Quito, Ecuador, Halloween 2006

Jack o'lanterns, bats, ghosts and goblins are pinned to fake cobwebs  in shops and restaurants in late October and early November in celebration of the U.S. exported holiday which leads inexorably to Ecuador’s “el Dia de los Difuntos” November 2.

But for rich Ecuadoreans, a tiny percentage of this oil-rich nation’s 13.3 million people, the November 2006 run-off presidential election may be the nightmare that never ends.

The November 26 election pits one of the country’s richest men, Alvaro Noboa, against a populist leftist, Rafael Correa, who campaigns tirelessly about redistribution of the nation’s wealth and ending the oligarchy which Noboa represents.

An animated orator, Correa challenges the old power structure at every opportunity. In a recent stem-winding speech, he called out, “Enough looting of our nation’s wealth! Enough of the disillusionment of our people by corrupt officials! We have to re-create the Ecuadorean state. Kick these people out! That is democracy!”

If he wins —not a certainty with Noboa’s slick television ads promising new homes for people with a $50 down payment— Correa will join the growing list of leftists leading countries in the Western Hemisphere: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Ignacio “Lula” de Silva in Brazil, Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Evo Morales in Bolivia to name a few. Even the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was voted back into power November 5 in Nicaragua.

But not only does Noboa have tons of money to fund his campaign, he can count of much of the traditional political structure, including parties that opposed him in the first-round election October 15. That’s because other politicians in other parties know it will at least be “politics as usual” if Noboa wins. If Correa wins maybe the world turns upside down.

Correa insists on a thorough, revolutionary over-haul of the political system, including a constitutional convention. While Correa’s revolutionary rhetoric has wide appeal, it obviously fuels fears among those who benefit from the status quo. Correa is adamant in opposing the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. As a U.S. trained economist, Correa is convinced that agreement would further impoverish the poorest in his country while further enriching people like Noboa.

Correa earned his doctorate in economics at the University of Illinois, and was appointed Minister of the Economy and Finance when he returned to Ecuador. One of his ministry’s main accomplishments was to increase funding for education and public health from oil revenues. Before Correa’s change, the revenues from only two barrels of oil out of 100 extracted by foreign petroleum companies were dedicated to education and health.

At a Correa rally in late October, a supporter explained that he,  like thousands, perhaps millions of the economist’s supporters,  is “not a communist, but we are true revolutionaries. We want a new Ecuador that doesn’t function entirely to benefit the super-rich.”

As a Correa caravan snaked through the streets of Quito on Halloween with the candidate waving from the sun roof of a shiny SUV, he drew cheering crowds shouting “Dale, Correa” (“Sock it to them, Correa!”) The boisterous motorcade included no run-down jalopies, no street vendor’s carts and few if any Native Americans. Instead the caravan  was filled with new Toyota Camrys, Chevy Blazers, and other late model cars and trucks.

Perhaps more effective than Correa’s blaring motorcades are street theater attacks on Noboa. In Plaza Santo Domingo two weeks before the election, a ragged street comic lampooned the millionaire while confederates handed out leaflets the primary message of which was “No a Noboa.” (“No to Noboa.”) The leaflet had a clever play on word misspelling Noboa’s first name, Alvaro, as “Avaro” connoting avarice.

The comic had his crowd of nearly 100 in constant laughter as he crucified Noboa. “In the super-rich neighborhood where Noboa lives, even the dogs are dressed better than you are,” he asserted. “And the rich folks’ dogs get a bath every day. Did you get a bath yesterday?” he asked a young man in the crowd. When the man shook his head to answer “no,” the comic replied, “I could tell.” Laughter all around.

Graffiti scrawled on a low wall along Avenida la Patria, across from the posh Hilton Colón Quito, reads “Noboa: exploiter of children.”  And there’s little reason to doubt it. He heads a business empire of more than 125 firms including his banana operation. Several of his businesses have had prosecutions underway for the past three years based on labor law violations and failure to pay taxes. The multi-millionaire Noboa takes such legal obstacles in stride. He’s just doing business the way business is done in Ecuador.

For Correa and his supporters, that is precisely the point.

—Jeff Radford