Rafael Correa: Why has Lenin Moreno’s dictatorship completely wiped out the ‘rule of law’ in Ecuador?
It is speculated that Correa could integrate a formula as a candidate for vice president or on the list of candidates for the assembly
Former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa and candidate to become Head of State again, despite the political judicialization against him executed by the Lenin Moreno regime, warned that the country is currently under a dictatorship that has completely devastated the “rule of law” and has left the country’s democratic factors that remain, which are still the majority, defenseless.
The regime not only became overwhelmed by the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now cornered by the political pressure generated by the democratic sectors historically linked to the Citizen Revolution, after the betrayal perpetrated by Moreno to the revolutionary forces that elected him so as to make a pact with the conservative right sector that led the country to its worst moments of misery, poverty and inequality.
Correa offered an exclusive interview to the Argentine news agency Telam, in which he spoke about the judicialization process that they are undertaking against him; the political crisis that Ecuador is undergoing, and all the arbitrary acts carried out to prevent him from becoming President again.
The interview was conducted through a video chat from Belgium, where Correa has lived since his presidential term ended in 2017. In it, he denounced that in Ecuador there is “a perfect dictatorship” and asked for a reaction from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to pronounce itself on the irregularities that are occuring.
Correa also accused Ecuadorian justice of advancing the judgement so it becomes final so as to definitively exclude him from next February’s elections, and assured that he and his allies are “defenseless” in the face of the “dictatorship”.
In this sense, he commented that the Moreno dictatorship decided to suspend his political party, Fuerza Compromiso Social (Social Commitment Force), because he knows that they have millions of votes from Ecuadorians.
“We are preparing the defense, but the decision has already been made. There should never have been such a barbarity seven months before the elections. The rest is pure show so as to say that there was due process. In the last elections we obtained millions of votes, we won the local 2019 with millions of votes and now they want to eliminate us by 16,000 missing signatures. It is unpresentable, there is no rule of law in Ecuador, there is a dictatorship. Everything is done to eliminate us because they know that we would defeat them at the polls”, stressed Correa in the interview. .
On July 8, in Guayaquil, the birth of the political party Unión por la Esperanza -UNES — (Union for Hope) was announced. A political front made up of progressive and leftist forces. The new political movement was created in the face of the 2021 presidential elections.
UNES is made up of the Social Commitment Force, the Democratic Center (CD) movement, the Permanent National Forum of Ecuadorian Women, the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples and Peasants Organizations of Ecuador, Rural Force, the National Coalition for the Homeland, the Patriotic Front Nacional and the SurGente collective.
Although no candidates were proposed, it is speculated that former President Rafael Correa could integrate a formula as a candidate for vice president or on the list of candidates for the assembly. That day, UNES called for the unity of workers, farmers, housewives, fishermen, peasants and indigenous people to transform the harsh reality of the country.
Part of the interview with Correa
Telam: Are you looking for other alternatives, such as having your leaders present themselves in other political parties, perhaps within the UNES coalition?
Correa: Within UNES there is only one other political party and obviously this conditions us to the decisions of the leaders of that party. They are the ones who register the candidacies.
Telam: Less than two weeks before the start of the primary elections you must be thinking of a way to participate.
Correa: Of course. Conditions are extreme, unfavorable. The world press should be shocked by what is happening. In which democracy in the world can you accept that seven months before the elections the greatest political force is eliminated according to unpresentable measures? And it is not the only attempt to outlaw us. They changed the registration regulations and now the acceptance of the application is very ‘in person’. in other words, I have to return to the country with two prison orders. I would go back if they let me register, but first they are going to put me in jail as they did with Lula.
Telam: You say that the international press should be outraged, what is the level of outrage within Ecuador?
Correa: The outrage is immense, but they are taking advantage of the pandemic. We are still at ‘a red light’ in many cities and they are taking advantage to make all these traps, in addition to imposing on us the agreement they signed in March 2019 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). What is saving this government is the pandemic, because people are afraid. Another important point is that Moreno — and this is the same in Brazil, Argentina or Bolivia — could not have done even a tenth of what he has done without the hegemonic press.
Telam: If the decision of the National Electoral Council is not challenged and you do not join another political force. What is the next step?
Correa: We cannot do miracles. They pressure me to give answers to everything and I am on the other side of the world with 31 criminal cases, a sentence of eight years in prison for “psychic influence”, linking me with bribes that have not existed. It is time for the peoples of Latin America to assume their own responsibility. We are not naive. We will seek to participate in the elections because we understand that if we do not get these people (Moreno and company) out of the government, they will end up looting the country. But this is everyone’s responsibility. The first question should be: how can we tolerate this in the 21st century in Latin America? Where is the inter-american system? Where is the Latin American conscience?
Telam: There was talk of taking the political prohibition or banning complaints to international bodies or instances. Has it been done?
Correa: Yes, but unfortunately to access international instances, you must first exhaust the national instances. Make no mistake, the inter-American system does not exist. It is dead and not very peacefully. It exists to destabilize, as in the case of the OAS with Bolivia. Something can be rescued from the Human Rights System. For example, the Commission decided not to give precautionary measures, except if life or liberty is in danger, and what about political rights? If the Ecuadorian people do not regain political power, they bury us all. Hopefully, with what is happening in Latin America, it will lead them to review that decision because much of the solution is in the hands of the inter-American system. At national level everything is co-opted.
Telam: Are you going to appeal the judicial ruling that weighs on you to exhaust the internal instances and raise the claim internationally?
Correa: Of course, because we have no expectations. We expect absolutely nothing from the Ecuadorian justice system and we are sure that we will win it internationally. But that takes six to eight years, when the damage is already done. For this reason, the only solution is to beat him in the ballot boxes, otherwise the country will be destroyed.
Telam: You cannot present yourself, in any way, as a candidate today?
Correa: There would be one alternative left. If there is no final judgment, I could register here as a representative of the migrants. We have representation from three zones: Europe-Asia, North America and Latin America. I could register here, that’s why they want to get the final judgement so I wouldn’t be able to even participate in that way.
Telam: Do you think that Justice is already working on the final judgement, just weeks after confirmation in the second instance?
Correa: Yes. On April 6, a day before the hearing (of first instance) it was leaked how the president of the court exchanged messages, ideas for the judgement with the prosecutor. This is procedural fraud and it is proven. The media hid everything. We are defenseless in the face of a dictatorship (in Ecuador).
You also can read…
