Friday, January 25, 2008

Guayaquil March


Jaime Nebot is the mayor of Guayaquil, which is the biggest city in Ecuador. He is a popular coastal leader, and he also happens to lead the opposition of Rafael Correa, the President, whose popularity has been dropping during his first year in office (He was elected in November 2006). Yesterday (Thursday, January 24, 2008), there was a march in support of Nebot and against Correa, who appears to be seeking too much power. Several of my friends participated in the demonstration. A lot of people consider Correa to be a "resentido social", meaning that he is bitter toward the rich people. Many Ecuadorians consider him to be a puppet of Chavez, and disagree with what he wants to do with the people's tax money. Until now at least, 25% of tax money has gone directly from companies to public projects and college scholarships. Guayaquil especially, in the past eight years of Nebot's mayorship, has been transformed completely. Correa, however, wants to do away with this system, having all the money go directly to the state. (Many people are wary of this, since money tends to "disappear" in a corrupt system.) Reuters article

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