The decade of strained relations between the United States and Ecuador ends with the visit of Pence to Quito

QUITO, ECUADOR

The United States and Ecuador abandoned a decade of tense relations with the visit of Vice President Mike Pence, who on Thursday asked Quito to "isolate" The Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro

"Our nations have spent ten pretty difficult years, where our people were always close but our governments separated," said Pence after a two-hour meeting privately with the president Lenin Moreno at Carondelet Palace

At the same time, the president declared "a new way of relating to both nations", after thorny episodes took place during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) for the first time. expulsion of an American ambassador and retirement from a military base from where Washington was conducting anti-drug operations.

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Pence, who urged the OAS to declare illegitimate the recent reelection of Maduro until 2025, insisted in Quito on the need to "restore democracy" in Venezuela.

"We respectfully urge Ecuador, all our allies in the region, to take steps to further isolate the Maduro regime," said Mr. Pence.

However, Moreno maintained that dialogue and mediation are the way "to find a peaceful and democratic solution" to the crisis for which 150,000 Venezuelans emigrated to Ecuador, according to the president

The asylum that the Ecuador has been offering since 2012 at its London embassy to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been commented publicly by Pence despite the fact that ten opposition senators in the United States have asked Wednesday to discuss Question with Moreno

"It is imperative that I raise the concerns of the East.I have joined President Moreno on the continued support of Ecuador to Mr. Assange while WikiLeaks continues to undermine democratic processes in the world, "they said in a letter signed by Robert Menéndez, the highest Democrat of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The letter underlined the interference of WikiLeaks in the US presidential elections in 2016, as well as in the French in 2017 and in the Spanish referendum of the same year on the independence of Catalonia.

Assange, who He fled to the Ecuadorian Legation in London to avoid being delivered to Sweden for alleged sexual crimes, he is afraid to leave the embassy, ​​to be arrested and extradited to the United States for broadcasting thousands of official secrets of this country. he was in Brazil, offered help to Ecuador to deal with security threats and pledged to the delivery of 1.5 million dollars for the fight The agreements said Moreno, will be used to fight drug trafficking and violence, especially on the border with Colombia, hit by unusual attacks on the police and where an Ecuadorian journalistic team was kidnapped last March and murdered in September. captivity by dissident rebels of the FARC.

After a decade in which Correa refused to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA), Ecuador intends to promote

Moreno asked Pence to review the withdrawal of duties on Ecuadorian products such as flowers and tuna.

In 2017, the country exported US $ 6,057 million (out of a total of US $ 19,123 million) and according to the Central Bank, the imports of this nation reached 4,532 million (out of 20,010 million ).

After meeting Moreno, Pence left for Guatemala. to dialogue with the leaders of this country, Honduras and El Salvador on the migration crisis on the southern border of the United States.