Blinken highlights democracy, vaccination and fight against corruption in Ecuador

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, highlighted on Tuesday (19) the defense of democracy, the anti-virus vaccination campaign, and the fight against corruption promoted by the government of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.

In his first public remarks at the beginning of his two-day official visit to the country, the head of U.S. diplomacy valued the “strong and long-standing friendship between the U.S. and Ecuador, which is growing with the leadership of President Lasso.”

Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador

“We admire the strong voice in defense of democracy that he has shared with the Ecuadorian people, but also with the peoples of the hemisphere,” he said in a protocol greeting before the meeting with the Ecuadorian president at the presidential headquarters in Carondelet.

He stressed that the Ecuadorian president, in office since last May, has shown “convincingly that democracy can bring real results”, and as an example of this, he pointed out the vaccination campaign that in the first 100 days of his administration achieved the injection of about 70% of the vaccinated population.

“We commend that and the work he is doing to fight corruption and develop reforms that benefit all Ecuador,” he added, before advancing that he will analyze with the Ecuadorian authorities several issues such as the fight against drug trafficking, environmental and climate conservation, and “regional challenges that we face together, including migration”.

FIRST VISIT TO ECUADOR

In his first visit to Ecuador, the Secretary of State was received at the Carondelet Palace early in the afternoon. Before beginning his meetings with President Lasso, they offered brief statements to the media.

Lasso thanked him for a visit and said that he would discuss bilateral cooperation issues with Blinken. “Ecuador, today more than ever, shares the democratic values and freedom that have guided the prosperity of the U.S. since its founding,” he said in welcoming him.

Blinken’s is the first visit by a Secretary of State to the nation since Hillary Clinton’s visit in 2010. However, in July 2019, Mike Pompeo made a brief stopover in Guayaquil to meet with then-President Lenín Moreno during a tour of several Latin American countries.

After a decade of estrangement during the administration of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), aligned with the ideology of 21st Century Socialism, US-Ecuador relations took a new direction in 2017, with Moreno, who was received in 2020 at the White House, the first visit by an Ecuadorian president in almost two decades.

With Lasso as president, the flow of high-ranking visitors has continued, including advisor Daleep Singh, deputy national security advisor to Joe Biden. As part of his policy of openness to the world, the center-right ruler wants to solidify the rapprochement with a trade agreement.