Ecuador elects Correa president

With over 85 percent of the votes counted by Nov. 28, Rafael Correa was leading in the second round of the election for president of Ecuador. His opponent, billionaire banana magnate and Washington’s favorite Alvaro Noboa, had less than 42 percent of the vote, compared to Correa’s 58 percent. While Noboa still refused to concede defeat, world leaders were already congratulating Correa on his victory.

The first calls came in from the anti-imperialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and from Brazilian President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva. While the U.S. State Department did not contest the fairness of the elections, it did not congratulate Correa.

During the election campaign, Correa promised to cancel the agreement allowing the United States to use the military base at Manta, located 20 minutes from the borders of Colombia, where there is a revolutionary struggle—both armed and unarmed—against an ultra-right regime. Manta was to be “the main hub for U.S. surveillance flights over” Latin America. (Washington Post, Jan. 25, 2001)

Correa also promised to avoid restarting negotiations for a “Free Trade” Agreement with the United States and to develop friendly relations with Chávez and other progressive Latin American leaders. Correa also said Ecuador could rejoin the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

With a population of over 13 million people, Ecuador is the biggest producers of bananas on the continent and possesses the fourth-biggest supply of petroleum. In April 2005 a mass uprising deposed President Lucio Gutiérrez, who had betrayed his campaign promises by suddenly announcing he was “the best ally of Bush in Latin America.” A year later a mass uprising of peasants and Indigenous peoples threw out Gutiérrez’s successor, Alfredo Palacios.

Now the people of Ecuador have joined those of Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina by electing a declared opponent of Washington’s neoliberal program as its head of government.

—John Catalinotto