Ecuador Picks Itself Up After Earthquake and Economic Tremors

On one afternoon in May, Ecuador's Washington Embassy had the appearance of an office in the throes of a major move. Corridors and hallways were stacked high with big boxes seemingly waiting to be trucked away. Which was the case, but the different black markings scrawled on the boxes offered a further clue: "zapatos," which is Spanish for shoes, "mantas" (blankets) and "ropa" (clothes). Propped up in one corner were dozens of crutches, tied in bundles. The contents of the boxes were destined for the survivors of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador's coast on April 16. In response to the embassy's relief appeal, clothes and food had poured in, Ecuador's Ambassador Francisco Borja Cevallos told Diplomatic Connections in a recent interview; one big container had already been filled and dispatched, and a second was due to be shipped later in the same month.

Aside from its tragic human consequences, the earthquake was an economic setback for Ecuador in the form of lost tourist revenue, damage to businesses and the grim prospect of massive reconstruction costs at a time when the tumbling price of oil had resulted in a seven percent drop in the country's GDP in 2015. But Ambassador Borja said he was optimistic that Ecuador would recover, pointing out that austerity measures had significantly slowed the precipitous economic slide and the major infrastructure improvements undertaken in the commodity boom years, plus other incentives, made the country attractive to new investment.

The political landscape remains somewhat blurred, however, with elections next year in which Rafael Correa, Ecuador's populist two-term president (since 2007), has said he will not run again leaving an open field. But constitutional changes ending term limits on the presidency and other measures boosting the presidential power were going ahead. The ambassador raised the possibility that Correa could run again at some time in the future. Ambassador Borja, 67, a former journalist, was Ecuador's ambassador to Chile for seven years before being appointed minister of culture in 2014, a post he held until coming to Washington in May 2015.

Diplomatic Connections: How much damage was done by the recent earthquake?
Ambassador Borja: Nearly 700 people died, 30,000 people were left homeless and many businesses were destroyed. The stricken area is the most important in the Ecuador fishing industry. The earthquake destroyed about 75 percent of the shrimp industry, and the coffee, chocolate and cocoa industries as well. Our president [Rafael Correa] has established a recovery fund of about $3.5 billion dollars.

Diplomatic Connections: I understand that the embassy is a collecting point for humanitarian aid.
Ambassador Borja: We issued appeals for help in social media and the response has been huge, not just from Ecuadorians in the United States, but from other Latin American people and from Americans. We've already sent one container with about 35 tons of water, food, clothes and sleeping bags. For the past few weeks, embassy staff and volunteers have been here until 9 p.m., weekends included, sorting gifts and packing them in boxes as contributions kept coming in.

Diplomatic Connections: Is the search for victims continuing?
Ambassador Borja: No. The first step was to rescue survivors and recover the dead. The second was to deliver enough food and medicine to the people who had lost their homes. Our second container will probably be the last from Washington. Now we're initiating reconstruction plans for homes and businesses and to help the people to start their lives again. About 12,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. So now we're encouraging people who want to help to donate money and have opened two accounts, one at Citibank and the other at Bank of America.

Diplomatic Connections: Was there any damage to historic sites?
Ambassador Borja: Yes. We don't yet have an inventory of the damages. The evaluation is going on as we speak, but we know there was damage. This was an area where ancient indigenous cultures have existed for thousands of years so there are archeological sites and also museums.

Diplomatic Connections: Has Ecuador ever had an earthquake on this scale in recent history?
Ambassador Borja: The last big earthquake was in 1949, and it completely destroyed a small town called Pelileo, which disappeared. Since then we've only had small tremors, nothing like this one.

Diplomatic Connections: What was the impact of the most recent earthquake on tourism to Ecuador?
Ambassador Borja: It did have an effect at first because the coast is a tourist area, with beautiful beaches and friendly people. Now we're telling people that the best way to support Ecuador is to visit it. But, of course, we also have the highlands, with completely different people and different food, and the Amazonic jungle on the other side of the country.

Diplomatic Connections: Were the Galapagos Islands affected?
Ambassador Borja: No, Galapagos is in the north, about two hours' flight from Guayaquil.

Diplomatic Connections: Was there political fallout from the disaster?
Ambassador Borja: I don't think so. I think the country has been united in coping with the tragedy. But we're in an electoral year, so, of course, anything can be used for that purpose by some people. But I will say that there were very few people who tried to introduce politics into the situation. The nation rallied to help the homeless.

Diplomatic Connections: Earlier in the millennium, Latin American countries, with a few exceptions, showed promise in developing democratic systems, building their economies and starting to address their enormous social problems. Seen from Ecuador's perspective, where does that evolution stand now?
Ambassador Borja: The last decade was a Latin American decade, mainly because of the high prices of the commodities that Latin America exports. With the drop in commodity prices across the board, that situation is finished. We cannot rely any more on that high income. The difference is how the respective countries invested those funds. In Ecuador, we felt it was important to improve infrastructure and education. These were the main challenges we took care of in the last eight to nine years. We have now a great infrastructure, putting the country in a situation to receive investment – brand new roads, construction of eight or nine hydroelectric plants, a new airport in [the capital] Quito. The other priority was education. We created four new universities, one devoted to the arts, another to train teachers, one for hi-tech and one for biology in the middle of the jungle to study the rainforest. We now send 10,000 young Ecuadorian students on scholarships to universities around the world, including the United States. They have to return to Ecuador after finishing their studies for double the time that they were outside it.

Diplomatic Connections: How many Ecuadorians and people of Ecuadorian descent live in the U.S.?
Ambassador Borja: It's a very important presence. We don't have exact numbers, but it's about 1.2 million, more than half of them in the area of New Jersey and New York.

Diplomatic Connections: The obvious follow-on, of course, is where does Ecuador stand on the immigration debate in this country, and how to confront the problem of illegal immigrants?
Ambassador Borja: We prefer to call them undocumented or irregular, rather than illegal. Of course, we are opposed to risky emigration as happens now through Mexico; Ecuador favors legal, organized, regular emigration. There is naturally a lot of interest in President Obama's immigration reform proposals, legalizing all those people who have no documents is in everybody's interest, giving them the right to work – and the obligation to pay taxes. But it's not an issue that we can decide. We hope that the United States can find the best way to organize, to regularize, the people that are already in the country.

Diplomatic Connections: Is there a unified approach on this issue to the United States by Latin American and Central American governments?
Ambassador Borja: Immigration would be an important issue to discuss with the U.S. as a continent, but it doesn't happen that way yet. Perhaps it could be done through UNASUR [Union of South American Nations] or the CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States]. I'm in favor of that dialogue, and it would be easier with CELAC. That's why CELAC was created, after all, to discuss with the United States, with Europe, with Asia as a whole continent.

Diplomatic Connections: But so far this united front is not functioning.
Ambassador Borja: But I think we will find common ground. We all have many of the same problems, after all.

Diplomatic Connections: Meanwhile, how would you characterize bi-lateral relations with the United States?
Ambassador Borja: We respect the U.S. and the U.S. respects us. We always say that we don't always agree with the international point of view of the United States government, and the United States government doesn't always agree with our policies. But we can talk, and it's friendly. That's how we manage the relationship, frankly and directly, and I think that's working. I'm very happy with the improvements.

Diplomatic Connections: Isn't one of the existing problems the continued asylum of Julian Assange, the leading perpetrator of Wikileaks, in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has now been for four years?
Ambassador Borja: That's not really an issue with the United States. That's more a problem with the United Kingdom and Sweden. I can tell you that during the year I have been here, this issue has not been brought up by any U.S. official. It's something that's being discussed between Ecuador, the United Kingdom and Sweden. My government has said that Assange can stay there as long as he wants to stay.

Diplomatic Connections: Suppose Assange had sought asylum in this embassy, here in Washington, what do you think would have happened?
Ambassador Borja: Our government would have taken the same position, because it's a question of principle.

Diplomatic Connections: And what about reports some while back that the surveillance whistle blower Edward Snowden would also be granted asylum in Ecuador.
Ambassador Borja: That was a complicated story at one moment, but it had a satisfactory solution. Everything happened so fast, but Ecuador never offered him asylum.

Diplomatic Connections: What foreign policy differences would Ecuador have with the United States?
Ambassador Borja: Sometimes we don't agree with reports about our country, and sometimes we disagree on U.S. actions, such as in Iraq and Libya. We don't support the idea of conflict in other territories.

Diplomatic Connections: Human rights?
Ambassador Borja: We have no problems over human rights.

Diplomatic Connections: There are reports that press freedom has been curtailed, and is likely to be tightened even more. President Correa, in his weekly broadcasts, has been quoted as using strong language in criticizing the press.
Ambassador Borja: That's a complicated issue. Media is free in Ecuador. Recently, the U.S. Ambassador [Todd] Chapman said as much. We have a communications law. As far as I can see, the media say whatever they want to say. There have been suits against journalists but they were resolved. Nobody is in jail, and nobody is punished. Still that is one of the issues on which we have differences [with the U.S.]. There is a difference in point of view.

Diplomatic Connections: For some years there was a debate in your country over whether Ecuador would extend exploration into the Yasuni Natural Park, which is part of the Ecuadorian rainforest. What is the current situation?
Ambassador Borja: There is exploration going on, and probably in a few months we will have the first oil coming from that field. But it involves only about 0.1 percent of the area – and using the best modern technology to minimize the risk of damage to the park. There are, of course, protests, and we respect that point of view.

Diplomatic Connections: Ecuador's petroleum-driven economy has enjoyed a long period of economic growth and low unemployment. How is Ecuador confronting the present decline in oil and commodity prices?
Ambassador Borja: Actually, the economy has received two strong hits. One is the decline in oil prices, and the other is the effect on our currency, the U.S. dollar, of our neighbor countries devaluing their own currencies, making our exports less competitive than they were before. In 2015, the decline in oil revenue cost us $7 billion, which was about seven percent of our GDP, which was about $100 billion. So we're not living in an easy time, and it's a difficult situation for our economy. We've cut our budget six points of the GDP [$6.2 billion], the highest cut in all of Latin America. We're looking for ways to transform our energy matrix and our productive matrix in a search for new sources of income. We're looking for new investment, both foreign and local. The country is set up for investors, not only because of the new infrastructure, but also because we have the dollar as our local currency. A few months ago, we approved a law making possible joint ventures between the public and private sectors.

Diplomatic Connections: Is President Correa going to run for a fourth term?
Ambassador Borja: He is not. He could run in the election after that in 2021, but this term is his last consecutive term according to the constitution. So who is going to be the next president? There are a few candidates, the former vice president and the current vice president have been mentioned. President Correa will probably go back to teaching, that's what he said, not necessarily in Ecuador. His wife is Belgian, so it could be abroad.

Diplomatic Connections: When you look at today's Latin American landscape, what lessons do you think Ecuadorians should take away from the increasingly serious situation in Venezuela, another oil-producing country?
Ambassador Borja: An ambassador is not supposed to express an opinion on how another country is doing, good or bad. But what I can say is that Ecuador has its own approach. We believe in a free-market economy in which the private sector and the public sector have different responsibilities; we believe that the public sector should be responsible for education, everything else is the private sector's responsibility, and we don't believe in state intervention.

Diplomatic Connections: Where do you see your country in ten years' time?
Ambassador Borja: I am very positive about it. I think we are facing a very difficult moment, but at the same time our economy has doubled in GDP from eight years ago – from $15 billion to more than $100 billion. Our infrastructure is one of the best in Latin America. I think the country will probably recover from this critical moment. If we succeed in changing the productive matrix, we should recover. Politically, the future is harder to predict. Probably, the government candidate will win the coming election, but perhaps not. And after that, who can tell? In every country, but more in Latin America, change is always waiting around the corner.

Diplomatic Connections: Border problems? Colombia?
Ambassador Borja: As the Colombian negotiations continue and a peace agreement is reached, we have to be aware that some of the groups who, for some reason, are not included in the peace agreement may become a danger for us. They might try to operate from our own border areas. A significant part of our budget goes to securing our border. But that's been a long problem.

Diplomatic Connections: How different is it being ambassador in Washington than in another capital?
Ambassador Borja: Washington is the biggest economy in the world, our main commercial partner and that makes a difference; but in other respects there's not much difference. My duties are more or less the same.