President Guillermo Lasso spoke with the Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken, about the economy, security and migration.
Lasso thanks the United States for its support for debt swap
President Guillermo Lasso held a telephone call on June 2 with the Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken, whom he thanked for the US support in the debt swap to preserve the Galapagos Islands and in terms of security.
This was reported by the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, whose Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Gustavo Manrique, accompanied Lasso during his conversation with Blinken.
On May 9, the Government of Ecuador presented what it called the largest debt- for-conservation swap in history.
In the debt reconversion operation, Ecuador exchanged USD 1,628 million of state bond debt into a new loan of USD 656 million.
This loan has been issued by Credit Suisse, with a guarantee of USD 85 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). It also has $656 million in political risk insurance provided by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
Foreign Minister Manrique also spoke by telephone with the Secretary of Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, in a call where they analyzed the regional challenges in migration.
In this matter, Mayorkas expressed his appreciation to Ecuador for its management of the migration regularization processes.
Precisely, the Government of Ecuador granted a migratory amnesty on June 1 to Venezuelans and their families who have not registered their entry into the country and are in an irregular situation. Thus, they will be able to join a regularization process that has been carried out since last year.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 500,000 Venezuelans are in Ecuador. 62% of Venezuelans are in an irregular condition in the country, before the start of the last immigration regularization process.
