Day care centre for Colombian refugees in Ecuador.
Governments across the world are erecting walls and tightening laws to keep refugees out, but one country is taking a radically different approach based on the simple premise that “no one is illegal”.
The Andean nation of Ecuador, with a population of 15.7 million people, is no stranger to the challenges of dealing with refugee crises.
Ecuador
Day care centre for Colombian refugees in Ecuador.
Governments across the world are erecting walls and tightening laws to keep refugees out, but one country is taking a radically different approach based on the simple premise that “no one is illegal”.
The Andean nation of Ecuador, with a population of 15.7 million people, is no stranger to the challenges of dealing with refugee crises.
Indigenous anti-Correa protesters.
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is facing the most important challenge yet to his self-styled “Citizens' Revolution”.
A range of indigenous groups, trade unions and leftist parties mobilised across the country on August 13. Their long list of demands included calls for land reform, opposition to mining, support for bilingual education and the shelving of the government’s proposed water and labour laws.
More than 6000 people and 500 group have participated in public meetings on a proposed land law with the government of President Rafael Correa.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and social movements behind Ecuador’s “Citizens' Revolution” are engaged in yet another battle against the South American country's entrenched elites.
Supporters of Correa marched through the capital of Quito on August 12 to the presidential palace, where they intend to maintain a permanent presence to help defend the elected government.
The next day, violent opposition protests led to 86 police officers being injured, the interior ministry said, along with 20 civilians and three members of the press.
Ecuador: Correa says Latin American left faces 'new Cold War'
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said on August 5 that left-wing governments in Latin America are facing “a new Cold War” that seeks to “annihilate them” through strategies of political destabilisation.
The statements of the socialist leader come as opposition groups, including many from the far right, are planning a new series of protests against his government.
Colombian Indigenous refugees in Ecaudor.
Migrant rights bill says 'no one is illegal'
Ecuadorian National Assembly deputy Esteban Melo said that under a new migration bill presented to the Ecuadorian National Assembly on July 16, “No human being will be considered illegal”.
Supports of the 'no' vote celebrate in Athens on the night of July 5.
Leaders of Latin American left-wing governments have congratulated the Greek government and its people after Greece's historic July 5 referendum. Voters rejected debt austerity proposals by Greece's European lenders.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said: “The ‘no’ vote in Greece is a victory against the financial terrorism carried out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).”
President Rafael Correa called a rally on July 2 in defence of democracy and the pro-poor Citizens' Revolution his government leads after plans by the right-wing opposition for a violent coup were exposed.
“We are ready to defend the revolution against the coup plotters,” Correa told thousands of supporters gathered outside the Presidential Palace on the evening of July 2.
“We will remain firm in defending the revolution against the ultra-right.” he added.
Jaime Nebot. Photo: ANDES.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa singled out opposition politician Jaime Nebot, who has been calling for protests against the government, as a clear example of the progress the country has made with respect to the collection of taxes.
Correa came to power in 2007. He said in 2006, Nebot paid just US$1994 in income taxes, but by last year the opposition leader was paying US$66,593.
After weeks of often-violent right-wing protests over proposed tax changes that would affect only a very small minority of affluent Ecuadorians, more than 15,000 leaders from Ecuador’s rural governments held an extraordinary assembly on June 25 in support of the government.
Julian Assange, founder and editor, of WikiLeaks had been a refugee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for three years as of June 19.
The key issue in his extraordinary incarceration is justice. He has been charged with no crime. The first Swedish prosecutor dismissed the misconduct allegations regarding two women in Stockholm in 2010. The second Swedish prosecutor's actions were and are demonstrably political.
Until recently, she refused to come to London to interview Assange - then she said she was coming. Then she cancelled her appointment.
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