THE British government campaigned and spent more than £20,000 to force Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a Declassified UK investigation has revealed.
Declassified UK analysed Foreign Office documents as well as the recently published diaries of former Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan, who was a key player in negotiations around Mr Assange.
In March 2018, then-prime minister Theresa May was told to “butter up” Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in order to get Mr Assange expelled from the embassy, where he was living at the time, the analysis found.
Later in the year, Ms May’s government spent £12,806 to bring Ecuadorian officials to Britain.
Ecuadorean presidential candidate Yaku Pérez. | AFP/CRISTINA VEGA RHOR
Ecuador s National Electoral Council has suspended the recount in the first round of the presidential election requested by left-wing indigenous candidate Yaku Pérez, who has alleged fraud denied him a place in the run-off.
The count was put on hold after the five-member council could not reach a majority in favor of Pérez s request after holding a vote late Tuesday, with two for, one against, one abstention and another absent. This plenary session of the National Electoral Council, unfortunately, does not respond to the request, nor does it approve or deny the report presented in the technical area on the request for a recount, council head Diana Atamaint said.
Ecuador judge orders pre-trial detention for officials in oil graft case An Ecuadorean judge ordered that the country s current comptroller and former energy minister be placed under pre-trial detention on charges of organized crime related to state oil company Petroecuador, prosecutors said on Wednesday.Reuters | Quito | Updated: 14-04-2021 21:13 IST | Created: 14-04-2021 21:13 IST
An Ecuadorean judge ordered that the country s current comptroller and former energy minister be placed under pre-trial detention on charges of organized crime related to state oil company Petroecuador, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Prosecutors on Tuesday alleged that Comptroller Pablo Celi and former energy minister Jose Agusto Briones, who had also served as secretary to President Lenin Moreno, had abused their powers to orchestrate bribe payments related to Petroecuador contracts awarded between 2017 and 2020.
April 23, 2021
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from CADTM On 11 April 2021, Guillermo Lasso (52,4%), the right-wing candidate, defeated Andres Arauz, the candidate supported by Rafael Correa and part of the Left, by 52.4% vs 47.6% in the second round of ballots for the presidential election. Lasso was elected thanks to the division of the Left, since a significant part of it, which has become deeply diffident of Rafael Correa, called for a null vote. Votes on the popular side, that represented a clear majority in the first round of February 2021, were divided, which made it possible for a former banker to be elected president. The situation is serious for an opportunity to break away from Lenin Moreno’s brutal neoliberal policies has been lost. Former banker Lasso, though critical of Lenin Moreno’s positions out of sheer electoral calculation, will continue in the same harmful direction: a deepening of neoliberal policies, submission to the p
By Reuters Staff
(Updates with rally in Ecuadorean bonds)
QUITO, April 23 (Reuters) - Ecuador’s National Assembly approved a law late on Thursday granting autonomy to its central bank, a move celebrated by President Lenin Moreno’s government on Friday as a step toward economic stability.
Moreno’s market-friendly administration had pushed the reform as a way to prevent future governments from draining the bank’s reserves to finance public spending, a practice his allies allege was common during leftist former President Rafael Correa’s administration.
Economy Minister Mauricio Pozo said the measure would help protect Ecuador’s dollarized economic model.