MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador seizes two television stations and looses minister

Ecuadorian Finance Minister Fausto Ortiz resigned on Tuesday after the government of president Rafael Correa seized two television stations, --which is announced it will manage “temporarily”--, and almost 200 other businesses in a dispute over debts stemming from a 1990s banking crisis.

Ortiz worked during his year in office to damp speculation sparked by the possible defaulting of the country's foreign debt by President Correa. The incoming minister Wilma Salgado was a member of Ecuador's chapter of Jubilee 2000, a non-governmental organization seeking the cancellation of debt to developing nations. Ecuador's Deposit Guarantee Agency, AGD, seized the businesses from the Isaias Group, which it says owes 661 million US dollars related to the 1998 failure of a bank owned by the company. Officials from AGD, backed by dozens of police, took over the offices of TC Television in Quito and Guayaquil, as well as the offices of Gamavision in Ecuador's capital. The agency oversees efforts to recover funds of depositors in 21 banks that closed or went bankrupt in a financial crisis at the end of the 1990s. The owners of the two stations are related to bankers sought for alleged embezzlement, but say they have no business connection with the fugitives, and representatives of both stations alleged the government was attacking freedom of the press. The head of the state television channel, Enrique Arosemena, was present during the raid on TC Television and he has been designated administrator of the station. President Correa told reporters today that the government wants to sell the businesses, TV stations included, as soon as possible to help investors recover their savings. Bank customers received only a fraction of their deposits back when the bank collapsed. "We took a key step to ending the nightmare of the great bank robbery that 10 years on for the most part has gone unpunished" Correa said at Quito's presidential palace. He said if the matter goes to court any recovery could be delayed. Salgado said after being sworn in that Ecuador would continue to repay its debt, though the country could adjust its payment policy once an audit of what Correa calls "illegitimate" debt is finished. Officials over the weekend had denied rumors they planned to intervene in the stations, whose owners are related to the two former bankers, William and Roberto Isaias Dassum, who are charged with embezzlement in the collapse of the Filanbanco bank and Ecuador is seeking their extradition from the United States. Responding to the rumors, TC Television's director general, Jorge Kronfle, issued a weekend statement telling Correa that any seizure "would not only attack freedom of the press in Ecuador but would also gravely affect the image of his government on the international level". He said that while the station is owned by the fugitive bankers' brother Estefano, the business has nothing to do with theirs. Gamavision president Alvaro Dassum, a cousin of the fugitive bankers, issued a statement Tuesday saying officials "are attempting to collect supposed debts of Filanbanco with the AGD" but added, "Gamavision has nothing to do with Filanbanco." "I protest and reject this arbitrary seizure," he said, calling it "a crude attack against freedom of expression and free enterprise."