Despite poor international coverage, the governmental confiscation of 195 firms, including two major TV channels belonging to the holding ‘Grupo Isaías’, has constituted a major event in Ecuador, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost the long-overdue need for the state to undertake punitive and compensatory action against those bankers whose disastrous activities in the 1990s brought about the worst financial crisis of the country, obliging the government to intervene and sacrifice a considerable part of its budget. The crisis unleashed a tragic wave of migration from the little Andean nation. The liquidity spent by the state in the banking rescue between 1998 and 2001 amounted each year to more than 30% of the GDP.