The president's ire

Carlos Alberto Montaner

According to a recent news report President Rafael Correa of Ecuador reviled the Human Rights Foundation's leaders as ''scoundrels.'' Why? Because the New York-based institution had sent him several well-reasoned letters denouncing painful violations of human rights that had occurred in Ecuador.

Lamentably, instead of using the information to correct those abuses, Correa hid behind the nationalist shield, opted for offending the international activists and told them to mind their own business.

Correa, said the news report, attempted to defend himself with a peculiar argument: ''Among the HRF members are people from the retrograde right, such as Alvaro Vargas Llosa and Carlos Alberto Montaner.'' Naturally, the HRF wasted no time to reply: ''Carlos Alberto Montaner has nothing to do with our organization.'' And I don't. I have never had the slightest contact with that group and didn't know about its report on Ecuador -- although after reading it, I found it to be very persuasive. I also discovered that the HRF has a roster of prestigious international advisors.

Of course, I also must deny that I am part of ''the retrograde right.'' If Correa had read Manufacturers of Misery, one of the books I have coauthored with Alvaro Vargas Llosa and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, he probably would better understand what is a true liberal vision of the economy and society, and what we think of ``the retrograde right.''

In any case, I waited a couple of days in case Correa apologized for the unfair attack he had launched against me. In vain. One of his former colleagues, a professor at the University of San Francisco, in

Quito, told me that Correa would never do so. ''This gentleman is incapable of admitting a mistake'' -- he knows neither doubt nor rectification, the professor said. Later he explained that Correa is affected by a pathological arrogance and sent me an interview he recently gave the Argentine newspaper Página 12. Correa himself, the prisoner of a strange pride, describes himself in that interview as an ''irascible'' person. Someone governed by ire, not by reason or common sense.

That struck me as a surprising confession. Correa claims to be a militant Catholic and must know that ire is one of the seven capital sins, ever since St. Gregory (Pope Gregory I at the time) compiled the list in the sixth century. Hasn'tCorrea's confessor cautioned him that ire will lead him into hell unless he repents and renounces that way of being and behaving? Dante, the great theoretician of such vices of the spirit, defined ire very well in The Divine Comedy: ''Ire is the love for justice transformed into revenge and resentment.'' Is that how Correa confronts the never-ending injustices that afflict Ecuador? With revenge and resentment?

It's a pity. Among all the faults a ruler may have, irascibility is one of the worst. One rules with the head and heart, not with the liver. The Romans expressed it with total clarity: The principal virtue of a good ruler is prudence. He must know how to weigh the consequences of his government's actions. To insult an adversary or anyone who holds a different idea is not a display of character but of moral and intellectual limitations. Nor was it a good idea to get carried away by ire and reject the conciliatory efforts of the Carter Center to put an end to the conflict between Colombia and Ecuador.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is not an irate person, stretched out his hand. It was not smart to reject it. Ire is never smart.

Julio 8, 2008

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