OPPENHEIMER: Ecuador: 21st Century Dictatorship?

elnuevoherald.com (Andres Oppenheimer) Correa’s landslide victory should not surprise anyone. On the contrary, it would have been weird to give a different result. That was my conclusion after interviewing a few days after the election to former Ecuadorean President Osvaldo Hurtado, who has just published a book entitled “Dictatorships of the century”, in obvious reference to the “Socialism of the XXI Century” who claim to be driving the president Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, Correa himself, and other imitators. Besides oil prosperity, Correa won the election because election rules imposed made to your taste and measure. The president controls all the institutions, and increasingly imposes restrictions on the press, said Hurtado. According to the election laws of the government of Correa, the Ecuadorian media could not publish articles “biased”, which in fact represented a de facto censorship of any items that might criticize Correa or his government. Also, Correa invoked an imaginary international media conspiracy to silence multiple radios, build a media empire government and intimidate independent newspapers with millions lawsuits. Hurtado said that “unlike the dictatorships of the past, giving a coup, and replaced Condeso closed the President, the XXI century dictatorships ignore the constitutional order under which they were elected and create a new constitutional order that they allowed to remain in power. ” Over time, “become dictatorships” he added. Read Article