[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14077-14078]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN ECUADOR

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to call the Senate's attention to a 
situation I have spoken about previously, which is the ongoing 
crackdown by the Correa Government on what little remains of the 
independent media in Ecuador.
  One of the things we have come to expect is that the press--and civil 
society organizations that expose corruption and challenge the 
officially sanctioned version of reality--are the first casualties in 
countries whose leaders are determined to remain in power at any cost.
  Ecuador is a prime example. In 2013, President Rafael Correa issued a 
decree granting the government broad powers to intervene in the 
operations of nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, including dissolving 
groups on the vague grounds that they have ``compromise[d] public 
peace'' or have engaged in activities that were not listed when they 
registered with the government. A modified version of the decree, which 
maintains broad powers to close down NGOs, was adopted in August 2015.
  On September 7, Ecuador's Communications Ministry opened an 
administrative process to ``dissolve'' Fundamedios, an organization 
that monitors freedom of expression in the country. According to 
information publicly available, the government contends that 
Fundamedios engaged in political activities by publishing information 
critical of the government--information that would be protected speech 
in any democracy.
  Every politician knows that unfavorable press attention comes with 
the territory. Here in the United States we accept it as a necessary 
reality of a free press. But the Correa Government wants to punish an 
organization for

[[Page 14078]]

publishing news and opinions it doesn't like. Silencing the press, like 
dismantling an independent judiciary, are hallmarks of dictatorship. 
History is replete with examples.
  Fundamedios, like other independent media and human rights defenders 
in Ecuador, has been a target of the Correa Government for years. Its 
members have been subjected to a pattern of harassment and persecution 
for nothing more than engaging in activities that are protected by the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  As long as President Correa is in power it seems that the press and 
civil society organizations in Ecuador will be under assault. But while 
any president or prime minister with the backing of the police and the 
armed forces can wreak havoc on the institutions of democracy, history 
also provides any number of examples where, in the end, the public's 
demand for freedom of expression and government accountability 
prevailed. We are seeing that today in Guatemala, and I have little 
doubt that the tide will similarly turn against repression in Ecuador.
  Ecuador is a country blessed with wonderful people including unique 
indigenous cultures, with spectacular geography and extraordinary 
biological diversity, as found in the Galapagos Islands, and with 
magnificent colonial architecture. It is also a country with a history 
of military coups and fragile democratic institutions. It is 
regrettable that as President Correa solidifies his grip on power by 
silencing his critics, the country is taking on more and more of the 
characteristics of a police state.
  Fundamedios has a few days to defend itself before the Communications 
Ministry until a final ruling is issued. Let us hope that wisdom will 
prevail, that the forces of repression in Ecuador will withdraw, that 
the right of free expression will be reaffirmed, and that Fundamedios 
will be allowed to continue to operate. There is still time.

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