Ecuador to refine oil in Venezuela: Correa

[Say_What]

<clips>

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa, who won Sunday's presidential run-off vote, will start sending Ecuadorean oil to refine in Venezuela, he told a local newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.

Correa, who says he admires Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's call for leftist integration in Latin America, beat rival, magnate Alvaro Noboa, in the election to become Ecuador's eighth president in a decade.

..."From January 16 we will send oil to Venezuela to refine," Correa told El Comercio newspaper. "Enough of throwing money out of the window to export crude and import products."

Correa, who spooked Wall Street with talk of debt renegotiation, has also promised to review foreign oil contracts to ensure the state receives a larger share of volume from production.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=winterOlympics&storyID=2006-11-29T152939Z_01_N29341669_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECUADOR-VENEZUELA-ENERGY.xml

[Demeter]

1. Viva Correa!

Now that we have shit-for-brains running US business and business schools, it's great to see that South America is keeping the torch of economic and intellectual honesty aflame!

[ThomCat]

2. Good for Ecuador.

This is a very smart move. And that debt renegotiation would be a good move too.

[Say_What]

3. Businsess Week: A Leftist at the Helm in Ecuador

<clips>

Is Rafael Correa just paying lip-service to defaulting on foreign debt or is he serious? Washington is taking a wait-and-see approach

A leftist economist who has vowed to break off free-trade talks with the U.S. and advocated defaulting on the country's foreign debt has been elected president of Ecuador. But there is no telling whether 43-year-old Rafael Correa will remain in office long enough to carry out the platform that swept him to victory: Ecuador has had seven presidents in the last 10 years, several of them removed by its congress or forced out by violent street protests after just days or months in office.

Correa, running as an independent in a country where traditional political parties are widely discredited, won 57% of the vote to defeat billionaire banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, a populist. But Correa has no political base in Ecuador's congress, and that means he has a tough road ahead: He campaigned on a promise to dissolve the congress and convene a special assembly to completely rewrite Ecuador's constitution, but the congress is likely to block that initiative. "This is a president who will face possible impeachment at every turn," says Patrick Esteruelas, a Latin America analyst for the Eurasia Group, a New York risk consultancy.

Describing himself as a "close friend" of Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chávez, Correa is the latest leftist candidate to win at the polls in Latin America, where voters seem increasingly frustrated with the inability of governments to reduce the poverty that afflicts nearly half of the continent's people, in spite of high world prices for oil and other commodities produced in the region. In early November, Nicaraguans elected former Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega, also friendly with Chávez, and with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as president. By electing Correa, a political outsider, Ecuadorans made it clear that they are frustrated with corruption and incompetence among their country's political class.

...Correa's election further complicates Washington's relations with South America. Correa has said he will cancel a lease for a U.S. military air base on Ecuador's Pacific Coast that is used for drug-interdiction flights when the agreement expires in 2009. "Correa's discourse was strongly critical of the private sector and of foreign influence on Ecuador, which isn't very promising," says Peter DeShazo, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Andean Affairs. DeShazo says Washington is likely to take a wait-and-see approach with Correa, encouraging him to adopt moderate policies and hoping that he doesn't align himself too closely with Chávez, who in a recent U.N. speech referred to President George W. Bush as the "devil."

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2006/db20061128_612667.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index

[RethugAssKicker]

4. While we went Nazi....Latin America is accomplishing

amazing things.... The "leftist" movement is LA is extremely promising...

And the only way they can assure success is to integrate... otherwise the US will certainly destroy them individually... However if they unite, they cannot be stopped!!!

[mom cat]

6. I hope they form solid defence and trade alliances that are even

stronger than what they have now.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Ecuador to seek to rejoin OPEC: Correa

Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Ecuador to seek to rejoin OPEC: Correa

QUITO: Ecuador will seek to rejoin the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, leftist Rafael Correa said Sunday after claiming victory in the South American country's presidential election.

"If if is possible, we will reintegrate OPEC," Correa said at a news conference after exit polls showed he trimphed in Sunday's voting.

"Only united will petroleum producing countries be able to prevail," he said. "We will seek union with other countries to confront the world's hegemonic powers," the leftist economist said.
Ecuador, which produces more than 540,000 barrels of crude a day, left the oil cartel in December 1992. Most of Ecuador's oil exports go to the United States.
(snip/)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=13588



Rafael Correa Delgado