The
recent violation of Assange’s rights as both political asylee and
citizen of Ecuador sends a chilling message to Ecuadorians who are
being increasingly targeted for their political views both within
Ecuador and abroad.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
3 - Spreading the net
In
addition to Bini’s pre-trial detention based on nothing more than
questionable evidence, an Ecuadorian lawyer and supporter of former
Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, Viviana Paredes, announced on
Friday that she had been informed she was the likely object of an
investigation by Ecuador’s Interior Ministry triggered by her
participation in a 2012 event along with Assange’s mother,
Christine Assange, where they — among others — urged the
then-Correa-led government to offer Assange asylum.
Furthermore,
several protesters were arrested in Quito for demonstrating against
Moreno’s decision to revoke Assange’s asylum and his corruption
scandal.
Two of
those detained were forced to publicly apologize to Moreno and
sentenced to 50 hours of community service. One of the detained
protesters later told Ecuadorian journalist Enrique Alcivar that
Ecuador had become “a dictatorship” while
the other stated that “there is no longer freedom of
expression” in the country.
Following
Paredes’ statement on Friday, notable Ecuadorian politicians, such
as former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño and legislator Amapola
Naranjo, reported acts of intimidation directed against them over the
weekend.
Patiño
announced via Twitter that a truck without a license plate but
belonging to the government’s communication authority had
erratically pursued his car as he and his wife were driving from
Quito to Quevedo early Saturday night. The day before, Patiño
claimed on Ecuadorian radio station EcuadorInmediato
that Moreno made the decision to revoke the journalist’s asylum in
exchange for loans from the IMF and other U.S.-dominated financial
institutions. Ecuador’s Interior Ministry also recently accused
Patiño of “conspiring” against Moreno, but has yet to provide
evidence to support those claims.
Naranjo,
for her part, stated on Twitter Sunday that she had recently received
numerous verbal threats and warnings and that she had been the victim
of smear campaigns on social media and other media for her vocal
opposition to Moreno and his political allies in Ecuador’s
legislature.
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Nearly a year ago, these predictions unfortunately are now reality: https://t.co/gQonJV7uSC— failedevolution (@failedevolution) April 12, 2019
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