Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
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left-of-center Latin American governments elected at the turn of the twenty-first century, Correa leveraged high commodity prices to deliver major social improvements. Between 2007 and 2017 — powered by a doubling of social spending — poverty plummeted (down 41.6 percent), inequality shrank (the Gini coefficient dropped 16.7 percent), and the homicide rate declined to historic lows (5.8 murders per 100,000 people).
✏️ What happens when you go down the route of social spending, and putting people first. 🔗 View Highlight
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Moreno quickly betrayed that legacy, cutting a devastating deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When the pandemic hit, Ecuador’s economy was already mired in recession, brought on by the austerity program. Ecuador suffered one of the highest per-capita COVID death rates globally in early 2020, thanks in part to IMF-mandated public sector health care layoffs and budget cuts.
✏️ Then a successor steps in and undoes everything through neoliberal policies. 🔗 View Highlight
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Correa’s two-term tenure was not without controversy. The government’s reliance on national resources revenue provoked mounting confrontation with Ecuador’s formidable indigenous movements, which organized to defend their territories from the social and ecological predations of extractivism. These conflicts fueled the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE)’s call for ballot abstentions in the 2021 presidential elections, which effectively secured the victory of conservative banker Guillermo Lasso against Correa’s party’s candidate.
✏️ Correa’s socialist policies didn’t take into account ecological concern and taking care of the indigenous people and their concerns. 🔗 View Highlight
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Since Correa’s departure, Ecuador has experienced the worst economic performance in South America. GDP fell by 5 percent between 2019 and 2022. Violence surged, too. The country is now fourth in the region for homicide rates, ranking between Colombia and Mexico at 25.9 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022. In six short years, the progress of a decade has been undone.