Moreno during his speech / Photo: EP
Eduardo G. Asorey. 28/07/2018
The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, made yesterday in Madrid a profound plea in favor of respect for the diversity of opinions and against political leaders who «are obsessed with power and forget the development and welfare of their people», in express reference to his predecessor, Rafael Correa, and the current president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.
«In Latin America we call revolution to any change and in Ecuador the word was used to distance us from reality», said Moreno during his speech at Foro América, organized by Europa Press and Estudio Comunicación with the sponsorship of Indra and Inypsa and the collaboration of the Business Forum of Madrid. The act was presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Fernando Valenzuela.
When he became president in May 2017, Moreno explained, the country was experiencing «a terrible social confrontation, with some extremes in favor and some extremes against.» «The previous president (Rafael Correa) acted like a neighborhood bully, always looking for someone to fight and who to attack, verbally and sometimes physically», he lamented. «He had forgotten to benefit citizens, he was obsessed with being re-elected indefinitely», and when «a man wants to be eternally in power, he gets used to sending and the people to obey, and from there comes arrogance, authoritarianism and corruption», Lenin Moreno warned.
As a result, he said, «the people said flatly not to indefinite re-election» during the referendum held last February by the Government to modify the Constitution in such important aspects as the limitation in the reelection of the charges (a proposal that has harshly confronted Lenin Moreno with Correa) or the disqualification from public office in cases of corruption.
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The president assures that Ecuador «waits for Spanish businessmen with open arms»
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«In Ecuador, the corruption index is immense», denounced the president. «The previous government dismantled everything that served to control the border”, which resulted in an «extreme permissiveness with narcoterrorism», he added. «We are trying to discover the real reasons for this, the links”, he announced.
«Unlike the previous period, the division of powers works and the president of the Republic no longer hunts down the magistrates or calls them by telephone to impose the sentence», Moreno said in relation to the possible prosecution of Correa, who, according to certain information, could ask for asylum in Belgium. «It’s his right, but I’m not in his head», he added.
According to Lenin Moreno, the current political repression in Nicaragua is another example of «what is generated at the moment when a person is in power for too long». «He no longer worries about the country’s development or his well-being, the only thing that haunts him is power. We have to be careful with the drug of power”, he warned.
The current Ecuadorian government, Moreno said, is trying to guarantee «the cordiality and the reconciliation among the Ecuadorians» and carrying out the «corrective» necessary «to put the house in order without affecting social programs».
«We must provide entrepreneurs inside and outside all legal security to invest in our country. Ecuador has many possibilities for investment and we look forward to Spanish entrepreneurs with open arms”, he said.
