QUITO, Ecuador – President Rafael Correa is suing a local newspaper for libel over an editorial that said he was leading the politically unstable nation with “mobs, rocks and clubs.”
Correa said the La Hora editorial was “unfounded” and offended “the dignity of the country's foremost authority.” But he added he would drop the lawsuit if the paper's president, Francisco Vivanco, who is named in the legal action, publicly apologizes.
The Quito newspaper vowed to fight the lawsuit and said in a printed statement Friday that the editorial was based on “respect for all of the state's duties.”
The editorial was published during a legal crisis in March over Correa's push for a referendum on whether to draw up a new constitution. There were 57 lawmakers fired in the legal standoff, and the editorial referred to Correa's decision to send police to stop the legislators from entering the congressional chamber.
The referendum was overwhelming approved in April.
Vivanco faces up to six months in prison if he is found guilty. There is no fine attached to the charge, but Correa can seek damages through a civil suit.
Correa, Ecuador's eighth president in a decade, has called some sectors of the Ecuadorean media a “news mafia.”
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