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Publication of controversial letter insulting president draws more fire to embattled Ecuadoran newspaper

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa threatened to bring yet another charge against the embattled newspaper El Universo after it published a provocative letter by an assembly member, according to the group Fundamedios.

Correa issued the statement from New York over the state-run radio and television program, Enlace Cuidadano. The president threatened to charge the newspaper for publishing a letter written by legislator Cynthia Viteri in which she defends her mother, president of the Guayas Court of Justice, María Leonor Jiménes, who Correa criticized in a previous radio broadcast. El Universo currently faces a crippling $40 million fine and prison sentences for editors and a columnist after publishing a 2010 opinion piece.

Viteri called the Andean president "an ignorant coward, hypocrite and a bully" in the letter. Correa tweeted that the newspaper "should not publish insults."

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