At 3.30 on the afternoon of Thursday the 4th of September a
demand was presented to the Superintendent of Police for
the deportation of BOB TRAA, Head of the IMF mission in
Ecuador for improper use of his visitor's status and for
inciting national authorities to adopt measures prejudicial
to the public interest and national security.

The demand was signed by various personalities and
organisational leaders such as Humberto Cholango,
Ecuarunari; Cesar Cabrera, CONFEUNASSC; Luis Maldonado
Lince, Elsie Monge, CEDHU; Edgar Ponce, Red Enlace; Nidia
Arrobo, Fundación Pueblo Indio; Elizabeth Bravo, Acción
Ecológica; Bladimir Reyes, Comité Interuniversitario de
Lucha contra el ALCA; amongst others.

The plaintiffs accuse Bob Traa of "inciting the authorities
to make cuts in social spending, privatise and sell state
goods and companies at bargain basement prices, reduce
salaries, raise the cost of public services, and construct
the Heavy Crude Pipeline". The latter is about to begin
operations and as foretold does not have enough oil to
transport. All these measures "undermine national security
in that they feed discontent, protest, and confrontation
between social actors".

The 13 Letters of Intent signed with the IMF during the
last twenty years have only served to deteriorate social,
economic and environmental conditions in Ecuador. On its
part the IMF admitted to having encouraged the Ecuadorian
authorities to use a major portion of oil income to pay the
external debt while also admitting that the country was "on
the verge of an Argentinean style crisis" and in order to
avoid it must strengthen the structural adjustment policies
recommended by the multilateral organization: the same
recommendations made to Argentina up to the very day of
that country's financial collapse.

The accused has arrived at this time with "the express
intention of interfering in the distribution of the state
budget, thus influencing public finances".

The request for deportation is based on Article 19.II of
the Migration Act, and on Articles 1,2,3,23.6 and 242 of
the Constitution, and on the chapters on Collective and
Environmental Rights.

The organizations declared that neoliberal and adjustment
policies imposed by the IMF deepen internal inequality;
give rise to environmental contamination and destruction;
spread a market culture empty of solidarity; strengthen a
system of exclusion; undermine the foundations of the
national productive apparatus by exposing it to the unfair
subsidised competition of foreign goods and services, along
the lines promoted globally by the WTO and on a
continental level by the FTAA, both Horsemen of the
Apocalypse of Globalisation.

WE INVITE ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS TO FOLLOW
ECUADOR´S EXAMPLE: Let's make Cancún a place for defining
strategies for closing borders to the IMF the institution
that paves the way for the WTO and FTAA.

For further information: Verde@accionecologica.org
593-2-254-7516