Ecuador to deepen socialist revolution

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who has won 57% of the votes at the election and hopes to get 73% of the seats in 137 Congress says he will go ahead with socialist reforms to empower the low-income majority and dismantle what he called an elitist system that controlled the state and neglected the poor.

He said his administration would be a “legislative steamroller to serve the interests of the Ecuadorean people, it will deepen the citizen's revolution, build a new homeland and make it irreversible."


Correa first took office in 2007 vowing to increase revenue from the OPEC nation's oil resources and cut debt obligations to fund spending on roads, hospitals and schools.

Among the bills Correa has pledged to push are a plan to distribute idle land among the poor, and a media law to regulate content in newspapers and TV networks - which could stoke an ongoing confrontation with opposition media.

Correa said Latin American countries should join forces to protect themselves from "abuse" by foreign investors.

"We have to continue working toward unity because together we can set the rules," he said. "If we're divided, then the capitalists will set the rules and they will continue abusing, wrecking our countries,