Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Ecuador: Assange is a problem

One for the “no sh*t, Sherlock,” file,
Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno has described Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as an “inherited problem” in a television interview.

President Moreno said Mr Assange had created “more than a nuisance” for his government.

He has in the past warned the Wikileaks founder not to interfere in Ecuadorean politics or “that of nations that are our friends”.

His warning followed Mr Assange’s public support for the independence campaign in Catalonia.

Pamela Anderson thinks Assange is a genius.

Assange was granted Ecuadorean citizenship last month.

He’s been in the London embassy since June of 2012. Let’s hope he doesn’t break his hip.

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Ecuador: When will Assange have to leave?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been staying at the Ecuadorian Embassy (a small apartment) in London for nearly since 2012. He has not left the premises due to outstanding warrants for his arrest.

He tweeted this last year, criticizing president Lenín Moreno,

Moreno did not like it and wants him out, but does not want the visuals of Assange being dragged away by police. Ecuador requested that the UK grant Assange diplomatic status, to which the UK said “no” (link in Spanish). Here’s a screenshot of the letter,

James Ball of The Guardian summarizes Assange’s situation,
The only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuador’s embassy is pride

The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the US, charges in Sweden have been dropped – and for the embassy, he’s lost his value as an icon

Ball, by the way, worked with WikiLeaks for a few months in 2010 and 2011.

———————————————–

Headlines:
WikiLeaks: Ecuador wants Julian Assange out of its embassy. Deporting him to Australia is one option

Ecuador is hoping it can break a long impasse that has seen WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holed up in its London embassy for five years.

It is seeking a third-party mediator to broker a deal with the United Kingdom in an effort to find a way for Mr Assange, who is an Australian citizen, to leave their building.

Ecuador has been “considering and exploring the possibility of a mediation” to resolve the issue.

Why is Julian Assange in Ecuador’s UK embassy?
Mr Assange was accused of raping two women in Sweden in 2010 and was subsequently arrested in London.

He was released on bail whilst fighting extradition to Sweden, but after losing his appeal in 2012 he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Mr Assange has been in the small embassy in Knightsbridge ever since.

Sweden has subsequently dropped all charges against Mr Assange, but he continues to fear extradition to the United States.

JULIAN ASSANGE MAY BE FORCED TO LEAVE ECUADOR EMBASSY AFTER UPSETTING PRESIDENT

Ecuador’s newly elected president Lenin Moreno issued several warnings to the Australian asking him to refrain from commenting on politics relating to Ecuador’s allies.

The UK has turned down a request from Ecuador to grant diplomatic status to Julian Assange – as a means of breaking a longstanding deadlock over his fate.

UK police say he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy in Knightsbridge for failing to surrender to the court in 2012.

An FCO spokesman said: “The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter.

“Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.”

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Ecuador: Moreno no longer head of his party

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno has been removed from his post of leader of the governing Alianza País party by the party’s national leadership committee.

Mr Moreno’s position as the country’s president is not affected but the committee said that Alianza País would now be led by the former foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño.

Supporters of Mr Moreno said they did not accept the committee’s decision.

It has to do with Rafael Correa,

Moreno, who is seeking presidential term limits via a referendum to revise the constitution, has sidelined another top Correa ally from the vice presidency, and is overseeing a corruption probe that has ensnared former high-level officials.

Allegedly, Correa expected to run for president again after Lenín served one term.

But Lenín has other plans, including a proposed referendum,

Such a referendum would, however, defy some of the rules laid down by the previous government headed by Rafael Correa, such as unlimited reelections, capital gains legislation and the restructuring of the Citizen Participation Council, all controversial matters that further divide Ecuadorian society.

Not exactly what Correa had in mind when he left for Belgium.

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Ecuador: Partial recount results predictable

Predictably,

Following a recount of almost 1.3 million votes in Ecuador, the electoral council has confirmed left-wing candidate Lenín Moreno as the winner of the presidential poll held on 2 April.

The recount slightly boosted Mr Moreno’s margin over his conservative rival, Guillermo Lasso.

Mr Lasso had demanded a full recount citing allegations of fraud but the national electoral council only agreed to a recount of 10% of the votes.

Cue Capt. Louis,

Where’s the OAS?

But monitors from the Organization of American States said they considered “a recount of this magnitude and under these norms to be an exercise in transparency”.

More like an exercise in futility.

UPDATE:
Linked to by Silvio Canto. Thank you!



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John Batchelor: Ecuador & Argentina discard transparency.

Mary O’Grady was in the Batchelor show discussing how Ecuador & Argentina discard transparency.

Mr. Correa has been president since 2007. He runs the country’s largest media empire and controls the legislature, the judiciary, the top command of the army, and the national police. All members of the CNE have links to his government or his party, the PAIS Alliance. The head of the electoral appeals tribunal is the brother of Mr. Correa’s attorney general.

Mr. Moreno freely used government resources to campaign and played dirty. Fake Lasso ads in which he promised to privatize health care popped up on city buses, though Mr. Lasso had made no such proposal. With government control of more than 20 mass-media organizations, including television and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, Mr. Moreno blanketed the nation with his message. The government often interrupted programming on channels not owned by the state to run campaign spots.

The European Union observed Ecuador’s 2009 presidential election and issued a report critical of Mr. Correa’s use of government resources and power to influence the outcome. This time around the CNE blocked an EU observer mission.

Listen here:

Also don’t miss O’Grady’s column on Venezuela,

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Today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment:

Ecuador National Electoral Council Says Vote Results Are Irreversible. Council says Lenin Moreno got 51.2% of the votes, with 48.8% for Guillermo Lasso, with almost all ballots counted

As you may recall, on election day early results showed Lasso ahead, them the CNE website went down, and when it went back up Moreno was declared the winner.

Now the CNE says the results are “official and irreversible.”

Cue Cpt. Louis,

Lasso is holding a press conference right now,

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Ecuador: OAS congratulates Moreno

Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States, made it official,

The WSJ has the details:
Ecuador Presidential Vote Fair, Says Election Observer. International election observes didn’t find evidence of fraud in vote, OAS says; group congratulates ruling-party candidate Lenin Moreno

Mr. Moreno, who changed his profile on his Twitter account to president-elect of Ecuador, was congratulated on Monday by the leaders of Peru, Chile and Argentina, as well as the OAS’s secretary-general. In a statement, the Washington, D.C.-based OAS urged Mr. Lasso to address any of his fraud complaints through Ecuador’s institutions.

“There were no discrepancies between the analyzed ballots and the official data,” it said. The organization sent 77 observers to 480 polling stations across Ecuador, including at the electoral council’s data center.

Many Believe That the Left’s Election Victory in Ecuador Was Fraudulent:

. . . three out of the four exit polls released as voting concluded on Sunday showed Lasso with a lead between three and six points. Exit polls can be wrong, but the one that predicted a Lasso win of six points was spot-on in predicting the results of the first round of voting in February. In that election, leftist Lenín Moreno (yes, his first name was given him for ideological reasons) won 39 percent of the vote, narrowly missing an outright victory that wouldn’t have required a runoff. The final results of that first round were delayed for days, as the government-controlled election machinery stalled and dithered until finally admitting that a runoff was needed.

Even more disturbing was the decision of President Rafael Correa, who handpicked Moreno as his chosen successor, to fire General Luis Castro Ayala as the chief of staff of the Ecuadorean army after the first round. General Castro Ayala is said to have played a crucial role, through his moral influence on the National Election Council, in ensuring an accurate count of the first election round. The day after the first round of voting, he sent a letter to the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, requesting that it consider its constitutional responsibilities to ensure an accurate count. Following his firing, General Castro Ayala told the media that “the armed forces did not handle the entire chain of custody of the ballots in these last elections” as it is normally charged with doing.

Lasso will be challenging the results in all of Ecuador’s 24 provinces,

Part of the problem is the opposition’s distrust of the National Electoral Council, which it says has become an appendage of the executive in the way the electoral board in Venezuela has all but lost independence under President Nicolas Maduro, a key ally of Correa.

As for Assange,

“I cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days (with or without his tax haven millions)”

UPDATE
The WaPo’s Nick Miroff (who’s married to the daughter of Cuban G-2 founder and KGB protege Manuel “Barbarroja” Piniero) declares that Lenín Moreno, A kinder, gentler leftist aims to bridge angry divisions after Ecuador win.

That’s “democratic socialism” for ya.

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Ecuador: No official winner yet

As of 9:40am Eastern:
As reported yesterday, early results showed opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso as the winner of yesterday’s presidential election, while later in the evening the CNE (National Election Council) declared Lenín Moreno as winning the preliminary count.

The CNE website is now up, showing as of the writing of this post:

Lasso 48.8% with 4,813,217 votes
Moreno 51.16% with 5,0142,295

However, last night the CNE’s results showed otherwise. Argentinian journalist Jorge Lanata tweeted a screen capture showing Lasso ahead on total votes and Moreno ahead by 2+ percentage points, with the comment,
“#IMustSay ECUADOR is the first country where 4,621,654 voters equals 48.93%. And 4,523,513 equals 51.07%. #Fraud”

Lasso tweeted a screen capture, “This is only one example of the records showing inconsistencies. They’ve switched their votes for ours.”

Also last night AP reported

Thousands of outraged supporters of opposition Ecuadorean presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso shouted “fraud” and broke through metal barricades to almost reach the entrance of the electoral council’s headquarters in Quito before being pushed back by police. A similar scuffle took place outside the electoral offices in Guayaquil.

The WSJ this morning,

With 95% of the votes counted late Sunday, Mr. Moreno had 51.11% support, compared with 48.89% for Guillermo Lasso, the national electoral council said on its website. It has yet to officially announce a winner.

A quick count by Participacion Ciudadana, a Quito-based nongovernment organization that promotes democracy, said there was a technical tie between the candidates.

Here’s this morning’s press conference,

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