Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa began his third term in office today with an inauguration ceremony attended by Latin American leaders and Spain’s Prince Felipe.
Correa, a member of an alliance of left-wing Latin American presidents, won re-election in February this year with about 57 per cent of the vote.
Correa has won broad support from the country’s low-income majority with heavy spending on welfare, health, education and infrastructure projects.
But the U.S.-trained economist has irked investors by using anti-capitalist rhetoric, defaulting on $3.2 billion of debt, making oil companies sign less-profitable service contracts and pushing through a new constitution that gave him more power.
Critics call Correa a dangerous authoritarian who has curbed media freedom and controlled state institutions.
Correa is expected to continue spending heavily on the poor and implementing policies to give the state more control over the economy.
In a sign he wants to deepen socialist reforms, Correa’s legislative agenda includes a new law that would regulate television and newspaper content, part of his on-going confrontation with opposition media. He also plans a land reform campaign to redistribute idle land to the poor.
But he is also expected to make a push to attract more foreign investment.
Correa needs to both improve Ecuador’s stagnant oil production and spur a nascent mining industry. Correa is expected to seek changes to a mining law that would help close a deal with Canada’s Kinross to develop a large gold reserve.
Foreign investment will be key to boosting oil output that has been stagnant for five years and to expanding a mining industry that has barely begun to tap the country’s gold and copper reserves.