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Rafael Correa has been in power for 5 years now, and he’s up for reelection next year.
As soon as he took office, he called for a referendum on a new constitution.
This led to a tug of war between Congress, the constitutional court, and the electoral tribunal.
In the end, he got the referendum by way of getting the majority in congress
and a complacent constitutional court.
A constitutional assembly gathered and gave us a new constitution,
but also new control authorities and a new supreme court.
The new constitution brought us novelties like the executive power to dissolve congress
and the president’s power to veto and amend the law as he sees fit.
One year ago, we had yet another referendum.
This time we had to choose for an absolute restructuring of the justice system, media regulation,
property restrictions, ban on casinos, bull fighting, among other things.
Today, authorities don’t control, congress doesn’t legislate, and the opposition doesn’t oppose.
We are living in a pseudo democracy
where elections keep the same people in power and referendums make the law.
The government had cut some benefits of the police force,
and the police were upset about this, of course.
And they protested on September 30th of 2010.
President Correa went to the police compound to try and diffuse the situation himself,
only to make matters worse.
He ended up inside a police hospital next door to the compound,
and later that day, a military rescue operation took place.
This is a video.
“September 30, 2010 7:30/ Policemen protest for cuts in benefits.
Reporter: There are incidents at the Police Headquarters of Quito.
Policemen chanting: They can’t move us and they won’t move us!
The troops united will never be defeated!
Reporter: The Congress withdraw their rewards.
9:25/ Correa arrives at the demonstration.
No one has done as much as this government for the police! 0:03:02.000, 0:03:04.000 Reporter: . . . surprised and unprotected.
You want to throw rocks at me? . . . Here I am!
Reporter: The President endured boos and shoving.
If you want to kill the President, here he is!
Kill him if you want to!
Kill him if you have the power!
Kill him if you’re brave enough!
10:40/ Correa arrives at the Police Hospital
Due to a government’s disposition, Teleamazonas (private TV station) connects to EcuadorTV (public station).
14:00/ Government blocks all radio and TV broadcasts. Imposes transmission of official broadcast.
This is an attempt to overthrow the government.
Correa: I’ll get out of here as President or as a corpse.
The coup eagerness of some people.
I invite the people from Quito to go to the hospital and rescue the President.
They are trying to provoke a coup d’etat.
Secretary of State: Allow the President to exit the hospital. . . He has been kidnapped.
20:00/ Government stops blockade. Radio and TV stations start broadcasting what’s happening.
Policemen say the President hasn’t been kidnapped.
They will let him exit freely.
They urge fellow policemen to stand down.
While the President exits the hospital. . .
. . . policemen will sing their anthem.
Reporter: The special ops team is going to rescue the President.
Reporter: The car is coming out. . .
. . . You can see it. Get up! Get up!
Anchor: There goes the President.
Anchor: Man down! Man down!”
The man you saw fall down at the end of that video was Sargeant Froilán Jiménez.
He was one of five policemen that died during the rescue operation.
Shortly after this shameful event, the police force was completely restructured.
And one question remained: What would be the fate of the policemen involved in all of this?
The president wanted to put the incident behind him.
He considered granting them a pardon, Congress offered to grant them amnesty.
And this was the whole debate that was going on in the nation when on February 9th of 2011, Emilio Palacio,
the opinion editor at El Universo, our newspaper at the time, wrote an op-ed article about everything,
about the 30th of December, the amnesty, the pardon, this whole thing.
And the article was quite strong, but especially the last paragraph, which triggered everything.
And the last paragraph read:
“The Dictator should remember, finally, and this is very important,
that with a pardon, in the future a new president, perhaps his enemy,
could take him to criminal court for ordering fire at will and without warning
against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people.”
The next month, on March 30th, 2011, we were served with a lawsuit.
Now it was not a civil suit.
He brought criminal charges against the author, and the publishers, and the company.
This was a defamation suit, but it was no ordinary defamation suit.
It was criminal defamation of a public official, which really means contempt of authority,
which is based on laws that were created by the military regimes of yesteryear, which is still part of Ecuadorian law today.
In the lawsuit Correa asked for severe sanctions and disproportionate compensations.
The author and the publishers must go to jail for 3 years and pay US $50 million among the four of us.
The company must also pay US $30 million.
The process was plagued by irregularities.
At the local level, the local court, the judge was replaced 5 times.
Finally, Judge Juan Paredes took office,
held a hearing, read 5,000 pages of a case file, and wrote 156 pages of a ruling
in record time: 32 hours.
Judge Paredes ruled that the author and the publishers go to jail for 3 years,
pay US $30 million, and the company pay US$ 10 million.
Oh and he also chipped in US $2 million for legal fees for Correa’s lawyers.
In the appeals court things were no different.
The three judges that formed the appeals court were replaced, all of them,
and finally they just ratified the ruling.
By the time we appealed and went to the Supreme Court,
Correa’s process of restructuring the justice system had already taken place,
and his new justices had already taken office.
By no surprise, by February 15th, when we had a large hearing, we were denied cassation of the sentence.
What followed was sort of surprising, even for us, well especially for us.
Precautionary measures were issued, one of the publishers was granted political asylum,
and an overwhelming reaction by media, NGOs, and institutions the world over.
Part of this, or all of this, actually pressured the president into granting us a full pardon a few days later.
So we didn’t have to go jail, and we didn’t have to pay any money.
We are still running the newspaper.
But the ruling is a judicial precedent for lawsuits to come.
And what we are left with, is really people afraid to speak up.
And that's where we're at right now. And I want to leave you with one more thing:
“Two months later. . . Former judge Mónica Encalada, who handled the case temporarily, presents a video to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Conversation between Juan Paredes, judge who sentenced El Universo, and former judge Mónica Encalada.
Encalada: At what time did Gutemberg give you. . . the first part of the ruling?
In the afternoon?
Paredes: No.
Encalada: The day before we spoke you had nothing.
Paredes: Nothing. No that was. . .
Encalada: At night.
Paredes: I stuck a flash drive.
Encalada: At eleven at night.
Paredes: No, around midmight. 15 minutes after midnight or so.
Encalada: You didn’t make any changes to the ruling?
Paredes: I did change it.
Encalada: You did?
Paredes: Of course. He ordered me to pay 60 million.
Encalada: Ah, 60 million.
Paredes: But, I’m telling you, we’re on the river.
What can I do? Go back? I can’t go back.
In the video. . .
Judge Paredes admits to receiving a prepared ruling from Gutemberg Vera (Correa’s lawyer) and reducing the fine to $40 million.”
Thank you.