Argentine President Alberto Fernández (left) and Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso share a news conference at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires April 18, 2022. MARCOS BRINDICCI (AFP)
Alberto Fernández and Guillermo Lasso are arguing over a letter. In an exchange broadcast on social networks, they have been crossing allegations for a week. They have already withdrawn their respective ambassadors at one of the most tense moments in Argentina-Ecuador relations.
The scuffle began 15 days ago when María de los Ángeles Duarte Pesantes, Rafael Correa’s former minister convicted of corruption, fled Argentina’s diplomatic headquarters in Quito for Venezuela after just over two years as a fugitive. Lasso accuses Fernández of helping “a refugee escape” and of lying about the innocence of Ambassador Gabriel Fuks, who was expelled from the country hours after the incident. Fernández believes Lasso has shown an “exaggerated reaction” that is “damaging to the relationship,” bilaterally. Tensions between the two will be the subject of the Ibero-American Summit taking place this Friday through Saturday in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
According to the Buenos Aires version, on Saturday, May 11, Ambassador Fuks noted that Duarte was no longer at the residence where he had been living with his young son, an Argentine citizen, since 2020. He then informed his Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, who in turn contacted his Ecuadorian counterpart Juan Carlos Olguín. The Ecuadorian authorities then summoned Fuks to a meeting where he was allegedly abused and insulted in Argentina before being expelled from the country. Fuks himself said in an interview with EL PAÍS that the secretary of the presidency rebuked him, shouting: “The little Argentines have armed everything.”
Ecuador doesn’t believe a word the Argentine government says. Foreign Minister Olguín told a press conference that Argentina had “abused the trust between the two countries” by allowing the ex-minister to escape. Ambassador Fuks, he said, acted haughtily, refusing to provide footage from the embassy’s surveillance cameras and “liberating” the area by demanding the removal of a police car that had been stationed in the area for “security” work.
The crisis escalated at the presidential level, and Lasso and Fernández got into an unusual discussion. Lasso shot first. He deplored the reception in Buenos Aires of his Argentine counterpart Rafael Correa, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption in the same case as his former minister in Ecuador. “It is very sad,” Lasso wrote on Twitter, that Fernández “put his personal friendship and political identity with Rafael Correa above the fraternal relationship between the peoples of Argentina and Ecuador.” Fernández responded in the same way: “The President’s exaggerated reaction to expelling the Argentine ambassador is what really damages the relations of our peoples.” “Guest” incident would have called. He didn’t and you’ll know why.” For now, there was a new response from the Argentine.
Relations between Ecuador and Argentina had hit rock bottom shortly before Lasso took office as president in May 2021. Fernández got on very badly with former President Lenin Moreno, whom he accused of “betraying” Correa after he became her vice president. During the election campaign, Fernández openly supported Correísta candidate Andrés Arauz, but later had a good relationship with Lasso. Both countries sent ambassadors again and until the flight incident everything seemed to be in order. Following the exchange of letters, attention now turns to Santo Domingo, where both presidents will be forced to meet.
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