Ecuador will sue Spanish banks

Rafael Correa

The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, announced last Saturday that his government will take legal action against some Spanish banks for having signed allegedly fraudulent and abusive mortgage contracts, that have left thousands of Ecuadorian immigrants in Spain homeless.

Thousands of Ecuadorian families have been evicted from their apartments in Spain for not paying their property with banks. More than 8,000 migrants living in that country were evicted for non-payment of their mortgages to be unemployed.

“These banks will be sued on behalf of our migrants” in Spain, Correa said during his report on Saturday, in which he called for “fraudulent” and “immoral” certain mortgage contracts signed with financial institutions and which have led to evictions.

According to the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, there will be “jurists of the highest level” to file claims against the bank for “the deceived.” He stressed that the contracts have a clause with the figure of seizure and the loans if they had insurance.

“We will take action against abuses of Spanish banks and in defense of our citizens,” Correa repeated recalling that the Ombudsman of Ecuador has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg against the law applied in Spain for unpaid mortgages.