Politics: Leftist winds turns to hurricane in Latin America

Ecuador: Rafael Correa is the last president to join Latin America's strong leftist, anti-USA wave. Even though he is not officially proclaimed winner, an overwhelming lead of more than 13% over the runner up Alvarado Noboa is far to much to worry.

Rafael moves quickly - he already stated he will try to rejoin the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) which Ecuador left in 1992, and promises to shred the much criticised free trade agreement with the US as well as close down a United States military base in Ecuador.

This will be an interesting decade in the US backyard with Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), Luiz Inacio Lula (Brazil), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile) playing together.

Read about the Ecuador election in Swedish here.

Welcome back Daniel Ortega!

Nicaraguans just elected their former dictator, Daniel Ortega, to be their new president for the next five years. Why? Although one would think otherwise, it is not unusual for former dictatorships to re-elect their old leaders, but it is still hard to understand. Daniel Ortega won because of several factors: he still has his hard-core electorate base of approximately 30% who really do believe in Daniels revolutionary rethoric, although he has already proven his low moral's worth a hundred times. Furthermore, he couts with powerful alliances this time: in a Nicaragua with overpriced electricity, daily power-cuts and gasoline prices rising every day, Daniel promises subsidised electricity and gas for all and no power cuts through Venezuelas' Hugo Chavez; he promises country wide and cheap healthcare through his alliance with Castro and his electoral posters were all about Peace, Reconciliation and Unity - all the oposites of what he managed when he was in military power 1985 - 1990 after the civil war between his Sandinistas and the US-sponsored Contra-guerilla. Apart from his hard-core base and alliances, the opposition was divided between four parties, of which three managed to get hold of an important amount of seats in the parliament. The interesting thing now is that Daniel actually has to negotiate solutions with other parties. That is not something he is used to, being a military general and dictator...