The President of Ecuador has become the first head of state to commit to an international campaign to crackdown on tax havens.

President Rafael Correa, in the final year of his mandate, became the first head of state to sign a letter issued by the international NGO Oxfam urging world leaders to eliminate tax havens and financial opacity protecting multinational corporations and the top One Percent of the world's wealthiest. 

"We must create institutions in the world free of tax havens, where capital does not have a face nor responsibility," said President Correa.  "We are going to request the inclusion of this crucial issue in the agenda of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  We will coordinate with the G77 group for the prohibition of tax havens," he added.

The movement gained steam after the release of the Panama Papers.  These leaked, secret files from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca illustrated how the world's wealthiest hide their money in tax shelters and phony corporate front.  Oxfam estimates that as much as US$7.6 trillion of personal wealth is being squirreled away in offshore accounts, out of the view of national tax collectors.  This has a devastating impact on poorer countries, and stymies attempts to end global poverty, as well as narrowing other inequities such as the wage gap between women and men.

Oxfam's Risa Canete notes that "32 million people would get out of poverty if Latin American residents, who have capital hidden in tax havens, paid the income taxes they are supposed to".  She says this figure represents the entire population of poor people living in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru.