Runoff election in Ecuador
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Runoff election in Ecuador
TEXT OF STORY
MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: It’s back to the polls for residents of Ecuador this Sunday. A Presidential runoff pits a leftist populist against a more U.S.-friendly businessman. The country is evenly split much like Latin America as a whole. From the Americas Desk at WLRN, Marketplace’s Dan Grech reports.
DAN GRECH: In a year of Latin American elections, it’s been a mixed bag.
DAN GRISWOLD: Ecuador seems to be sitting on the fence.
That’s Dan Griswold with the Cato Institute. He says Ecuador is the last country left in play in Latin America.
It thumbed its nose at the U.S. when it seized oil fields owned by Occidental Petroleum in May, but Ecuador also depends economically on the U.S. Its official currency is the U.S. dollar.
GRISWOLD: Their fate is in their hands. Are they going to continue with economic and political reforms or are they going to turn inward, focusing all their anger on external actors and not continuing to reform their own economies? Those are the stakes.
Billionaire Alvaro Noboa held a 20-point lead over leftist Rafael Correa in opinion polls earlier this month.
Now the race is too close to call.
I’m Dan Grech for Marketplace.
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