Left to right: President Rafael Correa, Pais aliance presidential candidate Lenin Moreno andhis vice presidential running mate Jorge Glas.
Ecuador
Ecuador ramped up its fight against tax dodging on September 21 as the South American country proposed a plan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York aimed at tackling offshore tax havens with stiffer regulation.
The push comes in the wake of the Panama Papers leaks that exposed just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of global tax evasion and its impact on the global South.
On being sworn into power on January 15, 2007, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said: “Latin America is not living through an era of change, it is living through a genuine change of eras.”
His enthusiasm was shared by many, and with good reason: after years of intense social struggles against right-wing neoliberal governments, new left forces were winning elections across the region.
United States State Department spokesperson John Kirby said on August 31 that Brazil's democratic institutions had acted within the country's constitutional framework when the Senate voted to oust elected president Dilma Rousseff and install Michel Temer as the new leader.
The US defence of the process that removed Brazil's elected president stands in contrast to many critics, including several Latin American governments, who have labelled it an institutional coup.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa: “Anybody can come here to the Ecuadorean Amazon and dip their own hands in the lagoons of oil left by Texaco more than 20 years ago and their hands will come out full of oil.”
Bolivia has approved a new law that allows transgender people to change their name, sex and gender on birth certificates and other official records. LGBTI rights activists in Bolivia see the law as a groundbreaking sign of growing tolerance in Latin America.
Forty people began the process to change their personal information on identity documents and bank accounts, and alter their professional titles on the day the law passed.
Anti-coup rally in Brazil.
Since the start of the 21st century, the left has won elections in most Latin American countries in a powerful wave of popular rejection of the disastrous neoliberal policies of the previous regimes.
One must however distinguish between two quite different sorts of left governments:
In response to the revelations of wholesale tax evasion in the Panamanian tax haven, Oxfam International launched an international campaign advocating for the eradication of tax havens and fiscal opacity.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, has become the first head of state to actively sign, endorse and promote Oxfam’s letter and campaign. The Ecuadorian leader has reaffirmed his commitment to push the changes advocated by the campaign from his position as president.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa spoke out on June 1 about efforts by right-wing political forces in Latin America to oust democratically-elected governments, saying that it would set a dangerous precedent for democracy in the region.
“Right-wing politicians don't just want to return to power, they want to return with a thirst for vengeance,” said Correa during an interview with Ecuador Public Television.
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