Correa’s generous social welfare programs have won him 70 percent approval ratings among Ecuadoreans, but he has long been known as thin-skinned, and opposition activists and international human rights groups say his intolerance of dissent appears to be worsening.
Last month, his administration dissolved by decree the environmental group Pachamama, which was fighting oil drilling in Ecuador’s Amazon on behalf of indigenous peoples.
It has squeezed independent media by withholding advertising and last June it created two media regulatory bodies packed with Correa loyalists that have the power to levy fines on media deemed guilty of slander or discrimination.
