QUITO, Ecuador — President Rafael Correa on Saturday ordered the expulsion of a top U.S. diplomat he accused of suspending $340,000 in annual aid because Ecuador would not allow the U.S. to veto appointments to the anti-smuggling police.
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said that the official in question, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attache, left the country in early January when his assignment ended and that the aid suspension was a U.S. government decision.
Ecuador’s leftist president said the official, Armando Astorga, announced the suspension of aid to anti-contraband police in a Jan. 8 letter.
“Mr. Astorga, Keep your dirty money! We don’t need it. Here there is sovereignty and dignity,” Correa said during his weekly radio address, calling the American “insolent and foolish.”
