Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua make no secret of their contempt for independent media in their own countries. But their equally thin-skinned counterpart Rafael Correa of Ecuador poses a far greater threat to the press freedom across the region. Later this month the Organization of the American States will vote on Correa’s proposal to essentially shutter the office of the organization’s press freedom advocate.

In Ecuador, Correa regularly uses an emergency provision in the country’s broadcast law to commandeer the country’s airwaves and denounce journalists as “ignorant” and “liars.” He has literally torn to pieces a newspaper that dared to criticize him. But his tactics go beyond mere theatrics. Correa has filed multiple defamation suits against prominent journalists and is creating a legal framework to restrict press freedom. Three executives and the former op-ed editor of one of the country’s leading newspapers, El Universo, have been hit with a $40 million libel judgment and could soon be jailed.

Like Chávez in Venezuela and Ortega in Nicaragua, Correa rules with messianic certainty and dismisses criticism as a conspiracy wrought by entrenched oligarchic interests. All three are contemptuous of any institution that constrains their power, particularly the press. Correa has now turned his sights on the regional institutions that have nurtured and sustained democracy in Latin America.

Specifically, he seeks to curtail the office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, an independent body of the OAS that since its creation in 1997 has campaigned for justice in journalists’ murders; advocated for the decriminalization of defamation and insult laws, and fought against government censorship.

In a series of carefully documented reports the Rapporteur’s office — which is led by noted Colombian jurist Catalina Botero — exposed a pattern of press freedom violations in Ecuador that constitute a violation of international law. Now, Correa is seeking his revenge.

In July, Ecuador joined an OAS working group to examine the work of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to which the Special Rapporteur reports. At a November meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, an organization recently created by President Chávez to counter U.S. influence in the region, Correa denounced the OAS for having a pro-U.S. bias. In December, just before the working group’s mandate was due to expire, Correa put forward a series of recommendations that if accepted would cripple the work of the Special Rapporteur. These include restrictions on its ability to raise fund s or issue independent reports.

On Wednesday, the working group’s proposals will be discussed at a meeting of the permanent ambassadors to the OAS. Having successfully run roughshod over the democratic institutions within his own country, Correa is now seeking to employ the same tactics outside his borders. OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza has too often compromised his democratic mandate by coddling the region’s emerging despots. This is the moment for him and the countries of the region committed to democracy to stand firm.

Joel Simon is executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.