Pedro Delgado is undocumented and his family received passports

Pedro Delgado

Since yesterday, Monday January 21, 2013, Pedro Delgado Campana, cousin of the Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, was legally stateless or without nationality. Due to the expiration of his diplomatic visa and for not having a regular passport the former president of the Central Bank of Ecuador ended undocumented because the Ecuadorian government decided not to give him a regular passport.

Delgado’s attorney, Juan Carlos Carmigniani, said yesterday that the Consulate of Ecuador in Miami handed ordinary passports to the former diplomat family: Maria Veronica Endara Clavijo, Delgado’s wife, and his sons, Pedro, Alejandro and Andrea Delgado Endara.

“The documents were drawn up in December, but were retained by the consulate without any explanation,” added Carmigniani.

The Ecuadorian government justified its actions with the Executive Order No. 914, published in Official Gazette no. 276 of 18 February 2008, which states the cause for not delivering an Ecuadorian passport “when the accused or convicted is known for committing crimes“, and the use of “the passport is a means to evade capture.”

However, Carmigniani this norm attacks the Article 20 of the American Convention on Human Rights because Delgado is now left with “no documents, no country, no identification.”