Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program Thursday, criticizing the United States for imposing sanctions. "The nuclear question is a political excuse. They know that Iran is not looking to make atomic bombs. Iran is not as imprudent as they are," Ahmadinejad said. "We do not believe in making atomic bombs. We believe that goes against human morality." Speaking to reporters in Quito, Ecuador, after a day of meetings with the South...

“During the tour that begins the second week of January, president Ahmadinejad will first visit Caracas to meet with President Hugo Chavez and later to Nicaragua for the taking office ceremony of President Daniel Ortega, who was recently re-elected for a second term”, said Mohamad Reza Forghani, foreign affairs director from the presidential office. In Cuba and Ecuador the Iranian president will holds talks with the leaders of both countries, adds the report. Iran in recent years...

President Rafael Correa Delgado Carondelet Palace Quito, Ecuador Dear President Correa, Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that defends freedom of expression, recently referred to the mounting tension between you and some of the privately-owned media, tension that was exacerbated by the daily ’s prosecution at your request. We fear that this polarization could affect not only editorial pluralism but also the needed debate about media and communication in...

Ecuador on Tuesday told Washington's envoy Heather Hodges to leave the Andean country over diplomatic cables reporting alleged police corruption that were released by WikiLeaks. "The serious thing is that WikiLeaks said they (the U.S. embassy) have informants in the police and armed forces... This is espionage," Correa said in a radio interview, adding the embassy had a duty to inform his government if it had evidence of a crime, but had not done so. Correa is an ally of left-wing...

Last October, Ambassador Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere during the George W. Bush Administration, exposed Hugo Chávez's efforts to aid and abet Iran's illegal nuclear weapons program, including its efforts to obtain strategic minerals such as uranium and to evade international sanctions. Documentary evidence now suggests that Hugo Chavez's junior partner in Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is apparently forging his own dangerous alliance with the...

Colombia has sent a copy of a video, in which a leftist rebel says the guerrillas supported the presidential campaign of Ecuadorean leader Rafael Correa, to the OAS and Interpol, the government said on Sunday. Correa says the video is a setup and has denied receiving any funds from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Friday's release of the video, in which a top rebel chief says the FARC gave money to Correa's campaign, has heightened tensions between the the Andean...

The Government of Ecuador announced today that studies the possibility that the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, visit Ecuador in early 2011. Abbas will attend the transfer of power in Brazil, January 1, and, according to Deputy Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Kintto Lucas, it is likely that the week is happening at that time “come to Ecuador” to thank the Quito recent recognition of a Palestinian state. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da...

President Rafael Correa should drop a proposed decree that would unjustifiably impose government control over Ecuador’s nongovernmental organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The powers it would grant would undermine the groups’ independence and compromise their role as a civil society check on government, Human Rights Watch said. In early December 2010, the Correa administration published a proposed presidential decree that would grant the government far-reaching powers to...

Ecuadorean army commander General Ernesto Gonzalez denounces the recruitment of Ecuadorean minors into the ranks of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group, reports Caracol. Gonzalez said there have been several complaints of Ecuadorean children being taken across the border to join the rebel army. Four children, aged from 14 to 17, are reported missing from a border town and may have been on the Colombian side during a recent raid on a FARC camp close to the border. Earlier this week, there was...

"But, forget it. I won't relent. If something happens to me, remember my infinite love for my country, and to my family I say that I will love them anywhere I end up." A video by CNN affiliate Ecuavisa later showed a defiant Correa standing at an upper floor window, shouting to a crowd of supporters who had gathered outside the hospital, "If they want me, here I am," and then ripping his necktie loose. Later, he told a television station by telephone from the hospital...