Leftist Rafael Correa swiftly moved to implement radical reforms following his inauguration as Ecua-dor's eighth president in a decade, calling for a national referendum on retooling the Constitution and vowing to renegotiate the country's foreign debt.
In a ceremony on Monday that drew some of Washington's fiercest foes, the 43-year-old US-educated economist raised a sword given to him by Venezuelan firebrand Hugo Chavez and was sworn in as the newest member of Latin America's club of leftist leaders.
Correa, a charismatic political outsider who won election in a November runoff, said he would work for an "economic revolution" in Ecuador that would emphasize the renegotiating of foreign debt, "paying only what we can after attending to the needs of the poor."
And in keeping with a campaign promise to seek a new constitu-tion, Correa issued a decree calling for a national referendum on March 18 on the need for a constitutional assembly. Correa says a new constitution is vital to limiting the power of the traditional parties that he blames for the country's problems.
Correa, who has a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois, said the end of the "long neoliberal night" was at hand, declaring the free-market policies promoted by Washington since the 1980s failed to help Ecuador develop.
His remarks drew applause from several US antagonists, from Chavez to Bolivian President Evo Morales and Iran's hardline leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as from more moderate left-leaning leaders from Brazil, Chile, Peru and Nicaragua.
Correa said some of the debt arranged by previous governments was the result of corruption and that an international tribunal should be set up to decide what debt should be repaid.
In September, Correa said the nation cannot afford its US$2 billion debt service, representing 7 percent of the country's GDP.
"Ecuador cannot pay more than 3 percent," he said at the time.
On Monday, accepting Cha-vez's gift of a replica of liberation hero Simon Bolivar's sword, Correa addressed the gathered leaders and said they all now share a new responsibility.
"The people won't forgive us if we don't advance the integration of our America," he said.
The eighth president in 10 years for a nation marked by chronic political instability since it returned to democracy in 1979, Correa also launched a blistering attack on the political class.
Ecuador has "a perverse system that has destroyed our democracy, our economy and our society," he said.
"Our leadership has failed. We want a democracy where our voice is heard, where our representatives understand that they are there to serve us," Correa said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS