Ecuador's president-elect heads to Brazil for meeting with Silva

[Judi Lynn]

(Apologies to Ken Burch! Hey, I just copy and paste these headlines, I don't write'em!)

Ecuador's president-elect heads to Brazil for meeting with Silva
The Associated PressPublished: December 7, 2006

QUITO, Ecuador: President-elect Rafael Correa headed to Brazil on Thursday for talks on major projects with President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva on his first trip abroad since the Nov. 26 election runoff.

Correa, a 43-year-old leftist economist who calls himself a "personal friend" of Venezuela's anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez, was traveling to the capital of Brasilia aboard a Brazilian air force plane sent by Silva.

Correa, who takes office Jan. 15, has said he will discuss Ecuador's budget deficit with Brazil and "enormous joint projects that we have to push," including a highway from the Brazilian river port of Manaos to Manta, a Pacific port in Ecuador.

Correa also plans to meet with officials of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, Brazilian businessmen and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin.
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/07/america/LA_GEN_Ecuador_Brazil.php



Rafael Correa Delgado, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

[bemildred]

1. Ecuador's president-elect toasts leftist victories in Latin America

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia: Ecuadorean President-elect Rafael Correa, declaring leftist election victories are remaking Latin America's political landscape, plunged Friday into a crowd of Indians in bowler hats, trade unionists and leftists before a South American summit here.

Before meeting his future colleagues at an official summit, Correa joined a "people's summit" on the sidelines of the two-day meeting opening in this central Bolivian city.

A populist who espouses reforms for his small, poor Andean nation, the U.S.-trained economist is the newest leftist to join his ideologically friendly neighbors in the region.

Poor Indians in brightly woven skirts and men in dusty sandals joined other leftists who cheered him as he spoke of bringing better housing, education and health programs to those long marginalized in Latin America — ambitious ideas that resonated on a continent where tens of millions still live in poverty.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/09/america/LA_GEN_Bolivia_Summit_Correa.php

[Vidar]

2. Latin America gives me hope.