Learning About Our Surroundings: Ecuador!

Rolled from up north into Quito, the country´s capital, this week and was thrust suddenly into a big, soupy political to-do. Ecuador´s presidential election is on Sunday and if the standard deluge of sign wavers and billboard ads isn´t enough to pull people´s attention fully onto the race for prez, the sale of alcohol has been banned for the three days leading up to voting.

But dearth of booze has been good for my guide book reading. And honestly, after learning about the past century in Ecuadorean politics, I can see why they´d like to keep this year´s election as sober as possible. Although perhaps they´d like to keep an eye on those wacky clergy and the military as well. I shall entitle these findings...

SLIGHTLY HECTIC HAPPENINGS IN ECUADOR´S PAST

- Way back in 1875, President Gabriel Garcia Moreno, an arch-conservative typified by his actions denying citzenship to non-Catholics, was machete-d to death in front of his presidential palace.

- A few years later, in 1911 President Eloy Alfaro is assasinated and his body is dragged through the Quito streets and burned, to much fanfare. Alfaro, the polar opposite of Moreno, had introduced secular education, civil marriage and ended capital punishment in Quito, somewhat ironically given his distasteful end.

-1931-1948: Ecuador goes through no less than 21 different governments.

- Peru´s attempts to claim a vast portion of Ecuador´s land for itself results in skirmishes between the two countries beginning in the 40´s and lasting well into the 1990´s. Relations between the two countries are now normalizing.

- 1950´s and 60´s: Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra is elected to the presidency 4 times. He is deposed by military coups... 4 times.

-1997-2005: 3 presidents are deposed. No blood is shed, a fact that my guidebook tells me Ecuadoreans are ¨quietly proud of.¨

-1999: Hyperinflation grips a hold of the country and the president declares plans to switch official currency to the US dollar. He is deposed by the military. Three days later his sucessor is named and ¨dollarization¨ proceeds unimpeded. They´ve stuck with their own coins however, with the characteristic Latin American penchant for massive small change the size of golf balls.

-Currently we are rocking with President Rafael Correa, a 46-year old economics professor. Correa, the clear front-runner in this weekend´s elections, is doing ¨a terrible job,¨ according to yesterday´s taxi driver.

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Well, at least Ecuador´s proven it has options. Almost makes you appreciate our US dynasty system of electing our leader. Easier to keep track of who´s up in the White House when you´ve only got to learn a few new names a decade.

Oh, and p.s., I bought a $450 plane ticket this week! Bet you can´t guess where it´s going...

Heart,

CD