Ecuador and the United
States "Make Up"
By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO (IPS) - "Ideological differences
should not stand in the way of dialogue
between governments": this was the
common message sent out Tuesday by U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
her host, Ecuadorean President Rafael
Correa.
Clinton's brief stopover drew a great
deal of attention at both the local and
international levels, because it was the
first time a U.S. secretary of state
visited this country since Madeleine
Albright did so in 2000.
Furthermore, the Correa administration
is seen as closely aligned with the
confrontational stance towards the U.S.
taken by Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez, and Ecuador is involved in
roughly a dozen lawsuits with U.S.
companies.
The left-wing government also forced the
United States to withdraw from the
military base at the Manta port on
Ecuador's Pacific coast in 2009, after
refusing to extend the 10-year agreement
signed by former president Jamil Mahuad
(1998-2000).
"I think this visit is very bad news for
the recalcitrant Ecuadorean right, which
doesn't know what's going on anymore, as
well as for the 'talibans' (on the left)
who don't want the Ecuadorean government
to talk to the United States," Ecuador's
ambassador in Washington, Luis Gallegos,
commented to IPS.
"A country like Ecuador which is facing
many challenges that it is attempting to
overcome has to be judged on its
results, on whether or not it produces
positive outcomes for the people of
Ecuador within the framework of
democracy," Clinton said at the press
conference in Quito.
She was responding to a question from a
U.S. journalist who said "The Obama
administration has been reaching out to
countries all over the world, but in
Latin America it often seems that things
are going in the wrong direction,
particularly with countries such as
Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and
sometimes even Ecuador."
"I don't know what going in the wrong
direction means," Correa responded, for
his part. "To the contrary, I believe
that many countries of Latin America
have woken up and are going in the right
direction…with democratic, popular
governments endorsed by voters."
He added that his government is open to
dialogue, "from a position of dignity
and sovereignty, with whoever believes
we're going in the other direction."
Correa said he had no animosity towards
the U.S. "On the contrary, it is a
country that I love very much, where I
spent four of the happiest years of my
life," he said, referring to the time he
spent earning a masters degree and
doctorate in economics at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"We are forging a new set of
relationships," said Clinton. "It’s the
21st century. It’s 2010. We’re not
turning the clock back. We’re not
expecting countries that have their own
internal agendas in order to accomplish
their own economic and social goals to
be exactly as we are. If we ever did
expect that, it is certainly no longer
the case.
"And I think the goals that Ecuador and
its government have set are goals that
the United States agrees with," she
added.
Clinton stressed that "like any two
countries, we will not always agree. But
we are committed to a partnership of
open dialogue and cooperation that is
rooted in mutual respect and mutual
interest and for the benefit of both of
our peoples."
The questions of mutual concern include
drug trafficking, migration, trade and
investment, Clinton and Correa agreed.
The concern expressed by a majority of
the presidents of the members of the
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
with respect to an agreement for the
U.S. armed forces to use seven military
bases in Colombia was another issue they
discussed Tuesday.
"The United States has provided and will
continue to provide information
concerning the use of…Colombian bases,"
said Clinton, arguing that Colombia "has
waged a long and difficult struggle
against the combined forces of the FARC
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
insurgency and the well-organised drug
trafficking gangs. And the United States
has been proud to help Colombia.
"We certainly are committed to sharing
information and working in a mutually
beneficial way with the neighbours of
Colombia to resolve any questions. I
think it is also important that we look
for more opportunities to partner with
all of our friends in the region because
we want to be sure that the threat posed
by the drug trafficking gangs and the
continuing FARC presence is not a threat
to anyone, not just to Colombia," she
added.
Consulted by IPS, analyst Marco Romero
and former diplomats Gustavo Ruales and
Miguel Vasco said other questions that
were undoubtedly discussed Tuesday,
although they were not mentioned in the
news briefing, were Honduras's return to
the Organisation of American States and
Ecuador's relations with Iran.
Romero, director of social and global
studies at Ecuador's Simón Bolívar
Andean University, said Clinton's visit
was especially important because it will
bring about a change in perception of
the Correa administration in Ecuador
itself.
"The idea was that Correa was militantly
anti-American, but now there will be a
more balanced opinion," he said.
Vasco, a former Ecuadorean ambassador,
told IPS that "this visit forms part of
a careful U.S. plan to forge closer ties
with Ecuador, because it believes it is
a government with which dialogue has not
broken down yet, and with which
communication can be salvaged."
He said the plan also included the
visits to Ecuador by Assistant Secretary
of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Arturo Valenzuela two months ago and
Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd and
Mark Warner last week.
But Ruales said "it is hard to predict"
what will come next, "because Correa is
unpredictable. We have already seen this
many times."
Correa's current openness to Washington
is "a pragmatic measure," because the
government "is in a difficult position
in terms of financing," he told IPS.
Clinton was declared an "illustrious
guest" of Quito by the mayor, before
heading on to Colombia as part of her
second Latin America tour that started
in Lima, where she took part in the 40th
OAS general assembly Monday and Tuesday. |
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