Lasso will ask Biden for an "Ecuador Plan" 0:42
(CNN Spanish) --
Ecuador has been facing a security crisis for months, with prison revolts and the advance of drug trafficking in the country.
In this context, President Guillermo Lasso told CNN's Fernando del Rincón that he will ask for help during the IX Summit of the Americas.
Lasso spoke from Los Angeles, where the meeting of American leaders is taking place, and told CNN that he would ask the United States for an "Ecuador Plan", similar to the one that took place in Colombia years ago.
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During his visit to California, the president of Ecuador also referred to other issues related to his country and the Summit.
Here, 10 main phrases from the interview.
On the need for an "Ecuador Plan" in terms of security
1. "Today the enemy is another, it is drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, and new technology and new equipment are required to be able to confront it."
Lasso: USA is hosting and chose who to invite 1:41
2. "I will tell President Biden and the United States: just as there was a Plan Colombia with Colombia, we need a Plan Ecuador."
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3. "Because it is not possible for the bill to be paid by only one small country, it must be shared with the United States and Europe."
The absence of countries at the Summit of the Americas
4. "We must remember two fundamental bases on which the Summit of the Americas was created: the first is that they be democratic countries that respect human rights, and the second is that the host country decides whom to invite."
5. "What the United States has done is exercise its right to host and choose who to invite."
The importance of the Summit of the Americas for Ecuador
6. "I have had no problem attending, I think it is very important for Ecuador to be at this summit, to speak to the world about the country's problems."
Lasso will reveal the truth of the murder of journalists from El Comercio 2:09
7. "Ecuador needs the world to face security problems, lack of employment. We also have to tell the world what we are doing for them.
Lasso on the kidnapping and murder of journalists in 2018
8. "I want to commit to the relatives: at the next State Security Council I will speed up the call to declassify this information."
9. "I would have liked to do it on the first day of government, but the priorities were different."
10. "The law must be applied, no matter who it is. It is a moral and ethical obligation of a democratic government with the relatives of the victims and with the victims themselves and their memory. Those who have committed negligence will have to pay legally."
Fernando del RinconGuillermo Lasso