Correa wins re-election by a landslide turning him into indisputable regional leader

Monday, February 18th 2013 - 06:55 UTC

Full article 23 comments

President Rafael Correa swept to a re-election victory on Sunday promising to strengthen state control over Ecuador’s economy and continue using booming oil revenues to build roads, hospitals and schools in rural areas and shanty towns. Read full article

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Gordo1
”Ecuador is one of the most successful economies in Latin America.”

He would say that, wouldn't he? Without oil Ecuador is worse off than Haiti!
Feb 18th, 2013 - 10:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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cornelius
“Correa wins election turning him into a indisputable regional left wing dictator”
Feb 18th, 2013 - 10:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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Idlehands
Chavez flew back to Venezuela today - maybe he is worried his crown has been snatched.

Either way CFK must be spitting blood as she clearly wanted it too.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 11:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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The Chilean perspective
Well congratulations to Correa, but I must say I've seen this movie before and it doesn't end well. Populist leader defaults on his countries foreign debt, scares off foreign investors, promises to make the state the major actor in the economy, institutes a massive subsidy program using the main countries over priced commodity as a cash cow , silences the press, stuffs the judiciary with hand picked stooges and has an over valued currency which makes the countries industries hopelessly uncompetitive. Another one bites the dust albeit in another 10 yrs as these things take a full cycle to begin to crash.
Thank god for Peru and Colombia because us three are the only sane political systems in mainland South America.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Captain Poppy
It must be a tough balancing act chanting “death to America” to his subjects, then havong to get on all fours to woo the big oil companies. With oil being their only means of an economy, they are not exactly in the catbird seat, now are they?
Feb 18th, 2013 - 12:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Condorito
Its not too late for him to reform.
I hope, for his country's sake, he distances himself from Chavez and gets on board with the Pacific Alliance.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 02:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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ElaineB
LOL! I love that he used the occasion to call on 'Europe' to settle the Assange issue. You can almost hear the note of desperation, “Please, for God's sake get him out of our embassy”.

Assange is going nowhere as he has a scheme to be elected to the senate in Australian as he thinks it will give him safe passage to Australia without having to face justice. The elections are not until September.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 03:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Gordo1
Take it from me - the Ecuadorian labour laws are so badly drawn up that all foreign investors should be warned off the country.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Captain Poppy
When will wikileaks speak out on Equador's elimination of free speech? assange must be like some bad limburg cheese they cannot remove. I hope they provide him with porn on cable.........they must have to keep him away from the wait and maid staff. Or is that the ambassador multitasking?
Feb 18th, 2013 - 04:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Think
Congratulations with another crystal clear democratic victory......
Keep your bearings... They are the right ones....

(4) The Chilean perspective

Hermanito Shileno....
You don't know much about Ecuador... Do you?

You say...:
“.....has an over valued currency which makes the countries industries hopelessly uncompetitive.”

I say...:
Chuckle chuckle©…
(Clue: Google “Ecuador currency”
Feb 18th, 2013 - 05:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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briton
They say, you can’t have to many powerful men in the same place,
As sooner or later, they may end up quarrelling with each other.
.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 06:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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The Chilean perspective
@10 Think
Come on pal give me a little more credit please, EVERYONE knows the currency they use.
Like Greece using the Euro it makes them hopelessly uncompetitive, Greek manufacturing or anything else at German prices.
The same with Ecuador, everything at US prices. The only thing that is beneficial using a stable Fiat currency is the fact that it lowers inflation, other than that you lose all the Keynesian tools at your Central banks disposal. For example liquidity is difficult to control as Ecuador does not print “lechugas” so getting out of a recession by increasing M2 is an obvious one.
You will probably point out Panama and ask me to check Alta Vista on my Netscape Navigator to learn about their currency, well using the greenback on a mostly financial services and money laundering based economy like Panama is less of a problem as they are not trading goods per say but rather numbers on a screen.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 08:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Condorito
@TCP
“Alta Vista on my Netscape Navigator ” LOL
Nice one.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 09:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Think
(12) The Chilean perspective

Difficult to give you “Any Credit” with all that dogmatic neo-liberal horse manure you write at (4).........
Besides ....
Netscape........... Come on hermanito, give me a little more credit please.
I'm a Mosaic man....
Feb 18th, 2013 - 09:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Anglotino
@12 Chilean Perspective

Great post, you will probably notice that the swift deflection by Think.
Feb 18th, 2013 - 10:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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The Chilean perspective
@14 Think
Old school....Respect.
Reminds me of my old 386 DX40 running windows 3.11
Oh Wolfenstein I miss you so......
Feb 18th, 2013 - 10:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Think
(16) The Chilean perspective

Or a good game of Pac-Man on a MS-DOS / IBM-8086 :-)))

Forgot to tell you, hermanito.......
I agree with you about the convenience of Ecuador returning to the Sucre..

So does Correa
Dolarization wasn't his Idea.

(Uyyyy, me salió un versito)
Feb 18th, 2013 - 10:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Anglotino
If Correa is the “indisputable regional leader”, then what are the Presidents of Chile, Colombia and Peru?

I guess they are too busy actually making their countries work properly to grandstand. It would seem that the continual rise and fall of “regional leaders” in Latin America might be part of the problem. Perhaps just being a leader of your own country is enough.

Seems it is enough for Chile, Peru and Colombia. Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador can keep their “regional leaders”.

There's a pattern here.... now if I could only put my finger on it!
Feb 19th, 2013 - 05:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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ElaineB
@18 I think they mean the hard-left region in this respect.

I do find it funny that anyone would think Argentina considers anyone but their leader to be top dog, as in this article.

I can remember way back watching a Mercosur summit coverage on TV in Argentina. I asked around why Chavez gets so much coverage and was it because he was considered the SoAm Leader. This was met with derision and claims that Chavez was an egotistical clown. No one was superior to Argentina with the exception of, maybe, Brazil because of size alone.

I see a definite and welcome split in South America. We can see now which will be the developed and prosperous countries with developed and prosperous people. Shame about the rest but they HAVE to stay poor and ignorant for their glorious leaders to stay in power; so that is their lot.
Feb 19th, 2013 - 11:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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The Chilean perspective
@ 19 ElaineB
You touch on a good point and one that the masses in these populist regimes don't recognize. These left wing populist rulers get their support from the poor, destitute, government handout dependent folk, so it stands to reason that these rulers need to keep an abundant number of people like this in order to guarantee a support base. In contrast real free market governments who promote people's self sufficiency, the unlocking of the natural entrepreneurial spirit, transparency, and small but effective government are the ones who will eventually deliver their citizens development, sustainable growth and a ticket out of poverty since their support base is the middle class and above. Ironic isn't it.
Feb 19th, 2013 - 12:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Think
(20) The Chilean perspective

You say...:
“Real free market governments who promote people's self sufficiency, the unlocking of the natural entrepreneurial spirit, transparency, and small but effective government are the ones who will eventually deliver their citizens development, sustainable growth and a ticket out of poverty since their support base is the middle class and above.”

I say....:
You are aware that that autoregulated system you, so nicely describe above, did totally and utterly colapse some 80 years ago... Are you?........
Feb 19th, 2013 - 07:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Stevie
I think they have a name for the currency in that system, Fiat currency. Where the value of the currency before 1930-some was backed in gold, it's now backed by hot air.
Constant growth is not at all sustainable, for the natural resources are not renewable at the same pace as we are (ab)using them. The system you so speak so dearly about, is terribly flawed.

Now, you can tell me all this is controllable, but history has shown it is not. The market can't be controlled, and according to many in here, it shouldn'tbe either.
Feb 19th, 2013 - 07:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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MagnusMaster
@20 there is another point that is needed to be made. You see, I did face some Populist intellectuals online in the past. Not just trolls, these guys really do have the intellect to defend what can't be defended under nice arguments. It is true that populism keeps the poor poor intentionally, in a marvelous use of class warfare. But there are people who support populism for what it really is.

I don't know if all the populist politicians believe what the intellectuals use to justify their ideology. Peron looked like a believer, CFK is almost definitely one. You see, the Peronists project their sins to the global arena. They believe that the First World exploits the Third World, that the entire financial system was created by the First World to benefit them and only them, that the state of the world is decided solely by world wars and hence Argentina has no hope of become a First World country. And here's the point: they don't want Argentina to become a first world country, because they don't want to support what they percieve as empires. Instead, they look for “spiritual progress”, as in Cuba. The myth goes that Cuba is a dirt poor totalitarian state, but at least there is no hunger. I'm not sure if it's true but the Peronists believe it. You can forget about First World luxuries like computers and smartphones. The Peronists don't want them, they say a plate of food is better. That's their ideal.

Also remember, just like in Argentina work gets you nowhere, the Peronists believe the world is like that. They think it is better to either undermine the system or to play outside it, because they believe that to behave properly only gets you screwed by USA. I'm pretty sure when the IMF expells Argentina the Peronists will celebrate.
Feb 19th, 2013 - 11:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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