Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-10)

 POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek June 10, 2019

40

○ Ecuadorian President Moreno wants to

keep his country from becoming Venezuela

The

Leftist

For WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the morn-

ing of April 11 arrived as most others had over

the almost seven years he’d lived as a refugee

at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Granted

asylum there in 2012, he was hiding from British

authorities after jumping bail to avoid extradi-

tion to Sweden on rape allegations and to the U.S.

for publishing secret government documents.

Australian by birth, Assange had been granted

Ecuadorian citizenship and was therefore offi-

cially an Ecuadorian sleeping on Ecuadorian soil.

He was untouchable.

At 9:27 a.m., police entered the embassy and

arrested him. The question most have asked since

is whether Assange, viewed as either a free-speech

icon or a Russian-sponsored nihilist, will be extra-

dited first to Sweden or to the U.S., where he was

recently indicted on 17 counts of violating the

Espionage Act. Less attention has been paid to the

man who, half a world away, made the decision

to expel him: Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno.

Moreno’s shift on Assange was the latest but

also the most dramatic signal that Ecuador,

previously linked with the authoritarian Left in

Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, is moving in

a new direction—and back into the good graces

of the U.S. Following a trip to Ecuador last sum-

mer by Vice President Mike Pence, the first such

visit since Richard Nixon’s in the late 1950s, other

governments whose relations with Ecuador had

been cool have joined in supporting Moreno. In

recent months, Moreno’s government has hosted

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, South

Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, and U.K.

Trade Minister George Hollingbery, who in May

became the first British cabinet minister to visit

the country in almost a decade.

Rafael Correa, the president’s former mentor and

predecessor, thought he’d selected a seat warmer in

Moreno.From 2007 to2017,Correaembarkedona

stringofill-consideredpublicworksprojects,includ-

ingpowerplants,refineries,pipelines,airportter-

minals,anda railway.Havingintentionallydefaulted

on$3.2billionofbondsin2008,heturnedtoChina

tofundmanyoftheprojects,withplanstorepay

inoilshipments.BythetimeMorenotookoffice

twoyearsago,onlythreeoftheeighthydroelectric

powerplantsCorreahadstartedbuilding,costing

a combined$3.7billion,wereoperating.Ecuador

owesChinaa total$6.7billion.

Today,CorreaislivinginBelgiumtoavoid

facingchargesathomethathehada political

opponentkidnapped.Moreno,who’s 66 andthe

world’sonlyelectedheadofstateina wheel-

chair,hasestablisheda differenttone.Hepushed

througha referendumthatestablishedtermlim-

itsforelectedofficialsandsetthestageforjudi-

cialreformerstoreplacea constitutionalcourt

sodiscreditedthatseveralmemberswereunder

suspicionofmoneylaundering.Hereorientedthe

country’seconomicpolicy,includingappointinga

youngbusinessleaderasfinanceminister,which

ledtoa decreaseinyieldsonEcuadorianbonds

anda dealwiththeInternationalMonetaryFund

torestoredollarreservesandstabilizepublicdebt.

HenudgedhiscountryawayfromChinaandwel-

comedprivateinvestment.Andhe’s beguna

cleanupofhundredsofoilspillsitesthathadbeen

allowedtofesterfora generationwhiletheprevi-

ousgovernmentsponsoredunsuccessfulinterna-

tionallitigationagainstChevronCorp.

Moreno has also denounced Venezuelan

PresidentNicolásMaduro—whowasknownas

“comrade”inQuito,theEcuadoriancapital,as

recentlyasa yearago—andrecognizedU.S.-backed

oppositionleaderJuanGuaidó.Thisinparticu-

laris a victoryfortheU.S.“Havinga government

electedona left-wingplatforminfavorofAmerican

Turns

Right

○ Assange

○ Ecuador’s

governmentdebt

2007 2018

$50b

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