Patiño: We have a “graffiti ambassador”

We have a “graffiti ambassador,” said Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño yesterday, after meeting with the U.S. ambassador in Ecuador, Adam Namm regarding the text that Namm wrote last Friday in an event organized by the National Union of Journalists (UNP) to commemorate Freedom of Expression Day, which has generated discomfort within the government, not by what the ambassador wrote, but by the context in which he did it.

After the meeting, Patiño, who described the event held by the UNP as a “political act”, gave a press conference in which he referred to Namm, as a “graffiti ambassador” and said he warned him that the next time there won’t be just a complaint, but a response of a “different nature”, which has not been specified.

Ricardo Patiño showing “evidence” of Namm’s participation in the UNP event.

“We have called Mr. Adam Namm because he participated in an activity for the alleged defense of freedom of expression in our country, and in that activity he did a graffiti, which was next to some offensive cartoons of the Ecuadorian president,” said  the Chancellor, who showed the printed images. “The president carrying a microphone like he would carry a dog, another one says: The lashes (correazos) will never be enough to shut us up, there is another one that shows a person with a fist-face and another one who does not say anything to him, so it is muted.. And this one other says: The only free press is the one that is held in the palace, “described Patiño. “This act is not an act of free speech, it is obviously a political act,” he added.

On the other hand, it is known, over Patiño’s statements, that Namm said that  “he thought he didn’t participated in a political act, those are his exact words,” said Patiño. It is expected that the U.S. ambassador pronounces himself over the matter.

Ambassador Adam Namm leaving the Foreign Ministry after the meeting.