El Comercio - Quito - Ecuador | 27 de abril del 2008

http://tinyurl.com/4lu54g

Por Editorial Diario El Comercio

For reasons of sovereignty and power, one has to admit that in the present situation, the Government and the Constituent Assembly can do what they want inside the country. In this manner, the declaration of a multinational State, the elimination of workable alternatives or the expedition of a mandate that eliminates the mining activity are possible. All this they can do, later comes the post-traumatic reactions that hopefully sets apart(?) and doesn't hasten even more a society that's starting to feel the pain of ridding itself of the partidocracia [Ecuadorean term for the old order]; nevertheless, what they cannot do is alter the international legal order.

In this context [it is troubling] the spin that the Constituents - all with the endorsement or presidential permission - can adopt in the external front. For that reason it is necessary to remember, first of all, that the international treaties must be respected since they were accepted and ratified, unless it is intended that Ecuador becomes a species of `stateless State' among the nations.

Later, when in actuality there exists an agglomeration of petitions of arbitration for contractual breaches in a jurisdiction that is not avoidable and, finally, that we call on the Court of International Justice of The Hague demanding of Colombia in the case of [their] offences. Therefore, are we, or are we not part of the international community?

To exclude itself from the regime of the Convention of Vienna on the Right of Treaties is possible, although it would be incredible inasmuch as it would isolate Ecuador from the international legal environment. Secondly, to prescribe constitutionally that Ecuador limits its participation in instances of international arbitration is possible, but is not retroactive; therefore, if there would be negative sentences in current proceedings they would generate preventive measures that will not be stopped by any article of the Constitution. Finally, to be elementarily coherent, how we could repudiate the norms of International Rights and at the same time resort to the Court of International Justice of The Hague to sustain us in conventions and jurisprudences that protect us in that sphere?

[translation-ebear]