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US embassy staff ordered out of Ecuador

Ecuador has ordered all 20 US Defence Department employees at the US embassy in Quito to leave the country by the end of the month.

The group had been ordered to halt operations in Ecuador in a letter dated April 7, admitted embassy spokesman Jeffrey Weinshenker today.

President Rafael Correa had complained in January that Washington had too many military officers in Ecuador, claiming there were at least 50, and said they had been “infiltrated in all sectors.” 

But Mr Weinshenker insisted that the military group only had 20 Department of Defence employees, not all of them uniformed.

He claimed that “all the activities we have carried out have had the explicit approval of our Ecuadorean counterparts.”

US relations with Ecuador have been strained in recent years, even before President Correa provided asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2012.

The president had previously expelled three US diplomats including then-ambassador Heather Hodges in 2011 in response to a cable divulged by WikiLeaks that suggested Mr Correa was aware of high-level police corruption.

In November, Ecuador told the US Agency for International Development to end operations in the country, accusing it of backing the opposition.

USaid is to stop operations in September when its current programmes end.

Shortly after taking office in 2007, President Correa purged Ecuador’s military of officers deemed too close to their US counterparts. 

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