Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-10)

◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek June10, 2019

ASSANGE:

LUKE

MACGREGOR/BLOOMBERG.

MORENO:

DOLORES

OCHOA/AP

PHOTO.

DATA:

IMF

policy is really important for making it look like

this is acceptable to the region and not just built

up by Donald Trump’s team in Washington,” says

Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuelan who runs eco-

nomic and political analysis of the region for Torino

Capital in New York.

Inaninterview atthepresidentialpalace,

Moreno describes himselfas a “former cafe

socialist” who, until he was shot in a bakery rob-

bery in 1998, liked to “read a lot of dialectical

materialism.” After the shooting, he went through

four years of searing pain and depression. When

he emerged, he says, it was with a conviction

thatjoy,jokes,andhelpingotherswerelife’ssal-

vation.Hebecamea motivationalspeaker,then

a scholarofthehealing power of humor, and

finally he was pulled into Correa’s orbit by mutual

friends. Moreno had been active in left-wing cir-

cles since high school, but his first run for office

was on Correa’s presidential ticket in 2006, when

he was elected vice president. In the beginning, like

many, he believed in the former president. Now he

saysthatunderCorrea,Ecuadorwas“likea frogin

waterslowlyheatingup.Thefroggetsusedtoit,”

including“limits on association and speech.”

Moreno says his turn to the U.S. is in keeping

with his appreciation for democracy and human

rights. Although he says he has his criticisms of

U.S. policies, he didn’t specify what they were.

So far he’s secured $10.2 billion in loans to be dis-

bursed over three years from the IMF, the World

Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank,

which he’ll use to fund public housing and clean

water delivery, in addition to the economic stabi-

lization program. Moreno says socialism gets one

thingright:thathelpingthoseinneedandpursu-

ingeconomicequalityareindispensable.“That’s

whymygovernment will produce with the right

and distribute from the left,” he says.

In the predawn chill one morning, he demon-

strates what he means. After being wheeled onto

the narrow streets of Quito’s historic center, in the

shadow of Ecuador’s neo-Gothic national basilica,

he holds the hands of the elderly and homeless

sleeping under blue plastic tarps. His government

is going to build them homes and give them digni-

fiedfunerals,hesays.(Hisaidesconfirmthatsome

200,000unitsforthehomelessarealreadybeing

built.)“Moreno’sgreatstrengthishisapparent

weakness,” says Simon Pachano, a political sci-

entist at Quito’s Latin American Faculty of Social

Sciences, or Flacso. “He places himself outside the

political struggle and presents himself as someone

working for the people.”

Ecuador’s most dogged investigative journalist,

THEBOTTOMLINE WhileEcuadorfacespotentiallycrippling

debt, Moreno has put in place reforms that have helped reopen the

country’s diplomatic relations and stabilize its economy.

▼ Moreno greets

residents of Latacunga,

a mountain city south

of Quito, in April after

the inauguration of

a government water

program

Fernando Villavicencio, offers a dissenting view.

Moreno has eased up on repression, he says, but

he’s also corrupt, citing alleged kickbacks from

Chinese construction company Sinohydro, the

purchase of an apartment in Spain through an off-

shore shell company, and a Swiss bank account

belonging to the president’s wife. Moreno has

denied the accusations and said he’ll open

accounts he had while in Geneva to investigators;

prosecutorshavebeguntoreviewthematters.

Ecuador, whichhas$51 billioninnational

debt—representing almost half of the country’s

economy, with only a decade to repay much of

it—isn’t going to recover quickly. Still, there’s a fair

amount of optimism. Moreno has committed to

serving a single term, which adds to his credibility.

Susan Segal, a former banker who’s president of

Americas Society/Council of the Americas, draws

a parallel with Chile, where Patricio Aylwin was a

one-term president starting in 1990, following the

dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Aylwin restored

key institutions, setting an impoverished country

on the path to stable prosperity, Segal says.

Jean Cano, a press freedom activist, says that

had Correa remained in power, he and other jour-

nalists would be abroad or in prison. Fabricio

Villamar, a conservative member of Congress and

an opponent of Moreno’s, puts it more poetically.

“There’s no question that things have changed for

the better,” he says. “You can feel the liberty in the

air.” �Ethan Bronner and Stephan Kueffner