Ecuadorian leader criticizes Martinelli for asylum decision

Panama’s president  Ricardo Martinelli has again been criticized by his “friend”  Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador over the decision to grant asylum to  a convicted journalist with implications of the pot calling the kettle black.

Panama granted diplomatic asylum to Carlos Pérez Barriga, the  director of the newspaper El Universo, on  February 16, after Ecuador’s Supreme Court had upheld a conviction of criminal libel against Correa. The conviction would have sent Barriga to jail for 3 years with a punitive $40 million fine tagged on.

In criticizing the asylum decision, the Ecuadorian president used a video in which Martinelli  lashed the Panamanian press in a speech at the National Assembly on January 2, when he held up a copy of La Prensa and described media critics as wimps ho cried when they had to pay taxes.

Correa said that Martinelli had railed against the media in private and in public.