Ecuador's president warns indigenous community

[Zorro]

President Rafael Correa threatened unspecified consequences Tuesday for a fiercely independent indigenous community in Ecuador's Amazon that is harboring three political opponents who face prison for defaming him.

Correa angrily accused Sarayaku, whose 1,200 people belong to the country's biggest indigenous group, the Kichwa, of acting above the law. The remote community is famed among the indigenous in the Americas for successfully resisting oil drilling.

The president demanded that leaders of the community near the Pastaza river turn over congressman Clever Jimenez, his adviser Fernando Villavicencio and a prominent physician, Carlos Figueroa.

"Let's hope they reconsider this audacious and dangerous attitude," Correa told reporters. "Who decided that the Sarayaku community has moral supremacy over the rights of others?"

http://news.yahoo.com/ecuadors-president-warns-indigenous-community-234531141.html

Bad-mouth Rafe, go to jail. What a fine example of a progressive Latin American leader.

[Zorro]

1. And an update

Fugitives said to abandon Ecuador reservation

An Ecuadorean indigenous leader says three critics of President Rafael Correa who sought refuge in a fiercely independent Amazon community have departed the settlement rather than imperil it.

The three men — former national lawmaker Clever Jimenez, and aide and a doctor — were all convicted of criminally defaming Correa and sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 18 months. They exhausted their appeals last month.

Kichwa regional leader Nelson Calapucha tells The Associated Press that the three departed Sarayaku on Wednesday night. He said he didn't know their whereabouts and wouldn't reveal them if he did.

http://news.yahoo.com/fugitives-said-abandon-ecuador-reservation-194750281.html

[Bacchus4.0]

2. criminally defaming Correa? that is why the government is threatening the tribem for

harboring people who called Rafa a bad name (probably accurate too)