Ecuador Research Paper

Research Paper
Ecuador

Ecuador, a small country that rests on the north western part of South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator, between Colombia and Peru. Ecuador gained their independence on May 24, 1822 from Spain. Ecuador only has a population of about 13 million people, and the capital is Quito. The country is divided into 22 provinces, Guayaquil being the largest in Ecuador. The have a democratic republic government, and the current president is, Rafael Correa Delgado and has been the president since 2007. People consider president Rafael Correa Delgado to be a good president with his principles, but also has his flaws as he seeks to make Ecuador a communist country, which many native citizens of the country reject
the idea. Ecuador is governed by the new and revised constitution of 1998.
Their government setup is basically almost the same as the United States, their executive branch is run by the elected president, and the president can only serve a term of 4 years, and can also not serve consecutive terms. President Rafael Correa is seen as the head of state and also head of the government. Ecuador’s legislature consists of 100 elected officials, that like the president can serve for 4 years term. What makes the country very hard to believe that its government is lasting this long is because of the amount of changes that Ecuador’s government has had to adapt too. The revisions of their constitutions from 1978 to 1998 changes drastically as Ecuador adapted significant institutional reforms throughout the years. These reforms were mainly taken from our constitution, ever since Ecuador introduced the American dollar to the nation as its currency. Ever since then Ecuador has been adapting and borrowing more ideas from the American culture as they feel it will help with its success as a more democratic country. This was just a basic overview of Ecuador and its government. The main concern that I’m focusing on is the issue that Ecuador’s government has with its economy, and the idea of converting the nations government to a
communism. Political instability has plagued and ruined Ecuador in recent years, and following that Ecuador has witnessed a procession of incompetent and corrupt leaders. 8 different presidents have risen to and fallen from power in the last ten years, and Ecuadorians were generally frustrated with their politicians and the way that they are trying to govern the nation, as is often demonstrated in street protests. In April 2005, popular protest against unconstitutional actions by former President Lucio Gutierrez brought an early end to his term as president.
The new constitution gives the executive branch more control, and allows 2 consecutive 4 year terms for the president, vice president and National Assembly members, which is basically like their congress. While many Ecuadorian citizens welcome the idea of a more stable government with longer elected terms, opponents fear the president’s increase in power could lead to autocracy, and which is a form a government that one person is the ultimate ruler of the nation. The new constitution also includes Ecuador’s first bill of rights extending unalienable rights to nature.
But due to all these problems in the government, there has been less of a focus on the economy, which is what the Ecuadorian citizens were worrying the most about. The economy was so bad that the government has actually in a way forced people to agree to blackouts every once in a while during the week. These blackouts consisted of a providence of Ecuador having absolutely no electricity for a couple hours to preserve the cost of electricity and help out with the economy to save some money. Although this seemed very bizarre of an idea that people who pay taxes and are homeowners have to deal with blackouts, it actually helped out with the economy, the amount saved went to deficit the amount of debt that Ecuador’s economy was in. The blackouts did not really help as much as the government thought, so they started thinking of other way to try and make some cuts in budget prices nationwide.
Many Ecuadorian citizens do not approve of any of the governmental calls that they are being forced to deal with, but they know that in the end it should pay out. Many ecuadorians feel that since they elect the president then they feel whatever president Rafael Correa decides it will only benefit the nation as a whole.
One flaw that people feel isn’t good about the current president Rafael Correa is that some of his actions or intentions, make Ecuador seem to be converting to a communist nation. Every other political party considered Rafael Correa to be a communist threat, his political party “Alianza Pais” won about 65% of the total amount of votes. The other political parties tried their best to warn, and advise the nation of his future doings and what he’s planning on doing, but his politics were like none other for the nation as a whole, and the people spoke out loud come election night. Although many of congress and office officials wanted to not have Correa as president, out of all the other candidates Correa was the best choice, and the only thing on the mind of voters was that they needed to improve governmental policies as soon as possible and even though the threat of communism has arisen with Correa they knew he would be the best choice. As a result from the election, president Rafael Correa sought to prove the thought of everyone of those critics wrong through his politics, and found that his main concern was not to make a certain amount of people happy or worry free, but his main concern was trying to better Ecuador economy wise because of all the debt that the nation was put in and also releasing the tension with other nations surrounding Ecuador like Peru and Colombia.
Correa also wants to settle a couple issues with the United States, the issues concerning about immigration, and smuggling of drugs and police officials. The United States has also been having issues with Ecuador due to a military base that is located in Ecuador. Correa wants neglect all these facts and wants militia to evacuate. But this might make relations between the United States go sour.
Every government has a lot of corruption, either with the president, congress, politicians, and everyone involved can easy be influenced by any means. This is what makes the nation hard to be successful. Ecuador and Correa were a big influence on each other but have been on the right track as of late to make Ecuador less in debt and less corrupt.