Development: On 10 October a court in Ecuador ruled that the sentence handed down to Emilio Palacio should delayed.
Significance: The ruling is anyway immaterial because Palacio, a journalist at El Universo, who was convicted of criminal libel against President Rafael Correa on 21 July, has fled to Miami. The court’s ruling, however, is useful to the Correa government which was publicly criticised last week by a German parliamentary delegation. The German delegation accused the Correa government of attacking press freedom. The government’s image got separate polish when Baltasar Garzón, a prominent Spanish human rights judge, confirmed that he will monitor Ecuador’s proposed judicial reforms, during a visit at the end of November.
Key points:
• Palacio hailed the victory won by his lawyers. The court ruled that the punishment (which includes three years in prison) could not be imposed until his appeal had been heard. Palacio nevertheless claimed that he would end up with a prison sentence, eventually.
• Palacio is unlikely to serve any prison time, however, because Correa himself has ruled out applying for Palacio to be extradited from the US.
• Separately, Ivonne Baki, the head of the commission trying to drum up support for the Yasuní-ITT project, indicated that the government was changing strategy, after the visit by the German parliamentary delegation. The Yasuní-ITT project, launched in 2007, calls for Ecuador to be paid US$3.5bn not to produce oil which lies under the Yasuní national park. Originally the Correa administration expected to raise money from other governments: now Baki said that the government would try to raise the money from NGOs and companies.
• The government has set itself a target of raising US$100m for Yasuní by the end of this year. The fund currently stands at US$60m. President Correa is on record as saying that if the US$100m target is not reached, the government may authorise oil production from Yasuní
