Word: ecuador
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...military firebrand like Chavez, an indigenous standard-bearer like Bolivia's Evo Morales or a former factory worker like Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In fact, five years ago he received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois, and he was briefly Ecuador's finance minister until he was removed last year for publicly excoriating the World Bank. Soon after, Correa launched his leftist Alianza Pais (Country Alliance) Party and positioned himself as the political outsider for the 2006 presidential race. It was a smart move in an impoverished nation whose Congress is best known...
...Bush-bashing is just one part of an election very much defined by U.S.-related issues. One is whether Ecuador will keep letting the U.S. use the Manta air base on the Pacific coast for drug surveillance flights - or if Ecuador will even continue to assist Washington's drug war, particularly the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia. (Correa says he would not renew the Manta treaty when it expires...
...Another is the growing ill will among Ecuadorans toward foreign and U.S. firms like Occidental Petroleum, which recently had its operating contract in Ecuador revoked and $1 billion of its assets there seized for what the government called "unethical and illegal actions." (Occidental denies the charges.) What's more, Correa has pledged to kill free-trade talks with the U.S.; he has threatened to freeze Ecuador's foreign debt payments and says the country's economy should not "indefinitely" remain dollarized. (Ecuador switched its currency to the dollar in 2000.) Says Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank...
...Correa denies suggestions that the oil-rich Chavez is helping to fund his campaign, and Chavez, since watching his outspoken support of the leftist candidates in Peru and Mexico backfire, has been uncharacteristically quiet about Ecuador. But analysts like Shifter notes that Correa, who recently visited Chavez, feels confident he can follow the Venezuelan's lead...
...able to rewrite Venezuela's Constitution, dissolve its Congress and create a new, unicameral National Assembly dominated today by his allies. Correa's fledgling party has submitted no congressional candidates for Sunday's election, an almost sure sign that if he wins, he intends to dissolve and re-create Ecuador's legislature in his own populist image. Like Chavez, "Correa is converting his [organizational] weaknesses into virtues and, under the guise of democracy, he'll fashion a Congress favorable to his political project," says Ramiro Crespo, president of the Quito investment bank Analytica Securities...