Opposition Ecuador journalist to beg in streets to pay libel

QUITO, Ecuador – An Ecuadorean opposition journalist convicted of libeling President Rafael Correa said on Thursday that he is broke and must take up a public collection to pay the $141,000 judgment.

Fernando Villavicencio displayed a piggy bank at a news conference and said he will use banks to collect money in the streets to satisfy what he calls Correa’s appetite for “hate and vengeance.”

Villavicencio was prosecuted for criminal libel for claiming the president staged an attack on a hospital where he had holed up during a 2010 police rebellion in order to gain public sympathy.

The journalist currently faces bankruptcy proceedings.

Correa also won criminal libel cases against El Universo newspaper for $40 million and against two other journalists for $2 million. He decided not to try to collect in those two cases.