Ecuador, Minister Condemns US Blackmail

Quito
Ecuadorian Government Minister Felipe Vega described on Wednesday as a blackmail Washington"s decision to suspend the FTA negotiations due to the cancellation of the contract with the US oil firm Oxy.

"The unilateral closing of the dialogue on the FTA is a sanction imposed by the US because we did not accept an extrajudicial negotiation, illegal and harmful for the regulations between the companies and the state," the official asserted.

Thus, the minister rejected the suspension of the negotiations and considered it in reprisal for the Ecuadorian decision in defense of its national sovereignty.

Oxy, considered the main oil investor, must leave the country after the cancellation of its contract as its authorities betrayed the trust given by the country to manage a purely Ecuadorian resource.

Since Tuesday, the national enterprise Petroecuador took control of that company"s offices and has kept militarized Oxy fields in the Amazonia.