Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said at a press conference Tuesday that U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges was to be expelled for accusing the just-retired national police commander of corruption, and speculating that his misdeeds were known to President Rafael Correa.
The Wikileaks cable, dated July 10, 2009, quoted Hodges saying that commander Jaime Hurtado Vaco had used his position "to extort cash and property, misappropriate public funds, facilitate human trafficking, and obstruct the investigation and prosecution of corrupt colleagues." The cable was published Monday by the Madrid newspaper El Pais.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said Hodges is one of the department's most experienced ambassadors, and that the administration considers her expulsion "unjustified.". Buy cheap nike mens acg sandals 2011 He said the department had not decided whether it will reciprocate by expelling Ecuador's ambassador, or take other action.
Patino said Ecuador hopes the expulsion "will not affect the cordial relations between our two governments."
The 6,300 diplomatic cables released by the anti-secrecy website have caused turbulence for a growing list of diplomats since they began to be released last November.
Last month, U.S. ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual was forced to resign after the release of cables in which he discussed the shortcomings of the Mexican government's war on drugs. In January, Ambassador Gene Cretz was forced to leave Libya after the leak of Reebok ZigTech onlinea cable in which he speculated on leader Muammar Kadafi's health, and his dependence on a "voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to sue former U.S. ambassador Eric Edelman over a 2004 cable in which he said the leader maintained eight Swiss bank accounts.
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