Quito, Feb 18 (Prensa Latina) The President of Ecuador , Rafael Correa, re-elected by an overwhelming majority of the popular vote, considers his greatest challenge for the coming four years to be making irreversible the changes brought about by the Citizen Revolution.
An his first press conference after learning of his victory from five exit polls, Correa said that this challenge is the key to development.
“Latin America did not develop, even though it had everything, natural wealth, and pre-Colombian civilization,” said the leader of the ruling Alianza PAIS movement, blaming the delay of development on the ruling classes that governed Latin America.
“Those exclusive ruling classes always handled our apparent states according to their interests and not those of the majority,” he said, adding that “the big challenge is to make this change irreversible, dependent on the majority and not on power factions, for which we must finish work on the Constitution,” Correa stated.
In the struggle against poverty to achieve a decent standard of living, we must keep doing the same: implement good economic policies, protect our country, provide jobs, recover our natural resources, and prioritize social debt before external debt, he pointed out.
“Modesty aside, we want to say that we are, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the country that has done most to reduce poverty and inequality in our America,” the president-elect noted.
Correa praised the upcoming 2013-2017 Government Plan as the best in the country’s history, with 10 basic plans and 35 proposals, where answers to all questions on the development project and eradication of poverty can be found.