Quito, Ecuador, Aug 11, 2008 / 16:09 pm
On a radio program last week, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has repeated his defense of the new Constitution approved by the Constitutional Assembly that would open the door to the legalization of abortion and homosexual unions. But during the same program, he admitted that the government paid two Spanish socialists to help in the drafting of the document.
During the program, Correa again disparaged the Bishops’ Conference of Ecuador for criticizing the Constitution and for launching a campaign to inform voters.
He also confirmed that two Spanish socialists received some $18,000 monthly as “advisors” to the Ecuadoran government in the drafting of the Constitution, which includes language favorable to abortion, homosexual “marriage” and the intervention of the state in the rights of parents to educate their children.
Correa said the advisors were not paid directly, but rather through the institute they belong to, the CEPS Foundation of Valencia, Spain. “$18,000 was paid by the Attorney General’s office, which has financed many advisors,” he said.
The Center for Political and Social Studies (CEPS) in Valencia is a think-tank founded in 1993 by a group of left-wing researchers who support the ruling Socialist party in Spain.
In Latin America, the CEPS has shown sympathy for both the FARC in Colombia and the “Bolivian Revolution” of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. A recent “report” by the CEPS justified the decision of the Chavez government to suspend the broadcast licenses of an opposition radio and television station.
The activities of the CEPS include supporting feminist organizations and radical left-wing sympathizers of the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia.
According to Ecuadoran pro-life leaders, the presence of Spanish socialists advising the government and paid by public money explains the markedly secularist and anti-life tone of the new Constitution.