Seoul Gazette - Argentina, Ecuador leaders trade barbs over fugitive ex-minister

NYSE - LSE

RBGPF	0%	60.72	$
CMSC	0.04%	22.34	$
CMSD	0.27%	22.32	$
RYCEF	2.63%	17.5	$
AZN	-0.83%	177.27	$
BCE	-0.99%	24.04	$
NGG	-0.33%	81.57	$
RELX	-2.74%	32.84	$
RIO	0.51%	105.89	$
BTI	-2.06%	61.06	$
GSK	-1.55%	52.23	$
BCC	0.63%	71.59	$
VOD	-3.53%	15	$
JRI	0.89%	12.78	$
BP	-2.86%	41.59	$

Argentina, Ecuador leaders trade barbs over fugitive ex-minister

BOULEVARD 22.03.2023

The presidents of Argentina and Ecuador publicly criticized each other on Tuesday, in a growing diplomatic rift caused by the mysterious appearance in Venezuela of a convicted Ecuadorian ex-minister.

Text size:

Maria de los Angeles Duarte, fleeing an eight-year sentence in Ecuador over bribery charges, had been holed up in Argentina's mission in Quito since August 2020.

Argentina had offered asylum to Duarte, who served under former Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa, but Ecuador refused to grant her free passage out of the country.

On March 14, Argentina announced that Duarte had appeared at its mission in Caracas but did not know how she had arrived there.

The incident resulted in Ecuador expelling Argentina's ambassador and recalling its own from Buenos Aires, measures Argentina then reciprocated.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Ecuadoran president Guillermo Lasso accused his Argentine counterpart of "putting his personal friendship and political identity" with Correa -- who also has been found guilty of corruption -- "ahead of the fraternal relationship between the peoples of Argentina and Ecuador."

Correa, who was president from 2007 to 2017 and has been granted asylum in Belgium, on Tuesday attended a meeting of a human rights group in Buenos Aires.

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez responded on Tuesday by tweeting a public letter addressed to Lasso, in which he defended his government's actions and condemned the expulsion of its ambassador as "disproportionate."

"The seriousness and injustice of that decision show that it is his (Lasso's) excessive behavior that truly hurts the relationship between our peoples," Fernandez added.

"In our embassy, was a refugee who enjoyed full freedom of movement. Argentina had neither the duty of custody over her nor any capacity to limit her movements," he said.

Lasso later released his own letter to Fernandez on Twitter, defending his decision to declare Argentina's ambassador persona non grata and accusing the envoy of acting as a "political operator."

"Collaborating in the escape of a fugitive from justice contributes to impunity, an evil that affects the entire region", Lasso said.

F. Burkhard--BTZ

Featured

Eight dead in fiery US bomber crash in California: military

Eight people died when a US B-52 bomber crashed and erupted into a catastrophic fire shortly after takeoff at an air force base in California on Monday, officials said.

'They want to destroy us': Shock and anger as Russian attack sets Kyiv cathedral ablaze

Father Makariy, a high-ranking clergyman at Kyiv's Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, was woken at around 5:00 am with a huge roar -- the cathedral at the heart of one of Orthodox Christianity's most important sites had been set on fire in a Russian attack.

Burnt-out Indonesians beat the blues with children's games

Flushed and sweating, 31-year-old Annisa Enggracia Fidel runs back and forth to defend her fort from invaders -- hundreds of fellow adults all beating the blues by playing a nostalgic Indonesian children's game.

Greek fishermen struggle to keep up with pufferfish invaders

On his fishing boat moored in the Greek port of Ierapetra in southwestern Crete, Alexis Charlambakis pries open the mouth of a freshly-caught pufferfish to reveal two massive teeth on each jaw.