In 2006, the Embassy was penetrated by commercial interests that acted behind Washington’s back, as was subsequently verified.
In the report “Immigration vetoes, a sovereign act of the US, or interference?”, details cases in which the US Government declares some people accused of committing acts of corruption “ineligible” . As I have been alluded to in said information, I allow myself to express the following:
1.-In 2006, the Embassy was penetrated by commercial interests that acted behind Washington’s back, as was subsequently verified. At the end of October 2006, the then spokesman Aaron Sherinian summoned the press with the sole purpose of accusing Estudio Neira & Asociados of committing acts of public corruption, without ever specifying them. In his lying narration, Sherinian assured that they had carried out a thorough investigation and that they had convincing evidence that they would contribute as support to the fight against corruption. The Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation, collecting the information that Sherinian said he had. EL UNIVERSO was the only Ecuadorian newspaper that demanded the necessary and exhaustive investigation for the defendants to defend themselves against such a complaint. He even editorialized it on November 2, 2006. Several court orders were issued for Sherinian to provide such information. The response was silence on the grounds that the files are confidential. There the plot was exposed.
2.- As EL UNIVERSO correctly recalls, in the leak of diplomatic cables operated by Wikileaks, the details of the “justification” that the diplomat exhibited before the Departments of State and Commerce were known. That cable # 84,975 dated November 8, 2006, says at the end “Jewell”, last name of the person who was ambassador, and constitutes a memorial of grievances accommodating narratives, trying to justify what was done. It was a retaliation (typical extrajudicial execution) that was exercised – paradoxically – to pressure the Ecuadorian justice system in a controversial dispute between two pharmaceutical companies, which the press called “the viagra war”. The intention was obvious: to intimidate the justice system and the professional firms that intervene in legal cases that affect certain pharmaceutical multinationals. Fortunately, this sinister objective was not achieved. Rather, several diplomats were dismissed by the DoS (Deparment of State). From what I know, there are constitutional sentences condemning Pfizer, which have been executed and are currently in the execution phase.
3.-Ecuadorian justice, due to the lack of evidence, declared Sherinian’s complaint inadmissible, since he never provided it. The 12th Criminal Judge of Pichincha, Dr. Raúl Salgado Serrano, resolved it in this way according to file 17262-2014-0080G. As the reader will observe, almost 8 years elapsed until our state of innocence was recognized, time within which the prescription of any action for slander and even for illicit association operated, as the prosecutor acting at that time concluded by expressing. That crime went unpunished despite the Mandates of the Vienna Convention that regulates relations between the States parties.
4.-You, Mr. Director of EL UNIVERSO, and the readers, will draw your own conclusions. (OR)
Xavier Neira Menendez, economist, Guayaquil
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