Economist and US educated Rafael Correa was re-elected as
president of Ecuador over the weekend in the first round of
presidential voting - indicating widespread support from
Ecuadoreans. He first came to power in 2007, then
basically strong armed a constitutional review, which allowed him
to present his candidacy for the 2009 elections (he won) and now
again in 2013.
CNH Tours has been following Ecuadorian politics (in no great
depth admittedly, but following nonetheless - and we're sure some
of our friends in the islands will disagree with us!) since 1998,
when we first moved to Galapagos. During our first four
years there, we got to see at least 5 presidents (at one point,
there were 3 joint presidents!), many ministers of the environment,
massive inflation, a run on the banks and the abandonment of the
national currency for the US$. The 3-4 years after we left in
2002, the Galapagos National Park Service had a revolving door
directorship, with 13 directors or interim directors in 3
years.
Since Correa came along in 2007, things have calmed down
tremendously, both in the country and in Galapagos. One
of the first moves we took note of under the Correa administration
was the ending of fuel subsidy cheating for cruise
ships. Fuel in Galapagos was subsidized, but this was
for fishing boats. Under the lax regimes prior to
Correa, many ships somehow managed to get access to fishing boat
fuel subsidies - essentially resulting in the poor taxpayers of
Ecuador subsidizing profits of the ship owners, and lower cruise
prices for international visitors. No more - and that's
a good thing.
The new constitution of Ecuador also removed the "Provincial"
status for Galapagos. This small territory, with a population
of under 30,000, had the same constitutional status as other
mainland provinces, with populations of up to 3 million
people. This had led to completely warped politics in the
islands, with plenty of destructive in-fighting amongst small
minded politicians, who exploited various interest groups to make a
name for themselves. Things have been quiet in the
islands over the past several years - that's good for local
residents and good for visitors. Galapagos is now managed by
a governing council, comprised of national administration and local
representatives. This seems to be working.
CNH Tours had the pleasure to have known the minister of
environment under Correa, Marcel Aguiñaga, who was a tough cookie
and did her job well. She was a colleague of ours ' when we
worked at the Charles Darwin Research Station, she was the legal
advisor with the Galapagos National Park Service. She
resigned from her ministerial post last November to present herself
as a candidate for the National Assembly in this election - and we
note that she was duly elected.
Correa has invested a good deal of the country's oil revenues in
infrastructure and services (sometimes via massive advance selling
of oil to China). Roads have been built, teachers
hired. In Galapagos, a modern hospital will be built for the
first time. All this isn't to say that Correa is perfect -
his relationship with the press is worrying - he has bullied owners
of newspapers and television stations into submission, or forced
them to sell their businesses. It is ironic that while
his administration has brought in measures to ensure that
government is more transparent on the one hand, he is making life
more difficult for the press to verify that.
But given the choice between Correa and the previous
administrations we've known to have run Ecuador, we will stand with
Correa. He has been better for Ecuadorians in general, and
better for Galapagos.
