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Ecuador
Leader Accuses Media of Twisting
Truth
Reuters / September 15, 2004
QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuadorean
President Lucio Gutierrez accused
local media on Wednesday of twisting
the truth to make him look bad
and weaken his 20-month-old government.
In an angry outburst, Gutierrez
rattled off a list of local newspapers
and television stations that had
reported what he called half-truths
to mislead Ecuadoreans, whose
support for the president has
waned since he took office in
January 2003.
"In Ecuavisa (television),
every day they're insulting the
president and hiding behind a
microphone. That isn't courage,
it's misinforming the nation,"
he said, charging that other media
had falsely accused him of campaign
financing ills.
Gutierrez faces allegations that
he received drug money during
his presidential campaign and
help from abroad, both illegal
under local electoral law.
The president named television
journalist Ivan Ona as his new
spokesman to replace Yolanda Torres,
who resigned last week citing
personal reasons.
"Ivan Ona is going to establish
communication so the truth is
told in certain media outlets
that sometimes twist the truth,"
Gutierrez, a 47-year-old retired
army colonel, said.
Gutierrez has had a rocky relationship
with the media in Ecuador since
last year, when he accused them
of acting as puppets for powerful
politicians who want to see his
government fail so they can regain
power.
Gutierrez, who had no political
experience before taking office,
beat mainstream politicians in
a 2002 election for the presidency.
But they continue to dominate
Congress.
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news
spotlight: Ecuador
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ENVIRONMENTAL
NEWS:
Fishermen
Attack Galapagos Protesters
The Associated Press / September
22, 2004
QUITO,
Ecuador - A group of some 40
fishermen hurled rocks at park
rangers who have been blocking
the entrance to research stations
on the Galapagos Islands in
protest of the replacement of
their director.
Four park rangers were lightly
injured Tuesday before police,
sent earlier to guard the rangers,
launched tear gas canisters
to disperse the fishermen, park
spokesman Diego Anazco told
Channel 2 Television. A soldier
guards the scene of a roadside
bombing in central Baghdad.
The
fishermen support newly appointed
park director Fausto Cepeda,
who was named by President Lucio
Gutierrez's government to replace
biologist Edwin Naula on Sept.
13.
Environmental groups had given
Naula high marks for protecting
the archipelago's fragile ecosystem,
which inspired Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution.
After Naula's replacement was
announced some 300 rangers peacefully
occupied park research stations
and have since barred Cepeda
- and tourists - from entering.
Environmentalists and travel
agencies have criticized the
naming of Cepeda, who accompanied
the rock-throwing fishermen
on Tuesday, as an appeasement
to commercial fishermen who
oppose catch limits for lucrative
sea cucumbers.
Close relatives of sea urchins,
sea cucumbers are found in the
waters around the Galapagos
Islands and sold as delicacies
and aphrodisiacs in Asia.
During Tuesday's faceoff, Cepeda
called Environmental Minister
Fabian Valdivieso in Quito,
620 miles away on the Ecuadorean
mainland, to try to persuade
him to fly to the islands to
defuse the conflict.
Valdivieso has so far demanded
that the park rangers send a
delegation to meet with him
in the capital. The rangers
are also seeking longer-term
contracts to replace temporary
ones that last a few months.
Rosario Mejia, a representative
of Ecuador's travel agencies,
told reporters Tuesday that
tourists have been canceling
trips to the islands, Ecuador's
top travel destination, since
the rangers began their sit-in.
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