Ecuador says expelled US official was CIA operative

QUITO (Reuters) – The US Embassy official Ecuador  kicked out this week on charges of meddling in national affairs  was the head of the CIA in the drug-smuggling route country,  President Rafael Correa said yesterday.

But a US Embassy spokeswoman declined to comment on Correa’s account that the expelled official ran CIA operations  in the Andean country, which is a crucial drug-smuggling route  to drug gangs in neighbouring Colombia and Peru.
Correa, a leftist ally of US foe Venezuelan President  Hugo Chavez, expelled Mark Sullivan over charges he tried to  handpick an officer heading a police unit partly financed by the United States.

“Let’s speak bluntly; he was the head of the CIA in Ecuador,” Correa said. “The US Embassy was mad because they are used to handpicking police chiefs in exchange for a few  computers.”

Sullivan’s expulsion came a bit over a week after Correa ordered another US official to leave the country on similar charges, fuelling tensions with Washington.
Correa has accused the CIA of having operatives inside his  security forces, and aiding neighbouring Colom-bian commandos  raid a rebel camp inside Ecuador last year that raised the  spectre of war in the Andean region.

He said that as part of an unwritten agreement the US  embassy approved the naming of officers to head police units  they financed.

The popular US-educated economist had generally kept good  ties with the United States even as his socialist allies in  Bolivia and Vene-zuela clashed with Washing-ton, including  expelling US ambassadors.

Still, Correa went on the offensive this month, declaring  he would not bow to pressure from the United States and has now  raised complications in establishing his relationship with US  President Barack Obama.

Local media has speculated Correa kicked out Sullivan  because he was linked to the probe of a former government  official arrested for dealing with drug bosses. The police unit that sparked the diplomatic row was investigating the  ex-government official. Correa has denied those charges.

Analysts say Correa is trying to get attention away from  mounting economic woes caused by plummeting oil revenues and  immigrants’ remittances that are starting to worry Ecuadoreans  who had lived through a series of crippling crises.
The United States is Ecuador’s main trading partner and the  destination for much of its oil and banana exports.