Ecuador Conspiracy Theories Monitor

New inheritance taxes proposed by the government have sparked opposition protests against President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

Correa believes the protests are part of a conspiracy to overthrow his government. His explanations are reminiscent of the language often used by the Venezuelan government to denounce supposed recurrent plots by the opposition and foreign enemies. Correa said that the situation in Ecuador “this week has been very tough. (…) There is a conspiracy on the making. (…) These people [participating in the protests] are very violent and they are complicit with the media. They are openly knocking on the doors of military barracks. They are not only against the inheritance law, they want to overthrow the government.”

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has expressed solidarity with Correa and claimed that “Imperialism” is behind the plot: “Look at the conspiracy that imperialism is now plotting against president Rafael Correa, the most democratic and humanist president in the history of his country, a great leader of Latin America. From Venezuela we say to him that he has all our support.”

Maduro also claimed that the alleged conspiracy against Correa included plans to assassinate the president of Ecuador: “Now there is a rightist campaign that is turning criminal, a campaign of magnicidio [assassination of head of state], of hatred, of intolerance and violence in Ecuador.”