US – Freedoms in Ecuador

The United States government made a harsh judgment and scrutinized the regimes of Ecuador, Cuba and Venezuela based on the same criteria.

The annual report for 2013, a document the U.S. Department of State — its Ministry of Foreign Relations — publishes each year, highlights that restrictions on freedoms of expression, the press and association constitute human rights violations. Furthermore, it criticized the lack of independence of judicial power.

The report also insists on generalized corruption, which merits further clarification.

It did not take long for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, in particular, its leader Ricardo Patiño to react. The North American government’s double standard was criticized, and it was said that the U.S. has a poor record as far as human rights are concerned. The press release that appears on the website of El Ciudadano (The Citizen), an organism of the regime, states, “The United States has not approved the American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San José), the [U.N.] Convention Against Torture,” among other international instruments.

It would be good for the country’s government to back those instruments, but it is worth remembering that the Ecuadorian government has been reluctant to accept the criticisms of the Organization of American States special rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, which applies the aforementioned convention and has questioned its funding.

At a time when a conversation between Minister Patiño and Secretary of State John Kerry is pending, tensions are running high.