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Ecuador elects latest Latin American leftist to presidencyAFP/Paul Navarrete
Ecuadorean presidential candidate Rafael Correa waves to supporters celebrating his victory in the run-off presidential election in Quito. Correa, joined the tide of leftist leaders elected to office in Latin America, according partial results of Ecuador's run-off presidential election.
By Patrick Moser
AFP
QUITO
Petroleumworld.com 11 28 06Ecuador's Rafael Correa, a friend of Venezuela's anti-US president, has joined the tide of leftist leaders elected to office in Latin America, according to partial electoral results out Monday.
His election marked another blow to Washington's hope to regain some of the influence it lost in the region, and came on the heels of the electoral comeback in Nicaragua of US Cold War foe Daniel Ortega.
In his first statements after claiming victory in Sunday's voting, Correa said he would seek stronger ties with Venezuela, reiterated his opposition to a free-trade deal with the United States and insisted he would not renew the lease for a US military air base on Ecuador's Pacific Coast.
Caracas welcomed what it said was the election of another Latin American ally.
Washington reacted cautiously, saying it was willing to work with any democratic government in the region
A projection gave Correa 57 percent to 43 percent for his rival Alvaro Noboa, a conservative, Bible-thumping banana baron.
With tallies in from over 60 percent of the polling stations Monday afternoon, Correa had 63 percent, but the vote count was delayed for several hours in a Noboa stronghold as authorities considered, and eventually rejected, a request to recount those ballots already tallied.
Correa celebrated his triumph late Sunday night, calling out "until victory always" -- the slogan of late iconic revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara -- to cheers from thousands of supporters.
He announced that Ecuador, which produces more than 540,000 barrels of crude a day, would apply to rejoin the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which it quit in 1992.
Correa has stirred unease in financial markets with his calls to revise foreign oil companies' contracts in Ecuador, renegotiate the nation's foreign debt and expel the World Bank representative.
His friendship with Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, and his determination not to renew the lease for the US military base near Manta have caused concern in Washington.
"It would be wonderful to move closer to a country like Venezuela, which can help us a lot because it has 53 billion dollars in cash reserves as a result of the oil surplus," Correa said after claiming victory.
Venezuela's ambassador to Ecuador, Oscar Navas, hailed the leftist's apparent victory. "Rafael Correa is another ally," he told journalists.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was willing to work with a democratic Ecuadoran government, as it does with Bolivia, whose President Evo Morales is a strong Chavez ally.
A former finance minister who describes himself as a "humanist, leftist Christian," Correa says he is a representative of the "new Latin American left."
Leftist leaders, some more moderate than others, govern in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, as well as Nicaragua and Venezuela, where Chavez looks certain of winning re-election on Sunday after eight years in office.
Correa's election dashed Washington's hopes that Ecuador would join Colombia and Mexico in electing conservative presidents, helping counterbalance the regional influence of Chavez and his Bolivian ally, said Vladimir Sierra, a political analyst at the Quito Catholic University.
Noboa, who insisted after Sunday's voting that he was headed to victory, said he would not comment on the outcome until the full official results are out, while some of his supporters demanded ballot recounts.
"There are visceral reactions, but I hope they calm down and accept the reality," Correa said.
McCormack, for his part, said the election appeared to have been "pretty transparent, free and fair."
AFP 27 2250 GMT 11 06
Copyright© 2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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