Ecuador expels US ambassador after leaked cable

Ecuador ordered the US ambassador out of the country Tuesday in a row over a leaked diplomatic cable which quoted her as saying President Rafael Correa knowingly appointed a corrupt chief of police.

Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino made the announcement a day after summoning Ambassador Heather Hodges to his office for an explanation of the cable, leaked by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

Ecuador "has decided to consider the lady persona non grata to the national government, and we have asked that she leave the country," Patino said, adding he hoped "the cordial relations" between the two countries would not be hurt.

In Washington, the State Department said it "deeply" regretted the decision by the South American country.

Hodges is "one of our most experienced and talented diplomats," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

"The Department considers her expulsion unjustified," he added, saying US officials were going to examine what options they had now.

In a 2009 cable released by WikiLeaks, the ambassador was quoted as saying Correa had named as police chief general, Jaime Hurtado, a man she said had a reputation for being corrupt. Correa knew of his activities, she alleged.

Hurtado remained in the post from April 2008 to June 2009.

The foreign minister said he told Hodges his government "was surprised and the president was absolutely indignant, and wanted to know the truth about that information."

Patino said Hodges "simply said that this document had been stolen and she had no observation to make, no comment, no clarification," calling her response "absolutely insufficient and unsatisfactory."

He also expressed his concern to the top US diplomat for Latin America, Arturo Valenzuela, before talking to the ambassador.

But he stressed the matter was "the direct responsibility of a person, of the ambassador, and is not an issue that has to do with the US government.

According to the July 2009 cable, Hodges said the embassy had "multiple reports that indicate (Hurtado) used his positions to extort bribes, facilitate human trafficking, misappropriate public funds, obstruct investigations and prosecutions of corrupt colleagues, and engage in other corrupt acts for personal enrichment."

"Some embassy officials believe that President Correa must have been aware of (his activities) when he made the appointment," she added. "These observers believe that Correa may have wanted to have an ENP (national police) chief whom he could easily manipulate."

Ecuador's "irresponsible" expulsion of Hodges "is both whimsical and impulsive, and comes at a great cost to his own people," said Eliot Engel, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives.

Engel, a senior member of a House subcommittee that deals with Latin America, said Correa "has seriously undermined the possibility" that trade preferences "will be reinstated in the foreseeable future."

"While I expect the United States will respond in kind, I can only hope that this diplomatic dispute will be short-lived," Engel said in a statement.

The Ecuador case was the second involving a US diplomat in Latin America embarrassed by a leaked cable on WikiLeaks.

On March 19, the US ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, resigned in what Washington said was a move to avoid damage to bilateral ties.

The classified cables depicted the Mexican military leadership as unprepared when President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers in a bloody crackdown on drug trafficking in December 2006.

In one of the cables, Pascual said the Mexican navy captured a top drug trafficker with information supplied by US agents, but the Mexican army had failed to act when earlier given the same information.

The cable's assessments contrasted with Calderon's insistence that Mexico was gaining ground over the drug gangs.