Rafael Correa

A conversation with author Japhy Wilson about his recent book examining Rafael Correa's plans for the Amazon during his time as president of Ecuador.

NACLA Radio’s Alex Hall spoke with John Coatsworth, Latin American Historian and Provost of Columbia University, about Edward Snowden's political asylum request to Ecuador. Listen to his analysis of the political and economic implications President Rafael Correa’s decision could have in regard to relations with the United States.

Incumbent Rafael Correa is the clear frontrunner in Ecuador. So journalists are finding new ways to cover the country's upcoming presidential election.

On September 30, CNN's correspondent in Ecuador, Rodolfo Muñoz, resigned after 14 years on the job. That day Muñoz had covered a police revolt that paralyzed Ecuador, in what President Rafael Correa called a coup attempt. Muñoz's decision to quit raises questions about how the U.S. media covered the crisis.

When Rudolfo Muñoz, a reporter working in Ecuador for CNN, resigned from the cable news channel in the immediate aftermath of the September 30 political turmoil, not a single noteworthy U.S. news outlet—including CNN—bothered to report on his departure. Fittingly, Muñoz said that CNN had a "distinct slant" and "acted as if nothing happened" despite "proof that [police forces] tried to kill the president." While it is still unclear whether the violent events of September 30 constituted an attempted coup, as President Rafael Correa claimed, Muñoz's critique raises questions about how the crisis was covered in the U.S. mainstream media.

Beginning his fourth year as president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa confronts a major challenge from some of the very social actors that propelled him into office. In an address to the country in early January, Correa expressed his ire with a "coming series of conflicts this month, including indigenous mobilizations, workers, media communications, and even a level of the armed forces."

Outside of Ecuador, most progressives consider President Rafael Correa to be a Leftist champion of social and economic justice. Inside the country, however, conflicts between Correa and the social movement Left—the indigenous movement, environmentalists and unions, among others—have become increasingly heated.

Ecuador was in a festive mood May 1 as tens of thousands rallied in Quito to celebrate International Workers’ Day.

Well-pressed white shirts covered the limbs of a few hundred bodies at the opposition march against Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's administration. I happened upon this march last month in north Quito's Parque Carolina. The January 24 march was "in solidarity" with a much larger march of 130,000 in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, in support of that city's Social Christian Party (PSC) mayor, Jaime Nebot. The Guayaquil mayor is quickly becoming the fractured opposition's most likely national leader.