ecuadorian trial court cannot erase the independent legal rights of thousands of innocent inhabitants of the environmentally ravaged areas….”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"> * </div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">To hear Chevron’s side of the story, I offered to visit the oil giant’s world headquarters, a leafy 92-acre campus in the San Francisco Bay Area. The corporation declined my request, but Morgan Crinklaw, whose job title is “manager, issues management communications,” did answer my questions by e-mail. In response to Correa’s claim that Chevron is waging a “multimillion-dollar publicity campaign” against Ecuador and its judicial system, Crinklaw said: “If President Correa has evidence to support his claims, he has yet to present it….” And in response to the claim that Texaco “deliberately polluted” the rain forest, Crinklaw answered: “President Correa’s rhetoric is nothing more than an effort to evade his government’s own responsibility for addressing the environmental, social and economic needs of the people of the Amazon.” I asked him how much Chevron had paid ex-judge Guerra; if the company was still paying him; and whether he could put me in touch with Guerra. Crinklaw’s complete response: “In his sworn declaration to the U.S. court, Judge Guerra testified under oath that he was not being compensated for his testimony.” Crinklaw didn’t answer my query as to why Chevron had sold all its assets in Ecuador.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Steven Donziger, the American lawyer who is the main target of Chevron’s counterattack, lives on New York’s Upper West Side. In person, he is tall and intense, but also friendly and open. He said that his ongoing status as a defendant in the racketeering case meant that he would prefer to speak on the record by e-mail.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Donziger commenced by pointing out: “Since the legal case began 22 years ago, we estimate that Chevron has spent at least $2 billion to pay at least 60 law firms, 2,000 lawyers, 200 private investigators, dozens of lobbyists and at least eight different public-relations firms. Most of that amount has been spent in the past four years as part of an unprecedented retaliation campaign designed by Chevron management to cover up the company’s misconduct from its own shareholders, and to silence anybody who helped to hold the company accountable for its wrongdoing and fraud in Ecuador.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">(I asked Chevron spokesman Crinklaw, “How much does Chevron estimate that it has spent so far on this legal case? How many attorneys has Chevron used?” His answer: “We have not disclosed the resources that we have dedicated to defending ourselves in this case. The amount of resources we have expended is commensurate with the level of fraud perpetrated against the company.”)</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Donziger contrasts Chevron’s bitter resistance with the actions of BP after its 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. “It is instructive to compare Chevron’s model of perpetual litigation in the Ecuador matter with BP’s response,” he wrote. “In the immediate aftermath of that spill, BP created a $20 billion fund to compensate its victims without so much as a trial.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">The central mystery in this epic battle, noted by many who have followed the case over more than two decades, is simply this: Why didn’t Chevron cut its losses and settle long ago, avoiding the expenses and the damaging publicity of the endless intercontinental litigation? Donziger argues that the case is about more than just Ecuador’s contaminated rain forest. He believes that a victory for the rain-forest plaintiffs would set an important precedent: It would prove the success of a business model that can inspire other communities around the world to confront Chevron and other multinational corporations with some chance of success.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Donziger uses the expression “monetize hope” to describe this new business model. He explains that the affected Ecuadoran communities could never have financed legal action on their own—“not even the filing fee for the original lawsuit.” So he and others found investors around the world: American law firms, hedge funds, and other backers. “When there is a recovery on the judgment,” he explained, “many of these individuals and entities will receive their investment back plus a modest percentage of the overall recovery. This is just like thousands of other contingency-fee cases filed every year in the United States and around the world.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">“What is unusual about this one,” he continued, “is that it involves indigenous groups in Ecuador. These folks usually don’t figure out how to access funds and lawyers to carry on year after year and ultimately win against a big oil company and its army of sophisticated lawyers, lobbyists, political consultants, and public-relations propagandists.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Donziger emphasized that the fight against Chevron concerns more than just money: “Chevron is trying to kill off the idea that impoverished indigenous groups and lawyers can pool their talents and resources like we have to take on Big Oil and be successful.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"> * *</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">On April 20, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Lower Manhattan heard oral arguments in Chevron Corporation v. Steven Donziger, et al. Chevron was represented by a phalanx of corporate lawyers headed by Theodore Olson, solicitor general of the United States in the George W. Bush administration. Olson continued the attack against Rafael Correa and Ecuador’s entire legal system, asserting that “the president of Ecuador has laid his hands on this case.” As Donziger looked on in the visitors’ gallery, attorneys for him and the Ecuadoran rain-forest plaintiffs vigorously countered these arguments; Neuborne charged that the decision in Judge Kaplan’s lower court “stands on sand.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">Later, Donziger met the press outside the courtroom. “I’m as strong as I’ve ever been,” he said. “I represent the people of Ecuador, who will continue to fight to get this valid judgment enforced, to force Chevron to comply with the law. This case is not about Steven Donziger; it’s about the people of Ecuador. The people of Ecuador will continue to fight with all the tools at their disposal. This battle will continue.”</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">James North has reported from Africa, Latin America, and Asia for four decades. He lives in New York City.</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div></div><div class="GGD0W3FBET"></div></div><div>=
<div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2013/06/exposing-dark-forces-behind-snowden-smears/">https://www.alternet.org/2013/06/exposing-dark-forces-behind-snowden-smears/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx</div><div>
</div><div>Exposing the Dark Forces Behind the Snowden Smears</div><div>written by Max Blumenthal / AlterNet June 28, 2013</div><div>
</div><div>Since journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed the existence of the National Security Agency’s PRISM domestic surveillance program, he and his source, the whistleblower Edward Snowden, have come in for a series of ugly attacks. On June 26, the day that the New York Daily News published a straightforward smear piece on Greenwald, the website Buzzfeed rolled out a remarkably similar article, a lengthy profile that focused on Greenwald’s personal life and supposed eccentricities.</div><div>
</div><div>Both outlets attempted to make hay out of Greenwald’s involvement over a decade ago on the business end of a porn distribution company, an arcane detail that had little, if any, bearing on the domestic spying scandal he sparked. The coordinated nature of the smears prompted Reuters media columnist Jack Shafer to ask if an opposition research firm was behind them. “I wonder who commissioned the file,” he mused on Twitter.</div><div>
</div><div>A day before the Greenwald attacks appeared, Buzzfeed published an anonymously sourced story about the government of Ecuador, which had reportedly offered asylum to Snowden (Ecuador has just revoked a temporary travel document issued to Snowden). Written by Rosie Gray and Adrian Carasquillo, the article relied on documents marked as “secret” that were passed to Buzzfeed by sources described as “activists who wished to call attention to the [Ecuadorian] government’s spying practices in the context of its new international role” as the possible future sanctuary of Snowden.</div><div>
</div><div>Gray and Carasquillo reported that Ecuador’s intelligence service had attempted to procure surveillance technology from two Israeli firms. Without firm proof that the system was ever put into use, the authors claimed the documents “suggest a commitment to domestic surveillance that rivals the practices by the United States’ National Security Agency.” (Buzzfeed has never published a critical report on the $3 billion in aid the US provides to Israel each year, which is used to buy equipment explicitly designed for repressing, spying on and killing occupied Palestinians).</div><div>
</div><div>Buzzfeed’s Ecuador expose supported a theme increasingly advanced by Snowden’s critics — that the hero of civil libertarians and government transparency activists was, in fact, a self-interested hypocrite content to seek sanctuary from undemocratic regimes. Curiously, those who seized on the story had no problem with Buzzfeed’s reporters relying on leaked government documents marked as classified. For some Snowden detractors, the issue was apparently not his leaking, but which government his leaks embarrassed.</div><div>
</div><div>Questionable journalism ethics, evidence of smears</div><div>
</div><div>At first glance, Buzzfeed's Ecuador expose might have seemed like riveting material. Upon closer examination, however, the story turned out to be anything but the exclusive the website promoted it as. In fact, the news of Ecuador’s possible deal with Israeli surveillance firms was reported hours before Buzzfeed’s piece appeared by Aleksander Boyd, a blogger and activist with close ties to right-wing elements in South America. “Rafael Correa's Ecuadorian regime spies on its citizens in a way strikingly similar to what Snowden accuses the U.S. of doing,” claimed Boyd.</div><div>
</div><div>Later in the day, Boyd contacted Buzzfeed’s Gray through Twitter, complimenting her piece before commenting, “Evidently Ecuadorian source leaked same info to you guys, seems I jumped the gun before you…”</div><div>
</div><div>Since Boyd contacted Gray, who has not publicly responded, Buzzfeed has not credited him or altered its headline to acknowledge that its story was not an exclusive. Buzzfeed’s refusal to acknowledge Boyd was not only a testament to the kind of questionable practices that have plagued the outlet since its inception, it helped obscure the story’s disturbing origins.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Boyd’s disclosure that a single source shopped opposition research to him and Buzzfeed at the same time confirmed the existence of a coordinated campaign orchestrated by elements exploiting the Snowden drama for political gain. Boyd’s remark that he “jumped the gun” suggests that the source intended for Buzzfeed to be the first to publish the story, and that he inadvertently embarrassed the site by running with it before them. There is also the possibility that Boyd was the source all along, and that his tweet to Gray was designed to establish deniability. Either way, the source seemed to be carefully managing the operation, wielding Snowden as a cudgel against the Ecuadorian government and timing the story for maximum impact.</div><div>
</div><div>Soliciting smears, dreaming of headless opponents</div><div>
</div><div>Who is Boyd, and how did he appear in the middle of the Snowden saga?</div><div>
</div><div>A London-based representative of Venezuela’s political opposition, Boyd solicits his services as an opposition researcher, informing potential clients through his official bio, “Alek can be contracted to do due diligence on individuals and companies in Venezuela and LatAm.”</div><div>
</div><div>As I reported for The Electronic Intifada, Boyd has repeatedly promoted terrorism and assassination against members of the elected government of Venezuela. Back in 2004, Boyd wrote, “I wish I could decapitate in public plazas [Venezuelan politicians] Lina Ron and Diosdado Cabello. I wish I could torture for the rest of his remaining existence Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel … I wish I could fly over Caracas slums throwing the dead bodies of the criminals that have destroyed my country … Only barbaric practices will neutralize them, much the same way [Genghis] Khan did. I wish I was him.” A year later, he declared, “Re: advocating for violence yes I have mentioned in many occasions that in my view that is the only solution left for dealing with [Hugo] Chavez.”</div><div>
</div><div>In 2008, Boyd’s services were contracted by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), an NGO run by a veteran conservative activist named Thor Halvorssen. The son of a Venezuelan oligarch and former CIA asset who funneled money to the Nicaraguan Contras, Halvorssen founded HRF to publicize the human rights abuses of Hugo Chavez’s government. His first cousin, Leopoldo Lopez, the son of an oil industry executive, is one of the most visible leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, and as such, has received substantial financial support from the US. In 2002, Lopez was among the politicians who momentarily seized power from Chavez during a failed coup attempt. At the 2010 Oslo Freedom Forum, a yearly confab Halvorssen promotes as “the Davos of human rights,” Lopez was presented to an audience of foreign correspondents and diplomats as a “human rights leader.”</div><div>
</div><div>Boyd claimed that during his year and a half working for Halvorssen, he successfully campaigned for the release of Guadelupe Llori, an Ecuadorian opposition politician jailed by Correa under charges of sabotage and terrorism for her role in leading a crippling oil workers’ strike. (After her release, Llori was junketed to Halvorssen’s Oslo Freedom Forum). During this time Boyd visited Llori in prison in Ecuador while meeting opposition activists “to coordinate future projects,” as he told an interviewer. Whether this was how he made initial contact with the source that supplied him and Buzzfeed with the documents on Ecuador’s deal with the Israeli surveillance firms is unknown.</div><div>
</div><div>Boyd may have never met Buzzfeed’s Gray, however, each are well acquainted with Halvorssen. This May, Gray was among the select cadre of journalists flown to the Oslo Freedom Forum to provide positive PR for Halvorssen and his global operation. Gray returned with a fawning profile of Halvorssen, portraying him as an iconoclastic activist whose “job of opposing strongmen is arguably more media-friendly than that of anyone doing human rights work today.”</div><div>
</div><div>In contrast to Buzzfeed’s profile of Greenwald, Gray cast Halvorssen’s eccentricities as charming quirks that bore little relevance to the larger story. And his intimate ties to the right-wing Venezuelan opposition and the oligarchic forces seeking to topple socialist-oriented governments in South America went unmentioned.</div><div>
</div><div>Right-wing corporate lobbyists target Correa</div><div>
</div><div>Ecuador’s Correa is among the most popular of the Latin American leaders to embrace Hugo Chavez’s socialist economic model. Having defiantly defaulted on $3.2 billion in foreign loans, he has been able to leverage his country’s oil wealth to drastically expand social programs, improving access to education and doubling spending on healthcare while lowering poverty rates by a remarkable five percent since he took office in 2007. Naturally, Correa’s rejection of neoliberal policies has earned him a fair share of enemies, especially among the elites who have traditionally governed Ecuador. In 2010, he resisted a coup attempt led by Lucio Gutierrez, a former president who earned the wrath of Ecuador’s poor by implementing crushing IMF-imposed austerity measures.</div><div>
</div><div>Correa’s opponents may have resorted to zero-sum politics, but his response has not always been judicious. He has, for example, advanced criminal libel laws as a means of punishing opposition media and has battled indigenous groups that protested his attempts to open their land up to wide-scale state mining operations. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Correa of leading Ecuador “into a new era of widespread repression.”</div><div>
</div><div>Of all the enemies Correa has earned, some of his fiercest reside not in Quito, but in the conservative think tanks of Washington. They include George W. Bush’s former Latin America handlers and a coterie of corporate-bankrolled right-wing radicals determined to unravel the South American socialist bloc.</div><div>
</div><div>Ezequiel Vazquez Ger, an Argentina-born economist, is among the most aggressive of Correa’s antagonists. Vazquez Ger works for a DC-based lobbying firm run by Otto Reich, a Cuban exile who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under the second Bush administration. In 1987, Reich was singled out during the US Comptroller General’s investigation of Iran-Contra for having “engaged in prohibited, covert propaganda activities” on behalf of the Nicaraguan Contras. He is also suspected of helping the anti-Castro terrorist Orlando Bosch escape prosecution in Venezuela.</div><div>
</div><div>Reich contracted Vazquez Ger in 2011 to help him oversee a portfolio of corporate clients that included Lockheed Martin, Exxon Mobil, and Bacardi International, the rum company whose lawyers drafted much of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act tightening the US embargo of Cuba. Before he partnered with Reich, Vazquez Ger served as a Latin American fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a corporate funded think tank that promotes climate change denialism and sweeping deregulation policies.</div><div>
</div><div>To compliment their lobbying operation, Vazquez Ger and Reich have churned out a steady stream of op-eds for publications from Foreign Policy to Fox News to the Miami Herald, demonizing the socialist leaders of South America who have stifled the ambitions of multi-national corporations. During the past year, they homed in on Correa, assailing him for sheltering Assange while he cracked down on opposition media. In a June 2012 op-ed for the right-wing Newsmax website, Reich and Vazquez Ger cited Assange as a key reason why the US should refuse to sign any further trade agreements with Ecuador. “Signing or renewing trade agreements with Ecuador will only allow Rafael Correa to continue undermining US foreign policy,” they wrote, “trading with our enemies, and destroying his country’s democracy.” (Following threats from Congress over its alleged offer to shelter Snowden, Ecuador’s government unilaterally rejected US trade preferences).</div><div>
</div><div>When Buzzfeed published its expose on Ecuador, Vazquez Ger was overjoyed. A heavily trafficked US news site had recycled he and Reich’s attacks on Correa’s support for Assange, this time framing Ecuador’s president as a hypocrite for supposedly offering asylum to Snowden. At 7:28 PM on June 25 — a full 27 minutes after the article appeared — Vazquez Ger took to Twitter to promote the piece to his Spanish-language followers. Next, he personally thanked Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith “for unmasking [Correa’s] hypocrisy.”</div><div>
</div><div>The following day, at a press conference in Ecuador, Interior Minister Jose Serrano was asked to answer for the Buzzfeed report. Buzzfeed’s Gray quickly picked up Serrano’s defensive comments, quoting them in a follow-up story alongside a strident denunciation of Correa’s sheltering of Assange by ClÃ©ver JimÃ©nez, a key opposition leader. Meanwhile, Alek Boyd projected the story of Ecuador’s surveillance deal into South American media, publishing it as an “exclusive” in Semana, a leading Colombian daily.</div><div>
</div><div>Whoever planted the story with Buzzfeed appeared to have scored a major success, exploiting the Snowden drama to tarnish the image of Ecuador’s government. Though the identity of the source that triggered the operation may never be known, their agenda does not seem to be much of a mystery anymore.</div><div>
</div><div>=</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>