Worried About Freedom? Worry About Ecuador

img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-99094" title="Jail" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/jail.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="260" /><

I woke up today to see that freedom of speech died in my country, Ecuador.  It is an odd sensation to suddenly realize that you don’t have the liberty to say and write what you think but instead you have to please those in power.  Yesterday, the journalist Emilio Palacio was sentenced to 3 years in prison for an editorial piece he wrote calling President Rafael Correa a dictator.  Furthermore, the directors of the paper, El Universo, were sentenced to 3 years in prison and to pay the president the absurd amount of 40 million dollars in reparations.  The judge based his ruling on an article of the criminal code that condemns defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.

What is really interesting about this case is that the directors of El Universo and Palacio allowed the president to publish a rectification and Palacio even quit his job at the newspaper.  But that wasn’t enough for the voracious, ambitious Correa: he wanted to set a precedent that no one in the country can oppose his views unless you want to risk your freedom and patrimony.  Now Correa has what he wanted, a silent opposition, a muzzled press, and a country fearing his power.

The road to serfdom (as Hayek would call it) is long and treacherous.  During Correa’s everlasting 5 year-old mandate, journalists that have criticized him have been fired from their jobs, opinion leaders have been sued and insulted, and anybody with a voice has been silenced.  Democracy and freedom have died in Ecuador and this is a miserable day for those of us who believe that in these two words lies a bright future.

As I am finishing this piece, a feeling of fear is running through my body - giving me chills rather than confidence.  Fear of being jailed and asked by an obedient justice system to pay a sum that I would never have in my life and that not a single Ecuadorian can picture in his or her mind.

I want to finish this article by quoting what El Universo printed in its front page today:

“... when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you, when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed." - Ayn Rand