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Andean Group - February 2016 (ISSN 1741-4466)

ECUADOR POLITICS & SECURITY: Correa and military face off over US$33.7m

President Rafael Correa is locked in a tug of war with the military which is causing serious institutional tension. The origins of the dispute date back to 2010 when the armed forces sold some 220 hectares of land located in the coastal city of Guayaquil to the environment ministry for US$41m to be converted into a recreational park. Last November, the attorney general’s office announced that the land was sold at a vastly inflated price and that Guayaquil’s municipal authorities had valued it at just US$7.3m. It demanded that the armed forces’ social security institute (Issfa) return the difference. When the high command assembled to issue a pronunciamiento refusing, an irate Correa dismissed them en masse. Cue protest marches and fresh talk in government circles, started by Correa, of a repeat of events of 30 September 2010, a police mutiny denounced by Correa as an attempted coup.

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