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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

President Ousted in Ecuador

All I know about this is what I've read in three articles: From CNN, the NY Times, and Narco News. As the NY Times explains it, it sounds like ousted president Gutierrez got elected by pretending to be Hugo Chavez, but turned into Vicente Fox once he was in office:
Mr. Gutiérrez, who had run as a populist friend of the poor, had lost much of his public support almost as soon as he took office. Ecuadoreans felt increasingly alienated with Mr. Gutiérrez's implementation of austere economic policies, which pleased the International Monetary Fund, and his relatively warm relationship with the United States. Wall Street gave Mr. Gutiérrez solid marks - the economy grew at more than 6 percent last year - and the Bush administration appreciated that Ecuador permitted an expansion of the American military presence along the troubled border with Colombia.
I think we'll see more and more of this--countries trying to extricate themselves from the American economic and military claws.