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Assemblymen defend the changes of Moreno at the OAS and the IACHR
Posted On 06 Sep 2018
Ecuadornews:
A commission composed of three Ecuadorian parliamentarians and three members of civil society defended this week in Washington before the OAS and the IACHR the changes undertaken by its president, Lenin Moreno, including the February referendum.
The group met today with one of the Assistant Secretaries of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) María Claudia Pulido, and this Tuesday with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
Speaking to Efe today, the deputy Fabricio Villamar, of the Creo Movement, explained that the delegation composed of people of different political tendencies wanted to "guarantee" the international community that the political process of "transition" that Ecuador is experiencing is "healthy".
Ecuador held on February 4 a popular referendum, which Moreno won with almost 70% of the votes, and which eliminated indefinite re-election, which in practice closed the door of the Presidency to Rafael Correa, who led the country during a decade, between the years 2007 and 2017.
"In Ecuador, we have found a democratic way to avoid what happened in Venezuela or what happens in Nicaragua," Villamar said.
At the time, that referendum was questioned by the IACHR, which in February asked the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CorteIDH) for provisional measures in favor of the members of the Council of Citizen Participation of Ecuador (CPCCS), whose dismissal had been approved in the popular consultation.
The IACHR made that decision at the request of Correa, who tried to prevent the consultation, especially the questions that opened the door to ending indefinite re-election and with the Citizen Participation Council (which elects the country's control authorities).
The Inter-American Court, based in San José (Costa Rica), dismissed the request of its sister organization, the IACHR, outright.
The deputy Henry Cucalón, of the Social Christian-Wood Party of Guerrero, criticized these pronouncements and considered that "going to the people can never be seen as something negative and less by those who made fun of the people to instrumentalize the changes that only favored a political sector ", In reference to the correismo.
"These changes proposed by a popular consultation," he added, "are not only legal, but are legitimate because they are clothed with the power of the people, the people have given that tool, if the people have decided that they had to change a Participation Council, then it is legal and legitimate. "
The members of the commission supported the reforms undertaken under Moreno's government, with special mention to press freedom and the participation of indigenous peoples.
César Ricaurte, the executive director of Fundamedios, a foundation on freedom of expression that has been critical of the government, said that they have seen great changes compared to "a decade of authoritarian rule in which human rights were systematically violated, especially the freedom of the press".
The IACHR, in fact, expressed on numerous occasions concerns about the state of press freedom in Ecuador.
The delegation was composed by Ricaurte, the historian Enrique Ayala; the social and indigenous leader Luis Maldonado; and the Assemblymen Villamar, Cucalón and Ximena Peña Pacheco, from Alianza PAIS). (I)
