Posted on 10/21/2002 11:52:24 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
QUITO, Ecuador -- A retired colonel who won the most votes in the first round of Ecuador's presidential election appealed Monday for support, but his millionaire opponent denounced him as a "Fidel Castro-style communist" who would wreck this Andean nation.
Fresh from winning a surprise first place in Sunday's election, leftist Lucio Gutierrez, 45, who helped lead an Indian revolt two years ago, asked the nation's political leaders to endorse his candidacy for a Nov. 24 runoff.
"It is time for national unity," Gutierrez told a television station. He wore his trademark olive-green uniform during the interview.
Gutierrez, who helped lead the 2000 Indian revolt that overthrew President Jamil Mahuad and installed then-Vice President Gustavo Noboa as leader of the world's top banana exporter, won 20.3 percent of the vote against 10 other candidates.
Billionaire banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, 51, Ecuador's richest man, won 17.4 percent of Sunday's vote, placing second. He is not related to the president, who did not run in the election.
Gutierrez will face Noboa in the runoff after neither attracted enough votes for an outright victory.
Ecuadoreans were not excited about either candidate. Turnout on Sunday was 66 percent -- extremely low in a country where voting is mandatory and absenteeism is punishable by fine.
Still, Sunday's vote dealt a blow to Ecuador's political establishment, regarded as corrupt and inefficient. Ecuador, the size of Nevada, is rich in oil, but more than half of its 12 million people live in poverty.
The country has a history of political turbulence and economic chaos because a Spanish-descended elite has failed to create prosperity to an overwhelmingly mixed-race population. Two of its past presidents were overthrown amid massive protests.
Noboa, a populist who gave free handouts of medicine to the poor, tried to sow fear over the possibility of a Gutierrez victory.
"The people will have to choose between a Fidel Castro-styled communist government and a government of private firms, jobs and economic recovery," Noboa said.
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