Ecuador has ordered 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Spanish Doctors Without Borders, to shut down their operations in the Latin American country, the government said Friday. The government's Technical Secretary of International Co-operation (SETECI) announced the move after the groups failed to meet a government deadline for presenting reports to the government on their activities.
Besides Doctors Without Borders, NGOs from the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, Britain, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, SETECI said in a statement. "We do not want to expel any NGO, but the groups and the state must meet the obligations under previous agreements," she added. Rosero said the government wanted to know more about the private and government funding the NGOs receive.
On June 25, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said some foreign NGOs act in complicity with rebel groups on the country's border with Colombia and are funded by right-wing movements in the United States that seek to destabilise his government. In 2009, the government ordered the closure of Ecological Action, an environmental organisation that spearheaded protests by Indians against mining interests.