Beginning early this year traditionally close Israeli-Ecuadorian economic relations have intensified greatly. A growing number of Israeli technical aid missions have been sent to this small South American ally. Ecuador, an OPEC nation, in turn has sent many of its leading administrators from such diverse fields as the military, transportation, health, agriculture, government infrastructure and internal development to Israel to study advanced techniques in their respective professions.
Last week three Israeli transportation experts concluded a three-week training course they had offered in Quito under the auspices of the Israeli Division of International Cooperation (IDIC), the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Works and Communications and the Federation of Professional Drivers of Ecuador. Gershon Had, Yuval Gur and Isaschar Shefi, on loan from Egged, the national Israeli bus carrier, to the IDIC, lectured on cooperative, labor and transit legislation, traffic organization and administration, maintenance and business economy.
Coincidentally, as they arrived in the country the Ecuadorian government raised by 40 percent the fare paid on the cooperative buses that serve Quito and Guayaquil. Rioting broke out in Quito. Barricades were thrown up, buses were burned and stoned and hundreds of demonstrators, primarily students, were arrested by the police. When they were unable to control the situation after a week of rioting the army was called out and issued with orders to return the city to normal.
Informed sources revealed these orders were meant to be interpreted as “shoot on sight, if provoked.” Official figures fix the number of dead rioters and policemen at more than 10 but it is widely believed that at least three times that many died.
WIDE RANGE OF PROJECTS
The other important area of Israeli technical aid has been in irrigation. Irrigation Engineer Moshe Marcus arrived in the country in February to work in the province of Azuay in a program jointly administered by the Organization of American States and the Junta Nacional de Planificacion, the Ecuadorian national planning agency.
In the beginning of April the Ecuadorian Minister of Health, Dr. Asdrubal de la Torre, announced the collaboration of the Israeli government in establishing a water desalinization plant in the Galapagos. Additionally, several years ago two Israeli irrigation experts worked on a consulting basis with PREDESUR, an ambitious Ecuadorian development project that encompasses the whole southern part of the country.
On April 8, the director of the Israeli Center of Labor and Cooperative Studies, Avraham Hatzamri, held a conference at the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security on different aspects of the social security system in Israel. On the same trip he chose among candidates proposed by the Ecuadorian Institute of Scholarships and Educational Credit for a course to be held shortly in Israel for youth instructors from all over the world.
On April 30, five engineers working in the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the National Institute of Agricultural Investigation (INIAP), the Ecuadorian Institute of Agrarian Reform and Colonization (IERAC) and PREDESUR left for a course in fertilization to be given at Kibbutz Sheifan. They were among 30 Latin American agricultural engineers who received scholarships to attend the course.
these comings and goings represent an increasing Israeli-Ecuadorian technical and educational interchange. Over the remainder of 1978 a greater collaboration is expected between these two small and distant friendly countries.
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