QUITO: Ecuador will pay $650 million in bonds due on December 15, President Rafael Correa vowed on Friday, seeking to boost the habitual defaulter’s credit-worthiness after 180 years of missed payments. Since it gained independence in 1830, Ecuador has never paid its sovereign debt on time and in full, something Correa promised to change as he seeks better borrowing terms amid a collapse in the price of oil, the OPEC member’s key export. “For the first time in history, Ecuador is going to pay its sovereign bonds,” Correa told journalists. ‘We will pay the $650 million due on December 15’ for the South American country’s 2015 bonds, he said. That is unprecedented in the past 180 years, said Economic Analyst Alberto Acosta Burneo of consultancy Spurrier.