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Ecuador's media

Just collecting the rent, really

Dec 22nd 2010, 23:42 by S.K.

ECUADOR’S GIR special police forces are supposed to be summoned only for extraordinarily dangerous or delicate missions. This year, for example, they were called upon to escort Rafael Correa, the president, out of a police hospital through a hail of gunfire. On December 17th, over a dozen GIR troopers swooped into a house in a posh neighbourhood of Quito, the capital, for the peculiarly mundane task of collecting the rent. The only clue as to why they were sent was the identity of the target: a weekly newsmagazine called Vanguardia that had repeatedly investigated corruption in Mr Correa’s government.

The president has long had stormy relations with independent media outlets, whom he calls “vultures” and criticises as biased representatives of wealthy interest groups. He has both sought to muzzle them as a group, by proposing a new media law that opposition leaders say threatens freedom of expression, and by harassing specific news organisations. El Comercio, a newspaper, was ordered to pay $60,000 last month in customs duties. And prosecutors are currently trying to get a reporter from Teleamazonas, a broadcaster, to reveal the name of a soldier who was quoted about his colleagues’ support for a police mutiny on September 30th, which the president insists was a failed coup. The constitution Mr Correa had passed in 2008 specifically guarantees journalists’ right to protect their sources’ identities.

Vanguardia had certainly done enough to raise the president’s ire. The magazine has detailed the involvement of Mr Correa’s associates with government publicity contracts and gambling operations, and recently published records of transfers from their bank accounts. It also hired a new editor, Juan Carlos Calderón, who previously led an investigative team that that exposed multi-million-dollar government contracts with one of the president’s brothers.

Officially, Vanguardia’s coverage had nothing to do with the raid. Its publisher, Gran Tauro, was sued by a government trust fund led by Pedro Delgado, a cousin of Mr Correa’s, for not paying rent on publicly owned property. Mr Delgado says the company had been illegally occupying the space for nearly three years, and a court had recently ruled in favour of the fund. However, the commandos’ behaviour suggests their superiors may have had an ulterior motive for dispatching them. Rather than evicting Vanguardia, the troops seized its 40 computers and searched its reporters’ personal belongings.

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Orcus

I have bad news for you, Ecuadorians; your government is UTTERLY sick and corrupt.

I'm Canadian. Recently, I tried to do some renewable-energy business in Ecuador, and I kept running across a few things:

1. governments at all levels are completely broke;
2. the word of foreign investment and foreign-government loans brings out the reptiles.

One 'opportunity' that came up involved setting up power plants. Originally, a call had been made to build 380 MW of fossil-fueled steam-driven power. When I was prospecting for business in Ecuador, a second scenario was described to me: providing 190 two-megawatt diesel-fueled generator sets that would be spread throughout the country. The reason behind the change: El Presidente and chummies needed (*ahem*) 22.5% of the sale price for themselves.

Another case, this one concrete: the Government of Canada fully backed the construction of Quito's new, gleaming international airport. Almost all (or all of?) the financing was provided by a Canadian governmental agency whose aim is to help Canadian companies develop business with government overseas; the debt financing (almost all or all of the financing) was at an advantageous rate for Ecuador. the project went ahead until El Presidente got elected: right after that, the Government of Ecuador demanded that contracts be renogociated (i.e., business be given to new Presidential chummies, and new money being set up for skimming by The New Powers), which led to a year-long construction stoppage construction. The Government of Ecuador thought it a good idea to renogociate the basis of the whole project in the MIDDLE OF CONSTRUCTION. Worse, it felt it a good idea to do so even though (almost?) ALL of the financing was being provided at charitable terms by others. The fact that the City of Quito, when it didn't meet the terms of ITS obligations (building a highway from Quito to the airport) didn't help things either.

Add to that the fact that El Presidente had decided not to pay neither interest nor capital on some of its foreign debt .. and did that when Ecuador was ABLE to pay it. The locals were haha, stick-it-to-the-gringos for a while, until they found out that no one would lend Ecuador money any more. Since then, El Presidente has run down his nation's cash reserves (Yanqui dollares ... Ecuador uses the US dollar as currency), the Government of Ecuador needs foreign investment to develop (e.g., it needs an oil refinery, for which it can't raise debt financing), AND the nation's leaders are looking for their 22.5% (even worse than Ali Zardari, the reputed Mister 20% in Pakistan! when did 10% go out of fashion?).

Add to that the fact that (in my experience) every time a potential investor is looking to do business in Ecuador, members of its educated class (lawyers, engineers, you name it) appear at business meetings but won't give out their business cards out and they decline to put their names on meeting-attendee lists. Take it for what it is.

Sorry to tell you my conclusions, Ecuadorian readers, but:

1. your society is corrupt;
2. your country is stupidly corrupt; (your Government doesn't stay bought); and
3. an important part of your professional class is disgustingly corrupt.

Terrible thing to say, but a poor nation whose people allow this to go on DESERVES to be poor.

Zontar

waitmickleth

you fail to mention that the magazine owe 13 months of rent . because its a magazine they are above the law also explained to me why the newspaper el comercio dont have to pay tax like anybody else ...actually is called evasion

Georgeecuador

I´m from Ecuador and i think we have the worst president ever he is a nationalist and we need new ideas to help people and the world as a country.

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