Ecuador's inclusion on an international list of nations accused of lagging in the fight against money laundering is a hypocritical punishment for its relations with Iran, Ecuador's president said on Saturday.
"What arrogance! And why? Because we have relations with Iran. That's it," Rafael Correa said at his weekly town hall meeting. "This is imperialism in its most base form. ... This has nothing to do with the struggle against money laundering."
On the other hand and in the same breath, Correa questions why Brazil isn't included on the list as it also strengthened ties with Iran under Lula.
Drawing cheers from his audience, Correa asked why nobody had mentioned Brazil, which also has growing ties with Iran and hosted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad late last year.
While obviously not overwhelming evidence, doesn't that lead one to believe that it takes more than relations with Iran to get on the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force list?
