Ecuador and the United States 'Make Up'

• by Gonzalo Ortiz (quito)
• Wednesday, June 09, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Clinton's brief stopover drew a great deal of attention at both the local and international levels, because it was the first time a U.S. secretary of state visited this country since Madeleine Albright did so in 2000.

Furthermore, the Correa administration is seen as closely aligned with the confrontational stance towards the U.S. taken by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and Ecuador is involved in roughly a dozen lawsuits with U.S. companies.

The left-wing government also forced the United States to withdraw from the military base at the Manta port on Ecuador's Pacific coast in 2009, after refusing to extend the 10-year agreement signed by former president Jamil Mahuad (1998-2000).

'I think this visit is very bad news for the recalcitrant Ecuadorean right, which doesn't know what's going on anymore, as well as for the 'talibans' (on the left) who don't want the Ecuadorean government to talk to the United States,' Ecuador's ambassador in Washington, Luis Gallegos, commented to IPS.

'A country like Ecuador which is facing many challenges that it is attempting to overcome has to be judged on its results, on whether or not it produces positive outcomes for the people of Ecuador within the framework of democracy,' Clinton said at the press conference in Quito.

She was responding to a question from a U.S. journalist who said 'The Obama administration has been reaching out to countries all over the world, but in Latin America it often seems that things are going in the wrong direction, particularly with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and sometimes even Ecuador.'

'I don't know what going in the wrong direction means,' Correa responded, for his part. 'To the contrary, I believe that many countries of Latin America have woken up and are going in the right direction…with democratic, popular governments endorsed by voters.'

He added that his government is open to dialogue, 'from a position of dignity and sovereignty, with whoever believes we're going in the other direction.'

Correa said he had no animosity towards the U.S. 'On the contrary, it is a country that I love very much, where I spent four of the happiest years of my life,' he said, referring to the time he spent earning a masters degree and doctorate in economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

'We are forging a new set of relationships,' said Clinton. 'It’s the 21st century. It’s 2010. We’re not turning the clock back. We’re not expecting countries that have their own internal agendas in order to accomplish their own economic and social goals to be exactly as we are. If we ever did expect that, it is certainly no longer the case.

'And I think the goals that Ecuador and its government have set are goals that the United States agrees with,' she added.

Clinton stressed that 'like any two countries, we will not always agree. But we are committed to a partnership of open dialogue and cooperation that is rooted in mutual respect and mutual interest and for the benefit of both of our peoples.'

The questions of mutual concern include drug trafficking, migration, trade and investment, Clinton and Correa agreed.

The concern expressed by a majority of the presidents of the members of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) with respect to an agreement for the U.S. armed forces to use seven military bases in Colombia was another issue they discussed Tuesday.

'The United States has provided and will continue to provide information concerning the use of…Colombian bases,' said Clinton, arguing that Colombia 'has waged a long and difficult struggle against the combined forces of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) insurgency and the well-organised drug trafficking gangs. And the United States has been proud to help Colombia.

'We certainly are committed to sharing information and working in a mutually beneficial way with the neighbours of Colombia to resolve any questions. I think it is also important that we look for more opportunities to partner with all of our friends in the region because we want to be sure that the threat posed by the drug trafficking gangs and the continuing FARC presence is not a threat to anyone, not just to Colombia,' she added.

Consulted by IPS, analyst Marco Romero and former diplomats Gustavo Ruales and Miguel Vasco said other questions that were undoubtedly discussed Tuesday, although they were not mentioned in the news briefing, were Honduras's return to the Organisation of American States and Ecuador's relations with Iran.

Romero, director of social and global studies at Ecuador's Simón Bolívar Andean University, said Clinton's visit was especially important because it will bring about a change in perception of the Correa administration in Ecuador itself.

'The idea was that Correa was militantly anti-American, but now there will be a more balanced opinion,' he said.

Vasco, a former Ecuadorean ambassador, told IPS that 'this visit forms part of a careful U.S. plan to forge closer ties with Ecuador, because it believes it is a government with which dialogue has not broken down yet, and with which communication can be salvaged.'

He said the plan also included the visits to Ecuador by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela two months ago and Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd and Mark Warner last week.

But Ruales said 'it is hard to predict' what will come next, 'because Correa is unpredictable. We have already seen this many times.'

Correa's current openness to Washington is 'a pragmatic measure,' because the government 'is in a difficult position in terms of financing,' he told IPS.

Clinton was declared an 'illustrious guest' of Quito by the mayor, before heading on to Colombia as part of her second Latin America tour that started in Lima, where she took part in the 40th OAS general assembly Monday and Tuesday.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service