"Conservative Restoration Threatens Progressive Cycle"

07/21/2014 - 08h48

The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, 51, says there is an ongoing "conservative restoration" in Latin America, and it can "end a cycle of progressive governments" on the continent if they don't "watch out."

"The national and international rightists have overcome the shock. They are clearly connected," he says.

Correa was in Brazil last week to attend a meeting of Unasul, which includes South American countries and the Brics, comprised of China, Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India.

He says the measures announced by the BRICS can "mark the beginning of a less unfair social order," and that, the U.S. probably considers the initiative "worrisome."

He defended Ecuador's law that regulates media. And said he will be a candidate in the 2017 elections - he has been in office since 2007.

Correa received Folha in Brasilia on Thursday, on the day of the accident of the Boeing airliner that killed 283 passengers in the Ukraine.

Here is a summary of the conversation:

Folha - A few hours ago, an airplane crashed in the Ukraine and the conditions under which it occurred aren't clear yet. Some suspect it was attacked. How do you see the situation in that region?

Rafael Correa - It is extremely serious [the airplane's fall]. What is occurring in the Ukraine is a geopolitical game between major powers. Europe is interested in the country because of its natural resources. Something similar is occurring in Russia. We hope the problems get sorted out.

Was it just coincidence that the U.S. announced new sanctions on Russia on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin met with other leaders of the BRICS and South America in Brazil?

I don't want to speculate nor have I any information on the subject. What must be stressed is the double moral at stake. They enacted sanctions on Russia, so to speak, as if humanity had elected a global judge. And where are the sanctions for more than half a century of the U.S. embargo on Cuba? That violates all international law.

Did the BRICS meeting bother the U.S.?

If we want a multipolar world, we must conform and unite the blocs. That is what has happened among the BRICS and Unasul so far. It must be worrisome for the hegemonic country of a unipolar world. I can't stop congratulating President Dilma Rousseff. The meeting was a brilliant idea. And it can mark the beginning of a less unfair world order.

But will the measures announced really create a counterpoint to the hegemony of the U.S. and its allies?

United we stand. The BRICS have 40% of the population of the world and 25% of its production. They created a new financial architecture that depends neither on the IMF nor on the World Bank. Unasul must do the same - even creating a single regional currency so that we become less dependent on the centers of power. Why should a U.S. judge have the power to break Argentina? Because all payments in the world go through the U.S. and it can block these payments. The hegemonic system would lose power with an alternative system.

You have been talking about a single currency since 2006. Unasul's Bank of the South was created in 2007 and it doesn't work. Energy integration has had much trouble taking off.

There are things that are flawless in theory. Something very different occurs in practice, when the theme involves several nations. The BRICS have acted for ten years - there are five countries and they have only started putting things into practice. But we really don't have time to lose [in Latin America]. We must act quickly. And we haven't been doing so.

You say there are South American presidents who aren't interested in integration.

We cannot fool ourselves: South American integration, with an independent, sovereign and dignified view, makes the U.S. worry. And there is an ongoing rightist conservative restoration led by the continent's long-time elites to stop these integrationist and progressive processes in our countries. That's when counterpoints to the Unasul, like the Pacific Alliance [comprised of Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia] come up, which is pure neoliberalism.

In the last decade, the prosperity of the world economy coincided with the election of charismatic leftists such as Lula and Chavez. It has all changed now. The economy has worsened. The leaders aren't the same. Has the model run out?

A new cycle in Latin America started when Chavez took office in 1999 amid the liberal night. He was soon followed by Lula, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina and the citizen revolution in Ecuador. Who could imagine in the 1990s that these progressionists would take office when Latin America was filled with the likes of Fujimori, Collor de Mello, Menem? A new era began. But I must stress this: there is an ongoing conservative restoration. The national and international rightists have overcome the shock of our governments and the fiasco of liberalism. They are clearly connected. Ecuador's rightists have contact with those of Venezuela, of the U.S., which finances alleged ONGs - I don't know if it also occurs with Brazil -, all to fight against us.

But the countries have real internal problems.

We are the victims of our own success. Look at the amazing social advance Brazil has made in reducing poverty. And look at the protests against Rousseff and the PT. There is a new middle class that demands more and more from us. The media - a rightist tool - try to downgrade everything and say that the past was better. There is clearly a conservative restoration that can end this cycle of progressive governments. We must watch out.

You have said that we must avoid personalism in politics. Is there a chance that you might run for president again?

Yes, we must avoid that. But there is a huge responsibility exactly because of this conservative restoration. But believe me: the last resort in our project is my reelection in 2017.

The issue of press is a sensitive subject anywhere in the world and it's not different in Latin America. Several countries, including Ecuador, have passed laws regulating communication.

The power of media has become political power. Our adversaries in Ecuador aren't the rightists, but their media. They show us as authoritarian governments that persecute patriotic journalists who only want to tell the truth. And that's not right. Every day we face the manipulation of information of some media controlled by the oligarchy. Without any democratic legitimacy, they want to impose a political agenda, and subject the governments - they peddle and manipulate. Society has to defend itself from that.

In Brazil, the PT leads the discussion and says it is about guaranteeing plurality, regulating audiovisual concessions - the business, never the content. In Ecuador, the law doesn't interfere in the content but says, for example, that the media cannot discredit or "lynch" anyone.

Perhaps our mistake was using the word "lynch" instead of "harass". But the law establishes clearly what "lynch" is. And that has to be regulated. You cannot imagine the excesses that occurred in Ecuador's press. If the director of a municipal company charged a water fee from a company, he would be lynched until he left office.

Do you think that the excesses from one side can create others on the other - an imbalance? The power of media is strong but so is that of the government.

That is why there is public scrutiny, courts to appeal to, a Communication Superintendence [Supercom], all media have the right to defense. And what do they criticize? "They made us correct [a piece of information] 82 times." They don't say they lied! They were used to lying, to not giving the right of reply, to having control, to having presidents tremble in fear in the sight of them. A political project would win the election, but the media governed, legislated and tried. The party is over. The media call themselves the fourth power when they find it convenient. And every power has to be regulated by society through laws. Imagine the financial power without regulation, the political power without supervision. And even the religious power: suddenly a new religion allows human sacrifice. And the only power that is untouchable is the media? We have to break these taboos.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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	Rodrigo Buendia/AFP
	Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa