Another Victory for Wiki-Leaks

[Savonarola]

Perhaps not as good as, say, ending corruption in the Ecuadorian police high command, but I think we can all agree this is the next best thing:

Ecuador says U.S. ambassador not welcome
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 5, 2011 1:00 p.m. EDT


(CNN) -- The Ecuadorian government on Tuesday declared the U.S. ambassador in that country, Heather Hodges, persona non grata and asked her to leave as soon as possible, the state-run Andes news agency reported. The decision was based on a State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks, it said.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said that although the government is asking the ambassador to leave, she is not being officially expelled.

According to Patino, he had met with Hodges over the revelations in the leaked cable, which said Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa allegedly was aware of acts of corruption by the police high command.

Because the ambassador did not have a satisfactory response, it was decided that she was not welcome in Ecuador, Patino said, according to Andes.

This act "is not against the government of the United States, but against a diplomat who made serious statements," Patino said.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to the development.

Patino said that during his meeting, he stressed to Hodges how upset the president was about the allegations, to which she declined to respond, saying only that it was information stolen from the U.S. government, Andes reported.

[KRonn]

I think she's right, somaybe her comments were a bit too true for the Ecuadorans to take. I work with a guy from Ecuador; apparently bribery is the way to get a lot of things done there, a cash payoff just to get the most mundane things. I think the current President has been trying to get that in control but it's so ingrained in society that it's hard to stop it.

[The Brain]

A Wiktory?

[Berkut]

Of course she is right, that isn't even the remotely interesting part of the story.

[grumbler]

I think that Ecuador has every right to declare people persona non grata for privately reporting what they hear.  If diplomats don't lie in their reports to their own governments, who knows where that could lead?  World peace?  Honesty in government?  *shudder*

In fact, the US could save some money by simply not having a diplomatic mission to Ecuador.  Subcontract the mission to Switzerland, like it does for Iran.

[Razgovory]

Ecuador's government is close with Chavez these days aren't they?

[MadImmortalMan]

In fact, the US could save some money by simply not having a diplomatic mission to Ecuador.  Subcontract the mission to Switzerland, like it does for Iran.

Well, since we're looking for ways to save, let's just do that all across South America and Africa while we're at it. There has to be 50 or 60 embassies we can shut down.