Ecuador president enacts antitrust law

QUITO, Ecuador

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa has enacted a new antitrust law that bars news media owners and bankers from having commercial interests in other industries.

Ecuador's business community objects to the law, saying it further empowers Correa's government by making it the arbiter of what is considered monopolistic behavior.

Correa said in a radio interview Tuesday that the new law will permit "a change in the country's power and property structure."

In addition to the provisions affecting bankers and news media owners, the new law specifies that no single company be allowed to gain monopoly status in an industry.

The new law grew out of a ballot question voters approved in May.