 | |
 China |  Ecuador |
|---|---|
Although China's economic influence is growing rapidly throughout Latin America, [1] it is perhaps most evident in Ecuador where it enjoys a near-monopoly of crude exports. [2] Critics of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa say that the Chinese influence has gone too far and threatens national sovereignty while indigenous peoples' rights and biodiversity could be severely harmed because of Ecuador's oil commitments to China. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Like many other Latin American nations, early contact between Ecuador and China consisted of the flow of Chinese migrants into the nation during the late nineteenth century. Many of these migrants, who were primarily from the Guangdong province, were fleeing the political and economic strife which had destabilized China during that time. [7] Although these individuals had originally set out to resettle in Peru, Chinese communities began to emerge in the Guayas Province of Ecuador around 1880. [8] These immigrants often worked agricultural, fishing, or mining jobs, while some did start restaurants and businesses, and eventually assimilated into Ecuadorian culture. This process was helped by Ecuadorian social organizations such as the China Beneficence, which effectively aided Chinese immigrants in finding employment and supplied social support. Remnants of these organizations still exist for the purpose of both aiding Chinese Ecuadorians and forging business connections between Ecuadorian professionals and their Chinese counterparts. [7] Today, the Chinese-Ecuadorian community is rather small due to the successful assimilation measures taken by the Ecuadorian government, and is made up of about 2,500 people. [9] Notable Ecuadorians of Chinese descent include Li Jian (footballer, born 1989) and businessman Carlos Moncayo.[ citation needed ]
While official diplomatic relations between Ecuador and the People's Republic of China were not opened until 1980, Ecuadorian leaders had been demonstrating interest in China since the late 1960s. [10] During this time, the Ecuadorian government abstained from voting on a resolution which blocked the PRC from holding a seat on the United Nations. [11] In the early 1970s, during the presidency of José María Velasco Ibarra, China and Ecuador began to build a commercial relationship, with each nation establishing an office of commerce in the other country. [7] This early progress was interrupted by a series of military coups which destabilized Ecuador from 1972 to 1979. [12] The resulting military governments were unsympathetic to the Chinese regime, thus causing the lack of notable development of Sino-Ecuadorian relations during this period. [7] Following the election of Jaime Roldós Aguilera in 1979 and the re-establishment of civilian rule in Ecuador, official diplomatic relations were established in 1980. Once relations were established, several Ecuadorian heads of state visited China in the late 20th century. The first trip was made by president Oswaldo Hurtado in 1984, followed by a 10-year hiatus, which was broken by president Sixto Durán Ballén in 1994, and then again by Jamil Mahuad in 1999. [13] While many Ecuadorian executives visited China, no Chinese leader reciprocated until CCP general secretary Xi Jinping visited Ecuador in 2016. [2]
China's oil consumption doubled between 2000 and 2010, and is likely to surpass the United States by 2019. China has been searching outside its national borders to find a solution for its rising energy needs; currently more than half of its oil consumption comes from imports. [14] China already controls growing volumes of oil from Venezuela, where it has negotiated at least $43 billion in loans; from Russia, where the amount may exceed $55 billion; and Brazil, with at least $10 billion. In Angola, the deals total around $13 billion. [3]
Shortly after taking office in 2007, President Rafael Correa declared a large chunk of Ecuador's $3.2 billion in foreign debt “illegitimate” and “odious,” and the country defaulted the next year. With Ecuador considered a pariah in credit markets and struggling keep its economy solvent, PetroChina, the Chinese oil and gas company and the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), offered a lifeline in July 2009, lending $1 billion to the Correa administration. The “pre-finance” deal was to be repaid over 2 years and carried a 7.25 percent interest rate. [3] [14] Part of the loan agreement stipulated that PetroEcuador, Ecuador's state oil company, sell Amazonian crude to PetroChina. [14] Ecuador committed 96,000 barrels per day to Chinese firms. [3]
Since 2008 Ecuador has borrowed over $11 billion from China, many used for infrastructure, oil, mining and energy projects. [15] [16] In 2010, the China Export-Import Bank provided a loan of $1.7 billion to the Ecuadorian government for the Coca-Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam and $570 million for the Sopladora hydroelectric dam, and the Chinese Development Bank loaned PetroEcuador $1 billion. [16] [17] [18] In 2011, PetroChina paid a $1 billion down payment on oil to PetroEcuador. The Chinese Development Bank gave an additional $2 billion loan to the Ecuadorian government, 70% of which was designated for the Ecuadorian government's discretion and 30% of which was for oil. [19] Many of the loans that have followed have been in the $1–2 billion range, with interest rates of between 6% and 8%, and demand payment in barrels of crude oil through 2024. [14] [2]
In 2013, Chinese money helped cover as much as 61% of the government's financing needs. In exchange, China has claimed nearly 90% of the country's oil shipments over the next few years, most of which it then trades around the world and especially in the United States [20] A new credit line is under negotiation since mid 2014, which would be in addition to $9 billion in financing that Ecuador is seeking from China for the construction of a refinery that will process 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day, as well as a $2 billion loan signed with state oil company Sinopec. Including the credit line, these loans from China are equivalent to about 13.6% of Ecuador's GDP as of 2013. [20] The consequent risk is that Ecuador loses it sovereignty, and when it is forced to drill for oil in its natural and ethnic reserves to repay its debts to China, indigenous peoples' rights are violated and some of the most biodiverse areas in the world are harmed. Critics of the current administration say Ecuador will resemble a wholly owned subsidiary of China, much like many solvency-challenged yet resource-rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa. [21]
President Correa has publicly complained about China's guarantee demands of the loans, calling it “attempts against the sovereignty of Ecuador”. [22] During these public denouncements however, Correa's administration was secretly signing a letter allowing PetroChina to seize assets from any oil companies operating in Ecuador in the event that Ecuador would not pay back its loans to China in full. [23]
Even more worrying is the “Four Party Agreement” from August 2010, signed by PetroEcuador, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Finance, PetroChina and the Chinese Development Bank. Article 15 of that contract has what Analytica Investments calls a “sovereignty immunity waiver” that allows China to seize many of Ecuador's assets if the country fails to repay the loans and requires Ecuador “to irrevocably and unconditionally [waive] any right... to assert any immunity from or in any proceedings... against it or its assets.” [24] [25] The clause excludes Ecuador's military equipment, embassies, consulates, natural resources that have not yet been extracted, its archives and cultural heritage, and any property that China would be unable to seize under Ecuadorian law. However, it is unclear what, if any, assets Ecuadorian law would exclude. The Account Management Agreement that PetroEcuador and the Chinese Development Bank signed on the same day has an identical clause. [26]
China has also tried to secure its loans by pushing for a massive expansion of Ecuador's oil frontier, especially in the central-south Amazon and Yasuní National Park, before and after the Yasuní-ITT Initiative failed. The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was the proposal by the government of Ecuador to refrain indefinitely from exploiting the oil reserves of the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field in the Yasuní National Park, in exchange for half of the value of the reserves, or $3.6 billion over 13 years from the international community. [27] The aim of the initiative was to conserve biodiversity, protect indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, and avoid the release of CO2 emissions. [28] The Yasuni-ITT Trust Fund was officially launched on 3 August 2010, but in July 2013 it was concluded that economic results were insufficient. President Correa disbanded the plan on August 15, 2013. [27]
Chinese companies Sipec and Andes Petroleum, which merged with Chinese conglomerate PetroOriental, were already operating in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon and Yasuní National Park. Shortly after the Yasuní-ITT Initiative failed, Andes submitted bids on blocks 79 and 83 within the Yasuní National Park. These blocks are home of the Sápara, of whom there are an estimated 200 left in Ecuador and who UNESCO recognised as a cultural patrimony. Block 79 is also home to the Kichwa and Block 83 to the Kichwa and Shiwiar in addition to the Sápara. [14]
In addition, the Yasuní National Park, including the ITT blocks, is globally outstanding for its exceptional biological richness across taxonomic groups (amphibians, birds, mammals, plants, insects and fish). Of these, a considerable number is globally threatened, i.e., listed by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable. [29] These include 13 documented vertebrate species and an estimated 56 plant species; an additional 15 vertebrate species are Near Threatened. [4] Further oil development in Yasuní jeopardises these species that are already threatened on a global scale, as well as the park's remarkable species richness and its conservation values. [28] Several scientific studies have been conducted that demonstrate any new oil activities and road construction in Yasuní should be stopped immediately. [5] [6]
Yet according to media reports in the US and UK, in 2009, long before the Yasuní-ITT Initiative failed, Ecuador's ministry of economic policy gave a private presentation to President Correa's staff in which the ministry promised to “make the utmost effort to support PetroChina and Andes Petroleum in the exploration of the ITT”, disregarding consequences for indigenous peoples inhabiting this part of the park and impacts on biodiversity. [30] These claims are rejected by Ecuador, which claims that the documents upon which they were based, provided by an opposition politician in Ecuador, were doctored. [31] Ten days after Ecuador's decision to abandon the Yasuní-ITT Initiative the government announced that it had received another $1.2 billion loan from China. [14]
In 2012, China loaned Ecuador 240 million dollars for the purpose of overhauling the Ecuadorian security system. This system comprises 4,300 new surveillance cameras, drones, automated evidence processing systems, and increased manpower to manage each of these new technologies, which have been collectively dubbed the ECU 911 Integrated Security Service. [32] Much of this new hardware has been developed in Ecuador, but in laboratories designed and set up by China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), which is a state-owned company and a subsidiary of national defence contractor China Electronics Corporation (CEC). The CEC has also undertaken similar surveillance overhauls in Venezuela and Bolivia, and has also introduced technology to monitor the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. [33] The Ecuadorian government has highlighted the benefits of this extensive security system, which has been installed across the nation's 24 provinces. They argue that it has been able to decrease the response time for everyday emergencies such as life-threatening illness, [34] and have cited the system as a large factor in the dramatic drop in crime in Ecuador since its installation. [35] Some individuals have expressed concern about the nature and the pervasiveness of these technologies, however, and how they may be used to create an Ecuadorian police state. [32] Many members of the international community have been closely observing the usage of similar systems in China, and have found that the facial recognition systems can locate a person of interest in around 7 minutes. [36] The recent employment of dubious surveillance and manipulation tactics by the Ecuadorian government [37] may validate these concerns, with some scholars going so far as to warn that similar systems can encourage authoritarian practices. [32]
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The country's capital and largest city is Quito.
The History of Ecuador covers human habitation in the region reaching back 8,000 years.
The economy of Ecuador is the eighth largest in Latin America and the 69th largest in the world by total GDP. Ecuador's economy is based on the export of oil, bananas, shrimp, gold, other primary agricultural products and money transfers from Ecuadorian emigrants employed abroad. In 2017, remittances constituted 2.7% of country's GDP. The total trade amounted to 42% of the Ecuador's GDP in 2017.
The Sápara, also known as Zápara or Záparo, are an indigenous people native to the Amazon rainforest along the border of Ecuador and Peru. They once occupied some 12,000 mi² between the Napo River and the Pastaza. Early in the 20th century, there were some 200,000 Zapara. From the year 2009 on the Ecuadorian Zápara call themselves Sápara. The official name is Nación Sápara del Ecuador (NASE). It means Sápara Nation of Ecuador. The president of this nation is Klever Ruiz. The Sápara Nation was officially registered by CONDENPE – the Council of Development of the nationalities and peoples of Ecuador – on September 16, 2009. The current name of the organisation is the result of a unification process of upriver and downriver communities. There was a conflict between these different groups about their authentic ethnic identity in the last years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. With this unification this conflict seems to be solved. CONDENPE confirms as well officially the legal status of autonomy or self-government of the Sápara Nation of Ecuador N.A.S.E. and confirms their territory between the rivers Pindoyacu, Conambo and Alto Corrientes in the province of Pastaza. It is confirmed as well that the head office of NASE is the city of Shell, Pastaza.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or, more commonly, CONAIE, is Ecuador's largest indigenous rights organization. The Ecuadorian Indian movement under the leadership of CONAIE is often cited as the best-organized and most influential Indigenous movement in Latin America.
Yasuni National Park is in Ecuador with an area of 9,823 km2 between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Napo, Pastaza, and Orellana Provinces in Amazonian Ecuador. The national park lies within the Napo moist forests ecoregion and is primarily rain forest. The park is about 250 km from Quito and was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989. It is within the claimed ancestral territory of the Huaorani indigenous people. Yasuni is also home to two uncontacted indigenous tribes, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane. Many indigenous people use the riverways within the park as a main mode of travel. Several waterways in the area are tributaries that lead into the Amazon River, including blackwater rivers high in tannins boasting vastly different floral composition than the main riverways. The spine-covered palm, Bactrisriparia, and aquatic plant Montrichardia linifera typically line the edges of these slow moving rivers, often referred to as Igapós.
The Tagaeri are an eastern Huaorani people living in Yasuni National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, named after one of their members, Tagae. Nearby Kichwa communities sometimes refer to them as Awashiri, or "high-ground people". They live a hunting and foraging lifestyle and have resisted outside contact, making them one of the so-called uncontacted peoples of the world. In addition to Tagaeri, the area is home to their kin, the Taromenane, another eastern Huaorani group.
EP Petroecuador is the national oil company of Ecuador. Ecuador who is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and, although it is the smallest member, the country produced 531,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 2019. The oil corporation is a significant part of the Ecuadorian economy. The petroleum industry has expanded to the production of refined commodities such as gasoline, liquefied petroleum, and jet fuel. The government of Ecuador is highly dependent on the revenues from the energy sector to support its budget and finance state projects.
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Correa is a democratic socialist and his administration focused on the implementation of left-wing policies. Internationally, he served as president pro tempore of the UNASUR.
Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garcés is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 46th president of Ecuador, from 2017 to 2021. Moreno was vice president from 2007 to 2013, serving under President Rafael Correa.
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996, and based in Oakland, California, it works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. It partners with indigenous and environmental organizations in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.
Ecuador is a country in South America.
The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was a project that attempted to keep over a billion barrels of oil in the ground under the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The initiative was launched in 2007 by Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and offered a perpetual suspension of oil extraction from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil field (ITT) in return for $3.6 billion from the international community.
The foreign policy of the Rafael Correa administration (2007-2017) was the policy initiatives towards other states by the former President of Ecuador, as differed to past, or future, Ecuadorian foreign policy. Correa's foreign policy was somewhat similar to that of the other leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) such as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. This entailed a rough division between relations with other states of the Americas and the rest of the world.
With the adoption of a new constitution in 2008 under president Rafael Correa, Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine a set of codified Rights of Nature and to inform a more clarified content to those rights. Articles 10 and 71–74 of the Ecuadorian Constitution recognize the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish, give people the authority to petition on the behalf of nature, and requires the government to remedy violations of these rights.
Ecuador–Mexico relations are the diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico. Both nations are members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Latin American Integration Association, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
Corruption in Ecuador is a serious problem. In 2014, the U.S. Department of State cited Ecuador's corruption as a key human-rights problem. According to Freedom House, "Ecuador has long been racked by corruption", and the weak judicial oversight and investigative resources perpetuate a culture of impunity.
Alicia Cawiya is the vice-president of the Huaorani Nation of Ecuador and one of the leaders of the movement against oil exploitation in her region. In 2013, she made a speech in Ecuador's parliament to protect the Amazon basin from oil companies.
Energy policy in Ecuador is driven by its need for energy security as a developing country as well as its conservation efforts. Despite past and ongoing attempts to take charge in energy sustainability, oil production and exportation still supports its small $5,853 GDP/capita economy at an average of 549,000 barrels/day in 2016. The push and pull between energy independence/nationalism and appeasement of conservationist groups has been evident in the country’s shifting stance on renewable energies and fossil fuels.
The 2019 Ecuadorian protests were a series of protests and riots against austerity measures including the cancellation of fuel subsidies, adopted by President of Ecuador Lenín Moreno and his administration. Organized protests ceased after indigenous groups and the Ecuadorian government reached a deal to reverse the austerity measures, beginning a collaboration on how to combat overspending and public debt.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)| Americas |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | ||
| Europe | ||
| Diplomatic missions | ||
