Ecuador Candidate Defends Chavez Ties

Washington Post
Sep 25, 2006
by GONZALO SOLANO

"A symbol of sovereignty is to not have foreign soldiers on national
soil," he said. The only way the U.S. military presence would
continue in Ecuador was if Washington allowed "an Ecuadorean military
base in Miami," he said.

Correa said he does not see what the problem is in his friendship
with Chavez, Latin America's leading anti-U.S. crusader who called
President Bush "the devil" at the U.N. last week.

"I am honored by the friendship," he said. "If I am a friend of
Chavez, 'What a mistake!' If I were a friend of George Bush, they
would have elected me man of the year," Correa, 43, told foreign
correspondents.

But Correa denied accusations from conservative political rivals that
Chavez is financing his presidential run in a field of 13 candidates
ahead of the Oct. 15 election.

"How is he going to help me? First of all it's prohibited under
election law, and second our campaign is the most austere," he said
even though Correa's image on billboards and T-shirts is everywhere.
He said his supporters are downloading campaign propaganda from his
Web site and reproducing it on their own.

Chavez has been accused of meddling in elections this year in Peru,
Mexico and Nicaragua to boost leftist candidates. He already counts
Cuba's Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales as his allies
in the region.

Correa, a U.S.-trained economist with a doctorate from the University
of Illinois, leads his closest challenger Leon Roldos, a center-left
former vice president, in the polls.

The results of a simulated ballot, released on Saturday by
independent firm Market, gave Correa 26.4 percent support, as opposed
to 19.5 percent for Roldos. It surveyed 1,280 people who took part.
The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Those results have spooked foreign investors.

On Monday, Correa said he would seek to renegotiate Ecuador's foreign
debt service, but would not rule out a moratorium on payments to
international lenders "if there isn't openness on the part of the
markets, multinationals and governments."

"The world is recognizing that the (International) Monetary Fund and
World Bank have not been a part of the solution, but rather the
problem," he said. "Life and national commitments come first, before
the pockets of creditors and supposed international commitments."

He said Ecuador cannot afford its current $2 billion debt service,
representing 7 percent of the country's gross domestic
product. "Ecuador cannot pay more than 3 percent," he said.

Correa said he would overhaul contracts with foreign oil firms for
Ecuador to retain a greater share of petroleum wealth and expressed
hope that Ecuador could eventually abandon the U.S. dollar as its
official currency.

Correa served for four months as outgoing President Alfredo Palacio's
economy minister. Palacio demanded his resignation in August 2005 for
failing to consult him before publicly lambasting the World Bank over
its denial of a $100 million loan.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the ballot _ or at least
40 percent with a 10-percentage point advantage over the nearest
challenger _ a runoff will be held on Nov. 26 between the two top
finishers.

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