An Ecuadorean history of the world (The Economist)
Aug 25th 2012 | LONDON AND QUITO | from the print edition
... Some of Mr Correa’s opponents argue that he is using the Assange case to wrest the initiative within ALBA from Mr Chávez, who has been ill with cancer. Earlier this year, Mr Correa called for sanctions against Britain because of its refusal to negotiate about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, and boycotted a 34-country Summit of the Americas in protest at Cuba’s exclusion ...
The letter allowed Mr Correa to cast the Assange case as a struggle between a small country and “imperialist” powers. Unsurprisingly, he has gained the backing of his ALBA partners. He also claimed victory at a specially convened meeting in Guayaquil of UNASUR, the South American Union, on August 19th. But while UNASUR declared its solidarity with Ecuador over any threat to its embassy and affirmed the right to diplomatic asylum, it did not give explicit support to Mr Correa’s harbouring of Mr Assange. Several countries, including Brazil, sent officials, not foreign ministers, to the meeting ...
Mr Correa has said that Ecuador might take the Assange case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But the ICJ issued a categorical ruling in the Haya de la Torre case that diplomatic asylum can exist only under explicit treaties or reciprocal usage. Britain is party to no such treaties. (Neither is the United States: after a Chinese dissident took refuge in its Beijing embassy in April, it handed him back to China having negotiated his safe passage out of the country.) After the ICJ ruling, the Organisation of American States (OAS) drew up the Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum in 1954, though this has been ratified by only 14 of its 34 members ...
Mr Correa argues that the private media are controlled by businessmen intent on undermining his government. While building a state media empire, the government has recently shut down 19 radio stations and a television channel. In some cases they were in arrears with regulatory fees, but they argue that due process was not followed. On July 31st officials and police seized the computers of Vanguardia, a weekly magazine, for the second time. This time the labour ministry alleged that the magazine had failed to comply with a law requiring it to hire a disabled person. Vanguardia says the ministry refused to register the contract of a disabled staffer. A new penal code aims to stop any would-be Ecuadorean Assanges from leaking government documents. In protest, hackers hijacked government websites during Mr Correa’s recent annual speech to Congress ...
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