Rafael Correa: "They have destroyed my vital project"

Rafael Correa (Guayaquil, 57 years old) arrives with his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, protecting himself from the light after two weeks of quarantine at his home in Leuven (Belgium) - his wife's country, where he has lived for three years. before his judicial ordeal began.

Paris switched to the red zone when he was visiting his son, and when he returned he has seen since his confinement how the courts of his country issued a ruling that condemns him to eight years in prison and prevents him from running for vice-presidency in the February elections, as intended, by disqualifying him from holding public office in a case of bribery.

“We expected it.

There are those who believe in miracles, I am a believer, but it has been a while since I stopped believing in them, "he says.

He has taken a train to Brussels to see his lawyer, Christophe Marchand, also a lawyer for other famous defendants such as Julian Assange or the Catalan pro-independence fled in Belgium.

You just gave him good news.

He has told him that it is impossible for him to be extradited to his country.

But that does not appease the fury with which he defends himself.

“I have never received or allowed a bribe.

They have submitted manipulated files.

Our reports are supported by the National Electoral Council, but they did not accept them as evidence.

Behind it is the Government and all the haters ”, he repeats sitting on a terrace next to the community institutions.

The former Ecuadorian president is convinced that the courts have taken an unprecedented rush to address his case to prevent him from running as a candidate and obtain immunity, but he does not give up, and sees it still possible that his sentence will be invalidated if Andrés Arauz, the leader of the Union for Hope coalition, with whom he hoped to form the electoral duo.

“We have to wait for the political situation to change, because this is political.

When the political and media pressure ceases, there will be judges who will reverse it.

Now it is not enough that there are some honest, they have to be heroic, "he says, denying that he is going to ask the Executive to violate the separation of powers to influence in their favor.

The justice believes that there was a network of company payments to the PAÍS Alliance party in exchange for public contracts.

Correa claims to be on the sidelines of all that.

“A golden rule is to protect the president or candidate from all financial issues to avoid these abuses.

I've never gotten into financial matters, ”he explains.

Correa's feelings towards his successor, Lenín Moreno, whom he himself raised on his way to power, are disdainful.

“With the changes that I made, the country became polarized, that's why we chose him, because of his affable temperament.

We thought it was going to be a sign of union, but the country has never been so disunited ”.

What would you say if you had it in front of you?

“Nothing, it only deserves contempt.

If he loses power, he will have nowhere to hide, "he says, and recites by heart the 11 digits of the alleged secret account that Correa attributes to Moreno in Panama.

When he refers to the situation in his country, he speaks like the architect who has just seen the building he built collapse.

“They have destroyed my vital project.

The next government is not going to receive a country, it is going to receive ruins ”.

And he starts to enumerate the list of grievances: "The emblematic universities, the millennium schools, hospitals, the largest scholarship program in Latin America that has not paid for months ... I have a very great pain in my soul."

Correa believes that the agreement reached by Quito to receive a loan of 6.5 billion dollars (5.4 billion euros) alleviates the need for short-term liquidity, but he fears its consequences.

"It hides something terrible, the same austerity policies that have not allowed Greece to recover after 10 years, structural adjustments, privatizations, reduction of the State despite the fact that this is the largest generator of foreign currency from oil."

The Guayaquil leader mocks the accusations that point him out as the instigator of the protests against President Moreno, although he believes that, were it not for the pandemic, the mobilizations would have ousted him from power.

Around his figure there is a certain cult of the leader, but he denies the term

as an ideology.

"We are the modern and progressive left of the school of socialism of the XXI century, without dogmas, under construction."

This definition includes the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández;

the Mexican López Obrador;

and Nicolás Maduro.

Correa exempts the Bolivarian leader from any guilt in the descent into hell suffered by the country, with more than six million displaced.

“It has a war economy, it cannot sell its oil.

Block it to Ecuador, let's see how many months it lasts ”.

Venezuela Advisor

The sentence has not only cost him politically.

Correa will no longer receive a lifetime pension of more than $ 4,000 per month.

And he says he can move by bicycle because he cannot afford a car.

He calculates having spent about 200,000 euros in two years to defend himself against the serious crimes he is charged with.

Although he has income as a presenter for the Russia Today channel - for which he has interviewed personalities such as Carles Puigdemont or Evo Morales.

And as a consultant for Maduro's Venezuela, which he advises on economic issues for an amount that he avoids commenting on.

"I'm not going to tell you those details, but for a consultancy like this Jeffrey Sachs would charge 20 million dollars.

We charge a lot less ”.

Sitting next to the building where the heads of government of the 27 meet every three months, Correa says he is disappointed with the attitude of the European Union, which he accuses of double standards in its attitude towards Venezuela and Ecuador.

“I can't believe they recognized Juan Guaidó.

A guy who proclaims himself president in a square.

It is as if tomorrow I proclaimed myself King of Spain ”.