the arizona daily star

Is Ecuador's leader settling old scores?

Aug 13--I'm not a great fan of using psychological profiles to explain people's political leanings, but a report on Ecuador's rabidly anti-U.S. President Rafael Correa, which I read during a visit to Colombia last week, left me wondering.

According to an item in Colombia's newsweekly Semana, Correa's father spent three years in a U.S. prison for smuggling Colombian cocaine into the United States, and committed suicide shortly after his release.
I have long been curious about Correa's claims to be an anti-U.S. leftist "revolutionary." Correa has lived in the United States, and he received a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois.
How could a Ph.D. in economics make public speeches that scare away domestic and foreign investments, trigger capital flight and make the country poorer? Does he know something the rest of us don't know, or is he just posing as a leftist to grab absolute powers?
 
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