Ecuador expels the World Bank Country Director

vs.



read the following carefully and, buried amidst all the rhetoric, see if you can spot the real reason why this might have happened...

The expulsion of the World Bank's representative from Ecuador is another political statement from President Rafael Correa, and the bank is still analyzing how to tackle the situation, one of its senior directors said.

[...]

"This is all part of Correa's political symbolism," said [Executive Director Otaviano Canuto], who overseas nine Latin American countries including Brazil and Ecuador.

"But the bank's intention, I can assure you, is to remain engaged as much as possible in Ecuador to fulfill its mission, which is reduce poverty," he said in Cambridge, where he was attending an MIT conference.

Ecuadorean Economy Minister Ricardo Patino, explaining the expulsion, said on Friday the World Bank had infringed on the country's sovereignty by not providing a satisfactory explanation for suspending a $100 million loan when Correa was economy minister in 2005.

found it yet...? good, cuz it hasn't been given yet...

Patino also said Ecuador wants to reduce its financial ties with the bank "to the minimum."

Canuto said the $100 million loan had been promised to Ecuador as part of a program to support a specific government policy regarding the use of oil revenues to pay foreign debt. When the government decided to change that policy, the program automatically expired, he said.

got it now...? of COURSE you do... "the use of oil revenues to pay foreign debt..."

in those few words you have the perfect summation of how the united states and the g7, working through institutions like the world bank and the imf keep countries like ecuador impoverished... we'll loan you the money, we'll pretty much tell you how you can spend it, and we'll also tell you where you have to get the money to pay us back... and because payback is tied to oil revenues, you have no choice but to continue to develop your oil resources, which most likely means granting exploration and drilling concessions to the world's oil giants... cool, huh...? thought you'd like it...

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