A new federal document suggests that the Ecuadoran government has for months been planning a public relations effort aimed at promoting U.S. citizen travel to Ecuador - something that is now receiving nationwide attention thanks to fugitive and national secrets leaker Edward Snowden's request for asylum there.
Well before Ecuador weighed a request to grant Snowden asylum, drawing major attention on the South American nation, the Ministry of Tourism there had penned a six-figure contract with a PR firm to promote U.S. tourism to the country - the first time that records show it has ever done so. The contract was just released publicly last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The disclosure was made under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which requires that all lobbying, PR and other "propaganda" work on behalf of foreign interests be made public. The disclosure shows that Ecuador's tourism arm agreed to pay the firm Development Counsellors International $312,499 over 15 months to "promote tourism to Ecuador."
Although the paperwork is a bit contradictory, the contract between the two parties suggests that Ecuador solicited the business in the fall of 2012, and finally inked the deal in early January. LegiStorm tracks all Foreign Agent Registration Act and Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.
Release of the document comes at the time that the Ecuadoran Embassy is running a major ad campaign in Washington to promote trade between the two countries.
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