Ecuador

Very.

And then he met with Ecuador to expand Latin American ties in energy, pharma and mobility.

Plus, he held meetings with his counterparts from Slovakia and Hungary.

All before his main address on September 26.

Right.

But, you know, it raises a logistical question for me.

Why does this specific week actually matter so much? I mean, theoretically, a foreign minister could fly to Paris or Ecuador any month of the year to have these exact same conversations.

Well, it's all about diplomatic concentration.

Sí, porque yo además yo creo que este, en el fondo la reputación cultural de Colombia es buena.

Si uno compara políticas culturales en Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Perú, este es uno de los países con mejor respaldo y profesionalización cultural y lo había tenido en los últimos, digamos veinte, veinticinco años y se, y se profesionalizó de manera muy enérgica en el gobierno de Uribe, en el gobierno de Uribe, así lo digo.

Creo que es una posta que la dejan en un punto y que sigue, ¿me explico? O sea-

Claro.

Las casas siempre están un poco desordenadas cuando llegan.

Yo me acuerdo la, la transición, eh, Samper-Pastrana, yo estaba en el Ministerio de Cultura y eso fue complejo, pero, pero lo importante aquí es pensar que hay un sector cultural que cree en que este gobier-- eh, en que el Estado es profesional en términos del diálogo con lo cultural.

Y si eso se pierde, si empezamos a ver que, eh, to-- en todo, en nombramientos, en convocatorias, en cancelaciones, en retiros, se cae, puede pasarnos lo que pasó en Ecuador y qu-- y, y quiero ser muy enfático-

¿Y qué pasó en Ecuador?

ESET has uncovered a cyber espionage campaign by China-aligned FamousSparrow targeting government organizations across Latin America with a new backdoor called SparrowWalkie.

About ninety percent of the group's targets observed from mid-twenty twenty-five into twenty twenty-six were in the region, spanning Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.

SparrowWalkie has largely replaced FamousSparrow's older SparrowDoor implant.

The modular C++ malware can collect system information, execute commands, capture screenshots, steal files, and proxy network traffic.

A lot of Africa takes it.

South America used to require it in a number of places like Ecuador, but nobody in the Americas, North, South, Central America requires it

anymore.

Southeast Asia doesn't mostly require it.

It just went straight over the top.

He didn't get it.

Actually, you know, one of the thoughts that was in my mind was standing in the shower in Ecuador and in

Peru.

All right, so you're a very confident man.

The thing is, though, the United States, particularly President Trump, with his MAGA coalition and his favoring the far right, has had a lot of success in Latin America over this past year, whether it's Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, all these countries have recently, and obviously in Argentina, etc., have elected right-leaning presidents, not to mention in Central America, which exists right now.

But, interestingly, well, first of all, what is your view of that kind of influenced by the United States in domestic affairs, because as you know, one of the Bolsonaro sons has been in the US also, trying to gin up American sanctions and other things against your government.

What is your view of that? Is it a risk? What is your view?

Sucking a dick and listening to Bon Jovi.

so I finished in Russia I could only stay like three months went back to Cuba I was like crying I was so sad like I cannot do this when I get in Cuba I felt like I was in a jail and then I say what can I do to leave I need to leave anywhere I wasn't planning going to the US so Ecuador was the only country that was open visa open I sell everything I had so everything I even sell my clothes everything to be able to I only with everything I sell I make like 3,000 bucks in total I said, okay, now from here, I can take like a flight to Ecuador.

There I have some friends.

Then I will go and work and whatever and stay there.

I don't care what it takes.

So I went to fly to Ecuador.

When I went there, then I start working a fast food truck.

Hate it.

It's just so beautiful.

So I followed those into Ecuador and then continued following those up until a point in Ecuador and then jumped onto a bikepacking route, which was murder.

Like I can't tell you how many times I tripped myself over with stepping on long flax grass and then tripping myself and just there were electric fences and all sorts of craziness that made it really difficult.

And then I crossed over from there into Colombia and that's when the pandemic happened.

And so I had to climb 2000 meters on my first day and then the next day down climb 1000 and then go up another two and then down again and up.

And that was just my life.

in Peru and Ecuador where it was an easy day in the end to do 2,000 meters of climbing and a difficult day with 3,000 and an easy day if it was 1,000 because it's just so mountainous through there.

But a lot of it was mountainous.

And it also means that we need to explore other market opportunities for Canadian malting barley.

Markets like Mexico, other Latin American markets like Colombia, Peru and Ecuador all present big opportunities for Canada.

But we need to get our varieties accepted into those markets.

We talk about brewers being kind of the gatekeepers of new varieties.