Correa is losing his grip in Ecuador

Rafael Correa has been entertaining, even as he’s ruined Ecuador’s economy. But his countrymen have stopped laughing. As his popularity plummets, it’s clear they are tired of being the punchlines.

Miami Herald - Glenn Garvin 05/04/2016

Rafael Correa has been entertaining, even as he’s ruined Ecuador’s economy. But his countrymen have stopped laughing. As his popularity plummets, it’s clear they are tired of being the punchlines.

Ecuador’s Rafeal Correa may be ruining his country’s economy, strangling its news media and daring its military to depose him in a coup, but he certainly hasn’t lost his sense of humor — though a lot of people wish that he had. Last year, when a Panamanian politician wrote on Twitter that Correa was a fascist, the president promptly tweeted back his idea of a quip: “Heil Hitler!”

It’s difficult to imagine another chief of state sending those words out to 2.6 million followers. (Well, maybe Mussolini, though that didn’t end well.) But then, Correa might not be a chief of state much longer.

Voters across South America, weary after a decade or more of economic calamity at the hands of left-wing populist regimes, have sent them tumbling like rows of dominoes the past few months.