A year ago Rafael Correa was the new Finance Minister in a newly formed compromise government created in attempt to stabilize Ecuador. Correa was quickly forced out of the government by the new World Bank President Wolfowitz (see http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/anonymous250805.html for the background). Ecuadorian and international press pointed out that Wolfowitz's tactics would result in polarizing Ecuadorian politics and would free Correa to run for President as an outsider, without the burden of the unpopular compromises he would have had to implement.
No doubt Wolfowitz was rolling the dice in an 'all or nothing' gamble that the hardest line would prevail.
Paul
At 06:54 PM 11/26/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Ecuador leftist ahead in election
>By Patrick Markey
>
>QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa, an ally
>of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, was headed for victory after
>Sunday's run-off for the country's eighth presidency in a decade,
>three exit polls showed.
>
>Correa's rival Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man, dismissed the
>poll results and said he believed he had won the second-round vote.
>He said he could demand a review of the ballots if necessary after
>official results are released.
>
>An election victory by the former finance minister Correa would
>bolster Chavez's campaign to unite left-wing Latin American
>governments in a turf war to counter U.S. influence and free-trade
>policies with his own brand of socialist proposals.
>
>Correa, a U.S.-trained economist who worried Wall Street with talk of
>debt renegotiation, had marketed himself as an outsider to woo
>Ecuadoreans frustrated with poverty and years of instability in the
>world's top banana exporter.
>
>"He has won the candidacy of the people," said Gustavo Larrea, the
>head of Correa's campaign and possible interior minister under his
>government. "We are on a new path and in a new moment."
>
>A Cedatos-Gallups poll and an independent poll carried out for local
>Teleamazonas television showed Correa with around 57 percent of the
>vote while Noboa had around 43 percent. A survey carried out by local
>firm Market for a regional channel showed Correa with 57.9 percent to
>Noboa's 42.01 percent.
>
>Initial official results will be announced later on Sunday.