Ecuador President Rafael Correa won a landslide second re-election on Monday and immediately vowed to deepen the ‘citizen’s revolution’ that has lifted millions of Ecuadoreans out of poverty as he expanded the welfare state. ‘In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital,’ said the pro-poor US-trained economist after winning 57.9 per cent of the vote against 23.8 per cent for his closest challenger, pro-American banker Guillermo Lasso.
Former President Lucio Gutierrez finished third with 6 per cent. The remainder was divided among five other candidates. Lasso has conceded defeat.
Correa had also dismayed the USA and its client states by granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who had been facing a highly dubious sexual harassment case in Sweden. Assange said that he feared that he might be deported to a third country (the USA) for persecution.
By helping him, Ecuador ‘did what it had to do in the framework of its sovereignty’, said Correa, urging European courts to take up the matter. ‘There can’t be a problem due to asylum, it’s neocolonialism,’ he said.
The fiery-tongued Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him. With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he has raised lower-class living standards and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.
The 48-year-old Correa dedicated his victory to his cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, whom some analysts have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America’s left.
CHAVEZ MAKES SURPRISE RETURN
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez returned to his country on Monday after spending more than two months in Cuba for cancer surgery. 'We have arrived again to the Venezuelan motherland,' Chavez wrote via Twitter. 'Thank you, God. Thank you, my beloved people.'
Former President Lucio Gutierrez finished third with 6 per cent. The remainder was divided among five other candidates. Lasso has conceded defeat.
Correa had also dismayed the USA and its client states by granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who had been facing a highly dubious sexual harassment case in Sweden. Assange said that he feared that he might be deported to a third country (the USA) for persecution.
By helping him, Ecuador ‘did what it had to do in the framework of its sovereignty’, said Correa, urging European courts to take up the matter. ‘There can’t be a problem due to asylum, it’s neocolonialism,’ he said.
The fiery-tongued Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him. With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he has raised lower-class living standards and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.
The 48-year-old Correa dedicated his victory to his cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, whom some analysts have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America’s left.
CHAVEZ MAKES SURPRISE RETURN
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez returned to his country on Monday after spending more than two months in Cuba for cancer surgery. 'We have arrived again to the Venezuelan motherland,' Chavez wrote via Twitter. 'Thank you, God. Thank you, my beloved people.'