Rafael Correa Causes Controversy in Interview with TVE

Rafael Correa

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, caused controversy in an interview for Spanish Television (TVE), after putting under suspicion the funding that the NGO Human Rights Watch (HWR) receives and revealing that his brother Fabricio still keeps contracts with the state.

Correa called his brother “mentally unbalanced” and said that “he will never be the sole candidate, and if he launches as a candidate, he will make a joke of himself in the Ecuadorian history.”

The president clarified that the candidacy of Fabricio does not worries him, but he is rather “annoyed” by it, because his brother became  the opposition following the discovery of “their contracts with the state and abolished them because they were illegal.” He asserted that his government has “serious indications that (Fabricio) has continued with phantom companies.”

Regarding the media and the Government of Ecuador, Correa said that the press is a “serious global problem” and believes that a solution is that there are more private public media.

On the editorial “An Assault on Democracy“, published by The New York Times, Correa said that” even they (NYT journalists) don’t know where Ecuador is.” He explained that if he had learned something of this job was “to respond to people, not the media.”

After the interview, Marisa Cruz, of the journalist from El Mundo (Spain) said that Correa can criticize all “accusing them of serious things, but it seems that he may not be accused.” Fernando Berlin Radiocable.com director, said, “is convinced that there are political instruments in the media, far beyond the legitimate defense of information” and Luis Aizpeolea, a journalist with El Pais, said Correa “is a populist politician” who, like other politicians, the media bothers them.

(BG)