Although President Guillermo Lasso denies this, several analysts say that following the deal with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, the chief executive ceded sovereignty over this territory, considered a natural paradise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
In practice, the agreement consists of a new loan from the Swiss financial institution and is backed by an $85 million guarantee from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and insurance from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) of the United States.
The Lasso government promoted this agreement as a “debt-for-nature swap” with the venerable aim of protecting the environment in which the 19th-century English scientist Charles Darwin was able to develop his theory of the natural selection of species.
In other words, the state would stop paying $1,126 million in exchange for allocating more than $450 million to a trust created for this purpose: the Galapagos Life Fund (GLF), one in the United States, specifically in Delaware , a contemplated state, incorporated company a heavenly tax office.
The announcement of the exchange was more than a month ago, but the controversy over it does not stop.
According to the regulations, the GLF, made up of 11 members, will be responsible for managing funds for the archipelago’s environmental protection until 2041.
The negotiations imply that GLF will set public policies, particularly investments, in the Galapagos Islands and would therefore be responsible for managing commercial activities such as fisheries and tourism.
There are only five non-voting representatives of the Ecuadorian state in this directory, as the decision-makers are international companies and non-governmental organizations such as the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and the Oceans Finance Company.
Journalist and sociologist Andrés Durán revealed via radio station Hoja de Ruta that a member of the GLF is the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism, whose president is Eduardo Brito, the right-hand man of Roque Sevilla, a former adviser to Lasso.
Former Environment Minister Daniel Ortega warned that the banker’s government had not encouraged a debt swap in the Galapagos, but rather an obscure barter that favored private individuals.
In statements to Radio Pichincha, the former official said it sets a terrible precedent at the international level in the administration of taxpayer funds for conservation management.
In addition, he regretted that this is happening when the Galapagos Islands suffers from declining sustainability due to increased tourism, invasive species and lack of supplies to meet the basic needs of their residents.
When the president visited the islands last week amid the shortage crisis, the people of Galapagos greeted him with shouts and accusations that they had sold the territory behind their backs without consulting them.
The US Ambassador to Ecuador Michael J. Fitzpatrick can be seen in the photos of the government visit together with the state ministers, which attracted the attention of users on social networks.
Journalist Andrés Durán recalled that the US government was one of the guarantors of the operation through the DFC, which granted 656 million for insurance of “political risks”.
But will a next government be able to reverse such a questionable agreement that, in practice, does not appear to help protect the Galapagos and the well-being of its residents?
The possibility that this trend and the “libertarian” and economic-economic orientation will change in August 2023 thanks to the death cross-forced elections is uncertain, commented Ecuadorian historian Juan Paz y Miño in an article on the subject.
ode/avr