[StJacques]

Good post Brad. What's going to happen when Correa takes Ecuador off the dollar standard as the determining factor in affixing the value of their currency?

It's an obvious answer, but your CIA factbook entry puts the stakes in perspective.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Likely you have read this already. If not this is an interesting view--"A Tale of Two Lefts"--about the "good left" and the "bad left" in Latin America:

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060501faessay85302/jorge-g-castaneda/latin-america-s-left-turn.html?mode=print