LOOK OUT! THIS ONE'S GONNA BE MEATY!

So I'm headed to Chile on Wednesday and there are few things that I've been meaning to tell you about Ecuador, but never quite got around to.  At this point, I invite you to peek at the subheadings below and decide whether you want to read on or whether you want to skip to my beach post.  

ECONOMY

Ecuador is the second poorest country in South America, after Bolivia. Most of its GDP comes from exports: oil and agriculture (shrimp, cacao, coffee, flowers, bananas).  In 2000, Ecuador decided to officially dollarize its economy.  Which is to say, the official Ecuadorian currency is the US dollar.  Needless to say, this has been quite handy for me.  But why would a country do such a thing, you ask?  Luckily, I took a Latin American Economics class last semester and can answer your ever-so-astute question.  Dollarization is known to effectively put an end to inflation.  Ecuador was suffering from soaring rates of inflation in the late 1990s.  Since dollarizing, its inflation rate has been more or less exactly that of the US dollar.  With a stable currency, the Ecuadorian people can rest easy and Ecuador can work to attract foreign investors.  In an ideal world, dollarization implies a degree of fiscal prudence (i.e. if the country’s economy gets in a bind, it can’t just print more money).  However, the government here tends to borrow from abroad to finance its deficit spending on social programs.  Economists are wary of this accumulating debt and don't necessarily trust Ecuador to remain dollarized in the long-term.  Ecuador’s economy exhibits only sluggish growth, if any, in recent years.

POLITICS

After a long period of political instability and corrupt administrations, Ecuador has enjoyed a relatively stable 4 years under President Rafael Correa.  Correa is a left-leaning politician working to execute a “Citizens’ Revolution” in Ecuador.  He has created bureaucracy up the wazoo to administer his social projects and has implemented some controversial policies such as “pico y placa,” whereby Quiteños are barred from using their cars during a predetermined block of time to reduce carbon emissions.  He also got into a scuffle with the police last September after attempting to adjust their benefits.  Most of the people I’ve talked to are on the fence, valuing Correa’s vision of social change, while fearing that his socialist leanings will carry Ecuador too far in the direction of Chavez’s Venezuela.   

HEALTH CARE

Public health care is available to all Ecuadorians.  Under President Correa, those without means no longer have to pay any form of copay.  Due to long waits and perhaps lower quality of care at public hospitals, wealthy Ecuadorians often buy health insurance and seek care at private hospitals.