Mayor Nebot intervenes on possible changes in Guayaquil port

Jaime Nebot

Yesterday Mayor Jaime Nebot, gave a televised speech in which he denounced that the regime of Rafael Correa seeks to ‘dismantle’ the seaport of Guayaquil to build a new one in the province of Santa Elena. Such action, he said, “would destroy or affect employment, economic movement and welfare of the inhabitants” of this city.

Nebot maintained that the government seeks to limit local port operations, which in turn would prevent its construction, through private investment, the new deepwater port of Posorja.

According to the mayor, on July 27 in Santa Elena, the President publicly said “the seaport has to leave the Gulf” and that “studies of the new location of the Port of Guayaquil are already been made.”

The mayor explained that both the July 27 and August 3, Correa said the port will be built between the area of Posorja (limit of Guayaquil) and Chanduy, Santa Elena, so it will “no longer be located in our county but in another county or in the province of Santa Elena.”

“If the young man of 50 who chairs the Ecuador still has not learned geography or says confusing things, that’s his problem, but what is clear is that his claims involve taking Guayaquil out of the new seaport,” said the mayor, adding that “according to the government study, Guayaquil port activity would be reduced to cabotage and the Galapagos tourism,” claimed the mayor.

He finished his transmission calling for the citizens of Guayaquil saying “We must now, honor our history and our tradition, do what it takes not only to survive, but to further the progress in freedom.”