According to Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, one of the benefits of the world financial crisis has been an end to annoying visits by "yuppies" from ratings agencies and investment banks holding Ecuadorean debt. Mr Correa seems keen to do without such inconveniences altogether.rnOn November 15th his government delayed a $30.6m interest payment on part of its foreign debt of $10 billion. Five days later it released the report of a committee it set up to audit all of the country's debt contracts between 1976 and 2006. The committee says it found widespread evidence of malfeasance, particularly in three sets of bonds with a total value of $3.9 billion. "Horrifying", said Mr Correa. Some of his supporters want former presidents who signed the debt agreements to be jailed. They also want the government not to pay the debt.rnSome of Mr Correa's opponents have denounced the audit as ideologically driven and as erecting a conspiracy theory. Ecuador has twice defaulted on its debt since 1982, on each occasion when its economy collapsed. It is hardly as if the government cannot pay now.
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