Ecuador expels US ambassador over Wikileaks cable Skip to main content

Ecuador expels US ambassador over Wikileaks cable

US Ambassador Heather Hodges Ecuador has asked Ambassador Hodges to leave as soon as possible
Ecuador has announced it is expelling the US ambassador in Quito.
The move follows the release on Monday by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks of a US diplomatic cable alleging widespread corruption within the Ecuadorean police force.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he had asked Ambassador Heather Hodges to leave the country as soon as possible.
The US state department called the decision "unjustified" and said it deeply regretted it.
'Irresponsible and false' Mr Patino said that after the release he had called Ambassador Hodges to ask how the US had "had access to such restricted information".
Asked if he thought that the US had infiltrated the Ecuadorean police force, he answered "it would be nothing new".
He told reporters at a news conference the decision to expel the US ambassador had been taken after she failed to give a satisfactory explanation to accusations she had made in the diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks.
He said the move was not aimed at the United States in general but only against one official who had made serious allegations against Ecuador.
In the cable, the ambassador suggests Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was aware of corruption allegations against senior policeman Gen Jaime Aquilino Hurtado Vaca when he made him commander of the country's police force.
Mr Patino said the accusation against President Correa was "absolutely irresponsible and false".
Gen Hurtado Vaca served as commander of the Ecuadorean police force for just over a year before his resignation in June 2009.
The diplomatic cable says the US Embassy had "multiple reports that indicate he used his positions to extort bribes, facilitate human trafficking, misappropriate public funds, obstruct investigations and prosecutions of corrupt colleagues, and engage in other corrupt acts for personal enrichment."
Gen Hurtado Vaca has denied the allegations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12979967

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do