This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, October 21st,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

There will be a new president in Ecuador, one who will have an opportunity

to further restabilize the country after the long

presidency of Raphael Correa.

Cato's Gabriella Calderon lives in Ecuador.

We discuss the opportunities now before the incoming president Daniel Nuboa.

Before we started recording you described

Raphael Correa the longtime president of Ecuador as something like

Ecuador's Chavez.

He served a very long time, effectively rewrote the Constitution to favor himself.

And yet we have an election in Ecuador for president where his protege did not win.

So what led up to this election and the election of Mr. Neboah to finish the term of president in Ecuador.

I think Americans call it gridlock and it is our Constitution which was drafted in 2007 and approved by popular vote in 2008

was drafted when in Correas Raffal Correas heyday you could call Raffal Correas, Raffal Correas, heyday, you could call Raffal Correas,

Ecuador's Chavez, and he's the poster boy for socialism of the 21st century in Ecuador.

And this was their heyday you know they had a huge

approval ratings and they got this constitution this new constitution approved

which was socialism of the 21st century embedded in our

constitutional setting and and it's a very it's very hard to do market reforms with that framework, but I think there are ways still.

So what happened, why are we here now?

Basically the president, Guillermo Lasso, that came into power in 2021 had a very market

...