Left-winger Correa wins Ecuador presidency

[upi402]

QUITO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Leftist candidate Rafael Correa claimed victory in Sunday's presidential runoff in Ecuador after three exit polls and a quick count of votes showed he was enjoying a comfortable majority in the race.

The unofficial quick count on sample votes from 1,607 of all the 36,000 voting stations nationwide showed the former financial minister won 56.3 percent of the votes, while his major rival, banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, got 43.1 percent. It was conducted by the citizens election watchdog group Participation Ciudadana, who said the margin of error of its count was less than one percentage point.

Two exiting polls by the Teleamazonas television and Participation Ciudadana showed Correa won 57 percent of the votes, while Vozy Voto television's poll gave him 58 percent.

The official result is expected later on Sunday published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/27/content_5394493.htm

exit polls show;

[bluestateguy]

1. Correct me if I;m wrong, but isn't Colombia the only South American nation controlled by the Right?

nt

[Doctor_J]

2. Yes, things are not stacking up well for us when the next WW comes

Unless the US, Israel, and Columbia can somehow beat the entire rest of the world.

[Phredicles]

23. Don't forget Poland.

Or did they come to their senses too?

[Flanker]

3. After this election sorta

At least clearly rightwing... Paraguay has also a conservative govermnet but it is closely allied with the left (granted geography) but Peru with Garcia is allied with the right, even if his party is center-left... That is the #1 reason I enjoyed the democratic victory, it will send that arrogant bastard back home with no trade agreement and his tail between his legs. Also dunno about Suriname

Granted there are rumors about the lame duck congress passing the trade agreement but what do I know.

[NuttyFluffers]

8. notice no one ever really knows about suriname?

i have half my family from latin america, particularly south america, and for generations no one seems to know anything that happens out of suriname. it's like the forbidden country. i've been told that colombia has always had issues with guerilla war, with usually 2, often 3 "militaries" ravaging the countryside; and colombian raids into ecuador, peru, venezuela, by their militaries/paramilitaries has been endemic through the generations (perhaps a direct correlation to western powers attempts at neo-colonization). and when i ask about guyana, suriname, and french guinea all you ever hear about is how no one in the rest of south america really knows anything about them. apparently their news has always been very tightly controlled and little information truly exited and circulated among the rest of the latin american nations.

all i know about suriname, and this was from a PBS documentary barely touching upon it, was that it is predominantly south asian indian controlled, due to the slave trade. and the fascinating thing is a lot of the cultural traditions have been kept. kinda like how fiji government has essentially been taken over by south asians from results of the slave trade, or how singapore, malaysia, and philippines have been essentially controlled by several generational chinese families through the background (also have plenty relatives from around there as well).

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Technically, those 3 aren't "Latin America"

having been colonies of Britain and the Netherlands (though I suppose you can make a case for French Guiana being a Latin colony). But they were all colonies until after World War 2, so their history, as well as their languages, are quite different from Latin America - in many ways, they're Caribbean. They're also very small - total population of all 3 is just 1.4 million, way smaller than any other South American country.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Didn't know they are so tiny! Thank you for the illumination. n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. They don't even group with South America in World Cup qualifiers.

They're part of the CONCACAF along with North & Central America & the Caribbean.

[musiclawyer]

29. Like English speaking Trinidad and Tobago,

which is only a stones throw from Venezuela, I think. T & T plays in CONCACAF. T & T has made it official policy to have the whole county be bilingual (English and Spanish) By the year 2020. They're smart. They figured out that their economic future is tied to the Spanish speaking world, way beyond any other.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Spot on about T&T. -nt

[Flanker]

21. I know a bit about Guyana seeing as they are our neighbors

But Suriname is certainly more secluded, both have lots of south indians from british times which constrats a lot.

Of course they are South American and part of the CSN that removed visas for all its members so I have no excuse in not visiting.

[mom cat]

19. And Columbia is only controlled by the hard right because of the

massive "aid" it recieves from the US. It ranks third on the list of US aid after Isreal (#1) and Egypt(#2).

[antiimperialist]

34. Uribe is not from "the right"

Alvaro Uribe, Colombian president, belonged to the moderate wing of the Liberal party before leaving and forming his own group, who took him to the presidency.
He is a moderate.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Here's the Bloomberg article:Ecuador Exit Polls Show Correa Wins Presidential Vote

Ecuador Exit Polls Show Correa Wins Presidential Vote (Update2)

By Helen Murphy

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador's former Finance Minister Rafael Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, won today's presidential election, exit polls showed.

Correa, 43, who has advocated defaulting on the nation's debt, led the race with 56.8 percent of the vote, based on an exit poll by Quito-based Cedatos/Gallup International. Alvaro Noboa, 55, Ecuador's largest banana exporter, had 43.2 percent, the pollster said. Two other exit polls also showed Correa in the lead.

Ecuador's benchmark bonds fell to a six-week low Friday on concern Correa, who served a four-month stint as finance minister in 2005, would win today's election. Since leading the first-round vote last month, Noboa, 55, has used Correa's ties with Chavez to paint his opponent as a socialist and puppet of Venezuela.

``The attacks on Correa were excessive and probably backfired, leaving Correa appearing victimized,'' said Gianfranco Bertozzi, a Latin American economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York. ``Suddenly he became an underdog, which is often a good place to be in Ecuador in an election.''
(snip/...)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a89.DhJoVwD0&refer=news

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



If Rafael Correa wins, the better man will most clearly have won this one.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Well, I was going to say "Hallelujah!," but I won't until tomorrow.

Mexico's election of Lopez Obrador mysteriously reversed during the night--much like Kerry's win in '04.

But this looks damned impressive. 56% to 58%! I had just read a day or two ago that the winger was gaining on Correa due to Correa's criticism of Bush, and that it was very close. (He had repeated Hugo Chavez's remark that Bush is "the devil"). Now I wish I'd saved the article because it may be a classic of AP disinformation. (I'm pretty sure it was AP--and, boy, are they bad on South American leftists! Pee-uuuh!)

If this holds up, it will be a MAJOR sock in the nose to Bush--and a huge victory for the people of Ecuador and Latin America. There is nothing the Dark Lords wanted more than to knock out Correa and stop this anti-neoliberal, pro-democracy, pro-self-determination trend!

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador. All gone leftist (majorityist). Peacefully. Virtually the entire map of the continent has gone "blue." (Bright blue!)

Peru will be next, after Garcia wrecks their economy with "free trade." The leftist, Ollanta Humala, came out of nowhere this year--no political experience, no money--and almost won. After Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales endorsed him, he increased his vote total by 15% in the final vote. I think his final total was 45%. In the primary, this complete unknown won 30% of the vote and knocked the rightwing candidate out of the race. So the Bushites had to go with leftist (sort of) Garcia. But Garcia is very corrupt. Humala is 100% indigenous, like Evo Morales--which is why Morales' and Chavez's endorsement of him WON him votes--contrary to AP's and other US war profiteering news monopolies' disinformation that they hurt him. Where did that 15% increase come from? Certainly not from the right. It came from the Andes indians, who couldn't care less about colonial-era borders. AP & co. were trying to CREATE the illusion that being anti-Bush is bad, and were using the kneejerk idea that people get huffy about "interference" from neighboring states. Har-har. Bush is POURING money--OUR money--into the Chavez opposition in Venezuela as we speak--and they appear to be plotting a coup again. Talk about interference. Anyway, what they are trying to hide from the American people is that Chavez is really very, very popular in his region and throughout South America. The self-determination movement that he is leading--the Bolivarian revolution--has very widespread support, and is coming from the bottom up. South Americans have had it with Bush and U.S. interference. I'm sure this also contributed to Correa's win.

That leaves Colombia--where the rightwing is vacuuming up money from the Bush Junta (OUR money)--$600 MILLION this year alone for military aid. Paraguay--weak government, where the Bush Cartel apparently is buying a 100,000 acre enclave--and have poured money (OUR money) into a state-of-the-art military air base. I figure maybe, plans to conduct a private corporate war against these neighboring democracies, after they're finished looting us and destroying Iraq?

And a couple of tiny countries like Guyana. I have no idea what's going on there.

In central America, Daniel Ortega (leader of the Sandinista revolution back in the day) was just elected president of Nicaragua (scene of Reagan's bloody war). And Mexico is also undergoing a leftist revolution--although they are having a harder time of it, due to proximity to the US, and Bushite/corporate fascism. But it's a huge movement in Mexico, that will win in the end. (Guatemala and Honduras are in serious difficulty, with rightwing governments. I hope the sweet winds of justice and democracy blow in there soon.)

As Evo Morales has said: "The time of the people has come."

Viva la revolución!

[upi402]

7. Correa will close the last remaining US base

This must sound like fingernails on the chalk board to BushCo.
I hope Correa is very careful.

[upi402]

6. NYT; Ecuador’s Path and Alliances at Stake in Runoff Election

...Rafael Correa, a candidate in Sunday’s runoff, strums a guitar before audiences between promises to whip Ecuador’s political elite with his belt and shut the last American military base in South America. He chastises the Bush administration in the polished English he learned while earning a doctorate in economics at the University of Illinois.

Álvaro Noboa, his rival, is a billionaire who hands out free computers and fistfuls of dollars at his rallies. Mr. Noboa, a banana tycoon who is Ecuador’s richest man, dropped to his knees this month at a campaign stop to ask for votes as a self-described “messiah of the poor.”

But the contest is far more than entertaining; the outcome could actually redraw power relations in Latin America.

Mr. Noboa, 56, surprised analysts by winning the first round of voting in October and maintaining a double-digit lead for much of the past month. A victory by Mr. Noboa, who has failed in two other campaigns for the presidency, would align Ecuador, an oil-exporting country of 13 million people, with Andean countries like Colombia and Peru that have strengthened ties with the United States....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/world/americas/26ecuador.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fC%2fChavez%2c%20Hugo&oref=slogin

[Peace Patriot]

9. You gotta give the NY Times credit for trying. I like this phrase:

"...with Andean countries LIKE Colombia and Peru." (emphasis added)

But that's it. Colombia and Peru. There are NO OTHER Andean countries "like" them. And Peru teeters on leftist revolt--only a matter of time.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, in solidarity--with allies all over the continent. Lula da Silva, the former steelworker president of Brazil (who led the third world 20-country revolt at the WTO in Cancun in 2003) made a point to visit Chavez last week--a few weeks before the Venezuelan elections (which Chavez will win handily)--for the opening of the Orinoco River bridge. Lulu's unspoken message was this: Hands off, Bush! (re: the rich oil elite's plotting in Venezuela, with boffo bucks from the US (OUR money) and a whole PR firm from Washington DC, which is promulgating phony polls--truly phony--that say it's close, in order to foment riots and a military coup, when Chavez wins. All five reputable and objective polls say Chavez is ahead by 20% to 30%).

South America isn't going to sit back for more interference. Hands off, Bush! "The time of the people has come."

[upi402]

12. Maybe they can

march some freedom our way. I am sick of Republicans and their media snuffing any spark of hope out in America for poor and working folks. When Chavez beat back a pitbull rightist media and then pretty much let them be after he had power returned, that was a shining moment.

[Judi Lynn]

10. FACTBOX-Key proposals from Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa

FACTBOX-Key proposals from Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa
Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:46pm ET

~snip~
Here are some of Correa's key proposals:

ECONOMY:

- Audit the country's foreign bonds to determine "illegal" debt that he says his government will not pay.

- Keep the U.S. dollar as the country's official currency.

- Not sign a free trade agreement with the United States.

- Restructure foreign debt to lower coupon and extend maturities on more expensive bonds to boost social spending.

ENERGY:

- Renegotiate contracts with foreign oil companies to hike the volume of crude oil received by the state.

- Seek foreign investment in more expensive and riskier oil projects.
- Seek to renew Ecuador's membership with OPEC.

POLITICS:

- Call for popular vote to decide on a constituent assembly with broad powers to rewrite the constitution.

- Use constituent assembly to end political parties' influence over top courts and other institutions.

- Use constituent assembly to overhaul electoral system.
(snip/)

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-27T024618Z_01_N26424041_RTRIDST_0_ECUADOR-ELECTION-FACTBOX.XML&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage2

[antiimperialist]

11. with 19% of votes counted, Correa leads

65% to 34%:

Follow official results here:
http://www.tse.gov.ec/Resultados2006_2v/

[upi402]

13. Thanks & welcome

:hi:
Do they really divide the count between men and women?
Look spretty even now...
halftime:popcorn:

[Vidar]

14. Kudos to Correa.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Leftist wins Ecuador presidential race: partial results

Nov. 27, 2006, 3:52AM
Leftist wins Ecuador presidential race: partial results

By MONTE HAYES
Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador — A leftist economist who called for Ecuador to cut ties with international lenders appeared to have easily won the presidency of this poor, politically unstable Andean nation, strengthening South America's tilt to the left.

Partial returns from Sunday's voting showed that Rafael Correa — who has worried Washington with calls to limit foreign debt payments — would join left-leaning leaders in Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela, where he is friends with anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez.

The returns showed Correa with as many as twice the votes recorded as for his banana tycoon rival, who claimed the polls were rigged.

Correa was a fresh face in a field of established politicians, and won a place in Sunday's runoff by pledging a "citizens' revolution" against Ecuador's discredited political system.

During the campaign, he called for Ecuador to cut ties with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Correa, who has called President Bush "dimwitted," also wants to hold a referendum to rewrite the constitution to reduce the power of traditional parties and limit U.S. military activities in Ecuador.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4361188.html

[Demeter]

18. Washington Post Take on Upset

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/26/AR2006112600311.html?referrer=email

First Returns Indicate Win For Ecuadoran Reformer

By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 27, 2006; A12



QUITO, Ecuador, Nov. 26 -- Early returns suggested that a young reformer promising to break free from the country's traditional power brokers defeated the nation's wealthiest man in Sunday's election to become Ecuador's eighth president in a decade.

The race between economist Rafael Correa, 43, and banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, 56, offered voters a choice between conflicting views of the nation's role in a globalized world. If Correa wins, Ecuador will join Venezuela and Bolivia as Andean countries led by presidents who are critical of U.S. influence in the region and advocate a greater state role in the economy.

Correa opposes U.S.-backed trade pacts that he says work against Ecuador's interests. He promises not to renew U.S. rights to a military base used for anti-drug operations. And he has threatened to not pay foreign debts he considers illegitimate and to instead use the money to increase social spending. Noboa had argued that an unrestrained free market was key to wooing foreign investment, and he pledged to cut ties with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, whom Correa considers a friend.



Claiming victory before the official results, Correa called his win a defeat for a "political mafia" that he said had ruled the country for decades and implemented free-market, neo-liberal economic policies that the United States promoted in Latin America in the 1980s and '90s...Correa, who received a doctorate at the University of Illinois, emerged as an attractive outsider for those voters who were seeking change after congressional conflicts and public unrest had ousted the last three elected presidents. He finished second behind Noboa in a first-round vote last month, but since has toned down his revolutionary rhetoric, reassuring some who feared that his more radical proposals -- including a pledge to convene a constituent assembly and dismantle the National Congress -- could result in more instability....

[WinkyDink]

20. The tide is turning. Corporate America must be running scared.

The South American poor are rising up, and Chavez is their leader.

[David__77]

22. Excellent!

US hegemony must be countered. A new force is emerging that is good for the world - an "axis of good."

[Judi Lynn]

25. Interesting personal profile from BBC News:

Last Updated: Monday, 27 November 2006, 13:21 GMT
Profile: Ecuador's Rafael Correa



Mr Correa says he will strike out at corruption

Pledging a "civilian revolution", Rafael Correa, the man who looks set to lead Ecuador for the next four years, has made much of the fact he is not a traditional political figure.
The 43-year-old economist - who served briefly as finance minister in the outgoing interim administration - is seen as a fresh face in a country which has had eight presidents in the past decade.

Described as charismatic and energetic, Mr Correa appeared at campaign rallies brandishing a leather belt (a play on his name - correa means belt) to show how he would deal with corruption.

During his government, he has said, "the people will have the opportunity to punish the oligarchy and the political parties".

The left-wing Mr Correa did not support any candidates in the congressional election, because he is seeking a referendum to rewrite the constitution and restructure Congress.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6187364.stm

[Say_What]

26. Bush Loses Election in Ecuador

<clips>

Correa’s victory is the latest setback not just for Bush but also for the model of corporate globalization that Washington has been imposing on Latin America for fifteen years now.

The Bush Administration has lost another election, this time in Ecuador.

Populist Rafael Correa triumphed over the richest man in the country, Alvaro Noboa, a banana tycoon.

During the campaign, Correa thumbed his nose at Bush, calling him “dimwitted.” And Correa vowed to reject a free trade deal with the United States, to close a U.S. military base there, and to discard some of the foreign debts his country has accumulated, which he calls “illegitimate.”

Correa’s victory is the latest setback not just for Bush but for the model of corporate globalization that Washington has been imposing on Latin America for fifteen years now.

One country after another has spat out the toxic medicine: from Argentina and Bolivia to Uruguay and Venezuela.

And there’s good reason for it: The imposition of the Washington model has brought a decline in living standards throughout the continent.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx112706


Ecuadorean presidential candidate Rafael Correa laughs at a newspaper headline that reads, 'The Cod Won', in reference to the nickname of 'Cod' that rival candidate Alvaro Noboa pinned to Correa during their election campaigns, during a news conference in Guayaquil November 27, 2006. Initial election results early on Monday showed Correa had won 68.16 percent of the votes while his conservative rival, banana tycoon Noboa had 31.84 percent with almost half of the ballot boxes counted. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez (ECUADOR)


Ecuadorean presidential candidate Rafael Correa celebrates on stage with supporters in Quito November 26, 2006. Correa appeared close to victory in Sunday's presidential run-off election after exit polls and unofficial counts showed he had surged ahead of his banana magnate rival. REUTERS/Guillermo Granja (ECUADOR)


Supporters of Rafael Correa celebrate in Guayaquil, after learning that the first unofficial exit polls results show their candidate leading in the runoff presidential elections, Sunday Nov. 26, 2006.(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

[Peace Patriot]

27. Thanks for the photos! What a sweet victory this is! Viva la revolución! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

28. Memorable Progressive link, too! Excellent excerpt:

That governments in Latin America have been able to get away with these acts of rebellion is nothing short of astonishing, given the historical record of the last 100 years. It has been a fixed star of U.S. policy during all this time that no country in Latin America could defy the wishes of Washington. Fidel Castro was the exception that gnawed at the pride of Presidents. No repeats were supposed to be allowed. And so the United States helped overthrow Goulart in Brazil and Bosch in the Dominican Republic and Allende in Chile and Aristide in Haiti.

The Bush Administration tried to maintain the practice by supporting a coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002. But much to its chagrin, the coup makers proved inept, and the Venezuelan military refused to turn on Chavez, who quickly regained his post.

Now with versions of socialism flourishing in countries throughout Latin America, including in Brazil and Chile, the ability of Washington to keep playing its hemispheric bullying role is greatly attenuated. In part, the people of Latin America have benefited from Bush’s “war on terror” obsession and his Iraq War debacle, which have consumed the attention and resources of his Administration. As a result, Washington has not been able to grind its heal to the south. And in part, the people of Latin America have simply reasserted their power. Done en masse, this is too potent a force for an aging empire to counteract.
(snip)

Hope their luck holds out.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

31. Correa to Noboa: "Now HERE is what you should do with all those surplus bananas..."

The rest of the statement is left as an exercise for the reader. :evilgrin:

[IndianaGreen]

33. Noboa is a Bible-thumping Xtian fundie who is friends with the Rockefellers

and the Kennedys.

The super rich are all pals when it comes to profits.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Ecuador's President-Elect Uncompromising

Nov 28, 6:16 PM EST

Ecuador's President-Elect Uncompromising

By MONTE HAYES
Associated Press Writer



Rafael Correa talks with reporters outside of his office in Quito, Ecuador, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006. Correa is the new elected President of Ecuador according to the latest results of the Electoral Court. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa R.)

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador's president-elect Rafael Correa was once a Boy Scout, later a social worker in an impoverished highland Indian village and now describes himself as a Christian leftist.

Childhood friends still recall Correa's natural leadership abilities and strong character on the soccer field.

But during his run for the presidency, the tall and charismatic nationalist picked up a reputation for also being confrontational and uncompromising, traits that could add to Ecuador's political instability when he takes office in January.

Correa, a friend of Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, defeated banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, 56, in Sunday's presidential runoff.

He has called Ecuadorean democracy a "partydocracy" designed to benefit parties rather than people, a view shared by many voters fed up with corruption, greed and incompetence in the political establishment.
(snip/...)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ECUADOR_PRESIDENT_ELECT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-11-28-18-16-50

[Judi Lynn]

35. Ecuador to review oil contracts

Ecuador to review oil contracts
Posted on : Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:42:00 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador, Dec. 1 (UPI) Ecuador's president-elect, Rafael Correa, has said the country will review all contracts with foreign oil companies.

We will begin reviewing the oil contracts (with foreign oil companies operating in Ecuador), he told El Comercio newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. "We cannot allow them to take four out of every five barrels and leave just one for us. And we will use the money from increased oil prices which was put in the CERPES, which was a good idea by the government, to begin investing in refineries, transport, storage, and hydroelectric generation.He said his plan would go into effect Jan. 16, one day after he takes office.

CERPES refers to the country's Special Account for Productive and Social Reactivation.

In the interview, Correa, Latin America's latest elected leftist leader, also said he will send oil to be refined in Venezuela.
(snip/...)

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/11014.html

[CJCRANE]

36. How come the exit polls in Ecuador are so accurate? n/t