Ecuador's President Orders U.S. Diplomat Expelled
Ecuador's leftist president said the U.S. official, Armando Astorga Jr., announced the suspension of aid to the anti-contraband police in a Jan. 8 letter that also demanded they return all donated equipment — including vehicles, furniture, cameras and phones.
Correa said Astorga also said in the letter addressed to Ecuador's police chief that $160,000 in annual aid to the Human Trafficking Unit "is being reconsidered."
"Mr. Astorga, Keep your dirty money! We don't need it. Here there is sovereignty and dignity," Correa said during his weekly radio address, calling the American "insolent and foolish."
"Mr. Foreign Minister: Give this man 48 hours to get his suitcases and get out of the country," Correa said. He told police chief Jaime Hurtado to return the equipment "to the last eraser."
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman reached by The Associated Press by telephone had no immediate comment.
Astorga is listed as the embassy's Department of Homeland Security-Immigration and Customs Enforcement attache in a State Department phone book.
Although Correa has vigorously promoted a socialist agenda in this small Andean nation of 14 million, he did not join his allied leftist presidents in Venezuela and Bolivia when they expelled U.S. ambassadors in September. The actions were taken after Bolivia accused Washington of spurring opposition protests, a charge U.S. officials denied.
U.S.-Ecuador relations have been warmer, with U.S. diplomats praising Correa's cooperation in anti-narcotics efforts even after he accused the CIA, without providing evidence, of paying Ecuadorean military officers for information.
Correa read from the Jan. 8 letter, which said the U.S. decision came because an "understanding" that members of the anti-contraband unit, known as COAT, would be jointly chosen "is not functioning satisfactorily."
He said that implied that "the embassy had to approve the person we name as commander of COAT and who we name as personnel."
Correa said that if Washington was going to insist on vetting Ecuadorean personnel he would insist on the same for U.S. Coast Guard pilots who land their planes on Ecuadorean territory after the lease runs out in November on the U.S. anti-narcotics base at Manta on the Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renegotiate a renewal of the lease on the Manta operation, the only such U.S. base in South America.
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