Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (6 April 1963)[1] is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007. In December 2008, he declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it had been contracted by corrupt/despotic prior regimes. He then pledged to fight creditors in international courts, and succeeded in reducing the price of the debt letters and continued paying all the debt.[2] He brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009.

Correa's first term in office had been due to end on 15 January 2011, but the new approved constitution written by the new National Assembly mandated general elections for 26 April 2009. In that election, Rafael Correa won in the first round with 51.9%[3] of votes counted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa

@quicksand, unfortunately none of the potential candidates seem to understand economics at this level-only Pres. Kibaki seems to be in the know with his snubbing of European diplomats and encouragement of Kenya to trade more with other African countries.

@hisah..very true.
Part the of the success in Latin America's economy is the fact that voters are more enlightened so they know what they want in leadership as opposed to .KE situation where voters hope their guy can steer some goodies to them somehow coz of tribal alliance.

@kizee1..maybe its coz of the recession..hakuna pesa za kulipa majackals..or maybe coz of internet..the world is now getting to understand these things after Saddam and Gadaffi..

i beg to differ, just because he embraced china it does not mean that he said enough is enough.... he just tried as you mention below but behind the scenes we all know.....