Che Guevara, who in his time was a tyrant, murderer and homophobe, is today remembered as a symbol of freedom and even decorates – in the form of stickers – more than one laptop belonging to LGBTI activists. Memory is sometimes fragile.

I fear that the fragility of the memory of many Ecuadorians will soon force us to return to the correísmo network led by the founder of that pseudo-religion himself.

I note with concern that there are many who have fragmented memories of when Rafael Correa was in Carondelet. In an effort to remind you of what it meant to have a tyrant as president, I would like to recall one of his multiple anti-democratic demonstrations and what an honor to be able to do so from this very newspaper, the media that Correa wanted to destroy.

One of the most crucial elements of the health of democracy is respect for freedom of expression. During the time that Rafael Correa was president, corruption practically disappeared, and not because it was clean hands and burning hearts they were, admittedly, clean hands, but because in most cases the press was silent. Out of fear or complicity, he remained silent. And how not to be afraid of such arbitrary exercise of power?

If you think I’m exaggerating, dear reader of the newspaper EL UNIVERSO, I want to remind you of the story of Emilio Palacio. He remembers? He was the columnist who, in the same newspaper, called the then president Correa a dictator who ordered the shooting at the hospital, which cost him a defamation lawsuit and was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 30 million dollars. How not to be afraid?

When Correa stopped being that young man who spoke without shouting, was a half-handsome man and sang longingly for the commander, Chávez, Bolívar, he showed his true colors.

The former president is a man frustrated by his failure to be close but short of the mark. He could never be more than his colleagues in the region, he could never belong to the elite of Guayaca that so obsessed him, when he sang, he always sang to others.

Correa’s mishandled frustrations make his erratic reactions more understandable. He did what any frustrated man does: he destroyed what threatened him. The few brave journalists who bothered Correa’s fragile ego ended up being exposed and sanctioned. It was his way of trying to destroy them.

However, why should it matter if the president threatens free speech for everyone? Allowing a free press to do its job—that is, to devote itself to investigating, condemning, and embarrassing the government—is the best way the rest of us can get a sense of what those in power are up to. Since Correa left Carondelet and sought refuge in Belgium, many truths that were kept quiet during his tenure have been revealed. Former president Lenín Moreno, who was also his vice president, accused him of ties to the FARC, a good part of his cabinet ended up in prison, and even Rafael Correa himself was convicted of corruption. All this happened quietly while there was a tyrant who terrorized the entire press in Carondelet, this could only be known when that tyrant took refuge in an attic in Belgium. (OR)