First term: 2007–2009 Rafael Correa was officially declared President on 4 December 2006 by the electoral court. He was sworn in on 15 January 2007 as the 45th president of Ecuador, the seventh to occupy the post since the legislature removed President
Abdalá Bucaram 10 years earlier in the midst of a debt crisis that had devastated the country. His inauguration was attended by most regional leaders, as well as the
Iranian president and the
Spanish Crown Prince. Declaring that "Ecuador had voted for itself", Correa proclaimed that his election meant an end to neoliberalism in the country. Invoking the name of African-American civil rights activist
Martin Luther King Jr., Correa also spoke out against racial discrimination against indigenous and
Afro-Ecuadorians in his speech. During the ceremony he wore a shirt decorated with motifs from the prehistoric Jama Coaque culture. During his first months in office, Correa's government doubled the monthly poverty assistance payments to $30, doubled the credits for housing loans and reduced the electricity rates for individuals on low incomes. Correa ordered a
plebiscite on the issue of whether or not Ecuador should establish a new constitution in April 2007; the proposal passed with over 80% of the vote. Elections to establish a Constituent Assembly were held in 2007 and were won by Correa's government with over 60% of the vote. The new constitution also increased the powers of the presidency by increasing the number of presidential decrees permitted.
Economic policy Correa adopted a confrontational approach to both the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank. Correa's administration stated that the new government would not sign an agreement which allowed the
International Monetary Fund to monitor its economic plan. In February 2007, Correa's economy minister Ricardo Patiño stated: "I have no intention … of accepting what some governments in the past have accepted: that (the IMF) tell us what to do on economic policy ... That seems unacceptable to us". However, as a member of the IMF, the annual report known as the "Article IV" report will be submitted. In April 2007, Ecuador paid off its debt to the IMF. Correa said Ecuador wanted no further relationship with the fund. During his first year in office, Correa spoke of building an alternative to capitalist development, stating "we are building a conception of development that is different from that of the capitalist system, where we seek not to live better, to have competition, to have more every day, but to live well, to satisfy basic needs, where harmony with nature is sought, where we seek the indescribable life of cultures." This was reflected in an ideological manifesto of Correa's
PAIS Alliance and various development plans, which promoted as an alternative to capitalism
Buen Vivir (Good Living). He declared Ecuador's
national debt illegitimate and announced that the country would default on over $3 billion worth of bonds; he pledged to fight creditors in
international courts and succeeded in reducing the price of outstanding bonds by more than 60%. A fall in Ecuador bond prices, ignited by aggressive default rhetoric, would trigger a buyback by Ecuador, financed by Venezuelan banks. This strategy collapsed due to operations by Venezuelan financial institutions who profited from the market swings. Correa referred to the allegations as a conspiracy from a powerful banker. On 26 July 2007, Rafael Correa replaced finance minister Patiño, due to Patiño's appearance in a video recording, apparently discussing the market manipulation. Patiño then assumed a newly created position responsible for the Pacific coast region and later assumed the Political Affairs Ministry. In a radio address on 13 December, Correa said that he wanted to force a "big discount" on creditors, whom a day earlier he called "true monsters who won't hesitate to crush the country". "I have lost sleep over this … this will cost us tears and sweat but I think we are doing the right thing." Correa, who endorses anti-debt NGO
Jubilee 2000's slogan "life before debt", is popular among Ecuadorians for his stance against foreign investors. On 16 April 2009, Finance Minister
María Elsa Viteri embarked on a trip to Europe in a mission to present Ecuador's offer to buy back global bonds 2012 and 2030 at 30% of their current value. In May 2009, Ecuador announced that it had successfully bought 91% of the bonds at a cost of 35 cents on the dollar. In May 2008, the Ecuadorian government renegotiated radio spectrum franchises for mobile phone operators
Porta and
Movistar for a total price of 700 million dollars, far more than that recommended by studies conducted under previous governments, which had proposed granting the same franchises for only 70 million dollars.
Foreign policy in Moscow, 29 October 2009 During Rafael Correa's tenure as president, he took some radical alternative steps to change the course of Ecuador's relations with the rest of the world. Amongst these were economic moves to correct Ecuador's debt imbalance, distancing from the United States, a rift with its northern neighbor Colombia, and a strengthening of ties with ALBA (including Venezuela and Bolivia), as well as Iran. Correa adopted a confrontational approach to the governments of both the United States and neighboring Colombia. At the time of his election, Ecuador contained
Manta Air Base, the only U.S. military base in South America. Correa refused to renew the base's lease when it expired in 2009 and the constitution was changed to ban foreign military bases being established in Ecuador. On 1 March 2008 at 00:25 local time (05:25
UTC), Colombia launched a military operation, into Ecuador. According to Colombian authorities, the guerrillas responded militarily to this initial bombardment from a position in the vicinity of
Santa Rosa de Yanamaru, on the Ecuadorian side of the border, killing a Colombian soldier, Carlos Hernández. A second bombardment was then carried out, resulting in the deaths of Raúl Reyes and at least 20 more FARC members. Two bodies, several documents and three laptops found in the guerrilla camp were returned to Colombia. After this operation, Colombia increased its security measures nationwide, fearing FARC retaliation. According to the Ecuadorian government, the attack happened inside its own territory, lacked its permission and was a planned strike, intended to be followed by the incursion of Colombian troops by helicopter. It pointed out that the attack had left a total of more than 20 people dead in Ecuadorian territory, many of whom were found to be wearing underwear or sleeping clothes. The government of Ecuador concluded that the attack was a "massacre" and not the result of combat or "hot pursuit". Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa had reason to believe that the Colombian warplanes had penetrated 10 km into Ecuador's territory and struck the guerrilla camp while flying north, followed by troops in helicopters who had completed the killings. He claimed that some of the bodies had been found to be shot from behind. The Ecuadorian authorities found three wounded women in the camp, including a Mexican student who was identified as
Lucía Andrea Morett Álvarez. Lucía Morett claimed that she was visiting the guerrilla group as part of an academic investigation, refusing to answer other questions about the circumstances surrounding her presence there. Regarding the attack on the camp, she has stated: "I was asleep when we received a first aerial attack. Two or three hours later we were attacked again". According to the director of the Ecuadorian military hospital which treated the three women, they had received some sort of medical attention from both the attacking Colombian forces and the Ecuadorian soldiers who later found them. President Uribe of Colombia spoke by telephone with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, early on the morning of the raid, to inform him of the incident. In a press conference that evening, Correa denounced the attack as "aggression" against Ecuador, calling it a "
massacre", and claiming that the rebels had been killed in their sleep using "advanced technology". He announced that he was summoning his ambassador in Colombia for consultations. claiming that the action had been a violation of Ecuador's airspace. Ecuador formally recalled its ambassador from Colombia and expelled the Colombian ambassador from Quito. On 3 March 2008, Colombia's police said that documents found in a camp in Ecuador where Colombian troops killed
Raul Reyes, a top guerrilla boss, showed ties between the FARC rebels and Correa, including contacts about political proposals and local military commanders. Correa denied the accusations, calling them lies. Correa also said that a deal to release political prisoners – including former Colombian Sen.
Ingrid Betancourt – was nearly complete before the 1 March 2008 Colombian raid into his country. On 5 March 2008, Correa and Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez met to discuss Colombia's attack and made a series of accusations against Colombia's government. During the meeting, Correa dismissed Colombia's president
Álvaro Uribe as just a "puppet" while others are the "puppet masters". On 18 May 2011, Colombia's Supreme Court ruled documents found on computers of slain FARC commander "Raul Reyes" are inadmissible as evidence in court as the material is illegally obtained and provides no evidence.
2008 Constitution Relations with Congress and Legislative crisis In February 2007, Correa's plan to have a
referendum on the convening of a constituent assembly was approved by Congress. The referendum took place on 15 April 2007. However, after this date was set, the "statutes" for the referendum were modified by Correa to allow more powers to the
constituent assembly. One of these powers was the ability to dismiss Congress, a power which Congress never approved. The newer version of the referendum was approved by the majority of the seven-seat
Electoral Tribunal. In early March, Congress, which was controlled by Correa's opposition, reacted by trying to
impeach the President of the electoral tribunal. The electoral tribunal then removed from office the 57 members of Congress who tried to impeach the President of the Electoral Tribunal, on the grounds of attempting to intervene an electoral process. Correa backed the electoral tribunal (which approved his version of the referendum) while stating that the removal of the 57 congressmen was constitutional. The situation escalated to a feud between the opposition in Congress and the Executive and marches in the street against Congress and police intervention to prevent the Congressmen from entering the legislative building. On 22 March 21 alternate deputies were sworn in, allowing the Congress to regain
quorum, and on 23 and 24 March a further 20 deputies were sworn in. The new majority (formed by 28 alternate deputies and 31 deputies from parties that support the referendum and Assembly) pledged to support the referendum on the Constitutional Assembly. On 23 April, the
Constitutional Court decided to try to reinstate 51 of the 57 Congressmen who had been fired by the Electoral Tribunal. The Constitutional Court claimed that it was illegal to remove them in the first place and approved a petition by the 51 requesting their reinstatement. But before the congressmen had the chance to reenter Congress, Congress voted to fire all nine judges of the Constitutional Court for their "unconstitutional actions". On 15 April 2007, Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly (81.72% in favor) to support the election of a constituent assembly. On 30 September 2007, due to the extraordinarily large number of candidates and lists (26 national lists, 428 provincial lists, 44 emigrant lists) the
2007 Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly election was the most complex in Ecuador's history. As a result, in the
national election, President Correa won backing for his plans to rewrite Ecuador's constitution and expand state control of the nation's economy. Correa's faction won approximately 61% of the seats in the National Assembly (80 of 130 Assembly Members).
Constituent Assembly The
Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly first convened on 29 November 2007 in Montecristi and was given six months to write a new constitution, with a possible two-month extension. When Ecuador began the process of writing a new constitution, they received help from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund to draft environmental laws giving nature and
ecosystems rights. A
constitutional referendum was held in
Ecuador on 28 September 2008 to ratify or reject the constitution drafted by the
Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly elected in 2007. Partial results show that 64% of voters voted to approve the
2008 Constitution of Ecuador.
Environmental conservation The President affirmed that his was a "green" Government for its defense of the environment." In line with this, he had decided to return to the International Whaling Commission to impede the restart of the hunt of whales; established a prohibition on the extraction of prized types of wood; and announced that for an annual compensation of 350 million dollars from the international community it would give up the exploitation of an oil field of around 1 billion barrels, one of their biggest reserves of petroleum located in a reservation of the Yasuní National Park biosphere in the Amazon Basin. The proposal hoped to collect contributions starting from 2010.
Oil politics In 2013 Ecuador announced that it would auction more than three million hectares of Amazonian rainforest in the Yasuni Nature Reserve to Chinese oil companies. The indigenous people inhabiting the land protested the deal. They claim that the oil projects would threaten their traditional way of life and devastate the area's environment. Ecuador's Shuar people's women's leader, Narcisa Mashienta, said that the government lied when claiming that the people would have given their consent. An 11,000-barrel oil spill in the Amazon was considered problematic to Correa's desire to win a third term, because he had tried to assure his critics of him being environment-friendly.
Yasuní-ITT Initiative The Yasuní-ITT Initiative is aimed at ceasing
crude oil extraction in the
Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha (ITT) oil fields, which are located in the highly vulnerable area of
Yasuní National Park. The proposal would contribute to preserving biodiversity, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and their way of life. President Correa has stated that Ecuador's first option is to maintain the crude oil in the subsoil. The national and international communities would be called on to help the government implement this costly decision for the country. The government hopes to recover 50% of the revenues it would obtain by extracting the oil. The procedure involves the issuing of government bonds for the crude oil that will remain "in situ", with the double commitment of never extracting this oil and of protecting Yasuní National Park. The hoped for-amount is estimated at 350 million dollars annually. A more promising alternative would be a strategy to provide the government with the 50% of resources in such a way as to provide a consistent income for an indefinite period of time. This resource would be channeled towards activities that help to free the country from its dependency on exports and imports and to consolidate
food sovereignty. In August 2013, Correa abandoned the initiative and approved oil drilling, blaming lack of support from the international community for the decision.
Sea conservation Correa overturned a ban on the sale of
shark fins, which are popular in Asia, but stipulated that the fins can only be sold if the sharks are caught accidentally and by artisan fishermen. He did not say how authorities would determine whether the shark had been caught accidentally or deliberately. On 3 August 2007, Correa ordered the deportation of Sean O'Hearn-Gimenez, director of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, saying that he would not allow "gringuitos" (literally, "little
gringos") to tell Ecuadorians what to do or to pursue local fishermen. However, a local newspaper noted that O'Hearn-Gimenez had signed a 5-year agreement with Ecuador's own Environmental Police rather than acting unilaterally (as a foreigner with no authority of his own), and was married to an Ecuadorian. The deportation was ordered because Sea Shepherd, in partnership with the Ecuadorian National Environmental Police, exposed and stopped the biggest shark-fin shipment in the port city of Manta. Correa later rescinded the extradition order because O'Hearn-Gimenez was married to an Ecuadorian woman. All the arrested fishermen were released, too, and the confiscated shark fins returned to them.
Security and defense In June and July 2007 in several communities of the Amazonía and domestic South, protests were carried out against oil and mining concessions to transnational companies (
PetroChina, PetroBras and Canadian mining). According to some media, the Government repressed abusing from the force to these mobilizations.
Second presidential term: 2009–2013 Rafael Correa was re-elected for a second term in the
April 2009 general election, where he gained 52% of the vote. He was the first Ecuadorian President to serve a second consecutive term since the 19th century. It was the first time in thirty years that the country had re-elected a president and the first elected president from Guayaquil (The coast) who had finished his term after Leon Febres Cordero (1984–1986). in Quito, 8 June 2010 Correa was sworn into the Presidency on 10 August 2009, the same day as Ecuador's bicentennial. He claims that the continuation of his "
The Citizens' Revolution" policy is intended to ensure all citizens are equal.
Health The health budget was $561 million in 2006 and was increased to $1.774 billion in 2012, which is 6.8% of the national budget. The Ecuadorian government signed an agreement with the Cuban government to allow public company Enfarma to massively produce medicine at low cost. Working hours for doctors were increased to 40 hours/week and their salaries were also increased. Mobile hospitals have been implemented. Another program has been implemented to increase the rate of return of medics amongst Ecuadorian emigrants.
Infant mortality, from 24.4 per 1000 in 2005, declined to 18.3 in 2015. Between 2008 and 2016, new public hospitals have been built, the number of civil servants has increased significantly, and salaries have been increased. In 2008, the government introduced universal and compulsory social security coverage. In 2015, corruption remains a problem. Overbilling is recorded in 20% of public establishments and in 80% of private establishments.
Closure of Teleamazonas In June 2009, CONARTEL (a radio and television regulating body) imposed fines on a television station, Teleamazonas. A third fine could lead to a temporary or permanent ban on this private television channel. In December 2009, the station was taken off the air by the Superintendent of Telecommunications [es], under a provisional suspension of 72 hours for purportedly "spreading false information."
2009 Ecuador electricity crisis Beginning 5 November, rolling blackouts took place across Ecuador for two to six hours per day. Government officials also urged citizens to conserve energy. On 6 November, the government declared an emergency in the power sector, which was expected to "allow the Finance Ministry to seek to guarantee fuel imports for
thermoelectric plants". The power crisis led to criticism of the Correa administration's management of the power sector as water levels of the reservoirs became depleted. Police officers were also injured in attempting to clear blockades. An opposition leader claimed to witness, "The response from the government was gunfire from the ground and the air," The leader said that police, backed by a helicopter, opened fire on the protesters unprovoked. In an interview with the state-run media on Thursday, Correa said that the police were not armed and had only riot gear to protect them from demonstrators who were wielding shotguns. The Shuar man that died was killed by protesters' own weapons, and police were also injured by the same shotgun pellets that killed the brother Shuar, Correa said.
Higher Education Law A debate to modify this and other reforms, especially the one which granted control of the Higher Education System by the government, was practically passed with consensus by the multi-partisan National Assembly on 4 August 2010 but vetoed by the president Rafael Correa, who wanted to keep the law strictly as it was originally redacted by his political party and SENPLADES (National Secretary of Planning and Development). Due to this change, there are many highly educated professionals and academicians under the old structure but estimated that only 87% of the faculty in public universities have already obtained a master's degree and fewer than 5% have PhD (although many of them have already Ecuadorian granted Doctorate degrees). To raise the number of Masters and PhDs the Government started a scholarship program to send Ecuadorians to study in the top ranking Universities around the world (around 8,500 scholarships until 2013) and around 820 more have been approved for 2014.
2010 Ecuador crisis On 30 September 2010, the
National Police went on strike over the passage of a bill that would end the practice of giving medals and bonuses with each promotion. In what was called an attempted coup d'état, protests included road blockades, storming the National Assembly and state-run television station, and the military seizure of the
Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito. President Correa went to debate with the rebellious police, but he was unsuccessful and instead challenged them to kill him, saying, "I'm not taking one step back. Gentlemen, if you want to kill the president, here he is, kill him if you have the guts." That night, an elite army unit rescued him from the hospital amid violent clashes between the police and the army. The Army then took him to Carondelet Palace, where he announced he would not pardon those responsible. Throughout Ecuador, eight people were killed and 274 wounded in the unrest. On the same night, eight South American presidents attended an emergency summit of
UNASUR convened that night in
Buenos Aires to express their full support for Ecuadorean democratic institutions and Rafael Correa. The United States declared support for Correa through its ambassador to the
Organization of American States. U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton expressed "full support for President Rafael Correa, and the institutions of democratic government in that country." On 5 October, Ecuadorian foreign minister
Ricardo Patiño said "I firmly believe that Mr. Obama had nothing to do with this. I hope, and trust that neither his (immediate subordinates) did.
President of UNASUR Correa was a signatory to The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty of the Union of South American Nations on 15 July 2009. Ecuador has ratified the treaty. According to treaty, the UNASUR headquarters will be located in Ecuador. On 10 August 2009 Correa hosted the Heads of Government of South America in Quito, as he took over the one-year Pro Tempore Presidency of UNASUR. Correa announced on 3 April 2010 that he would propose to UNASUR the creation of a united front against transnationals like the American
Chevron, which he accused of attempting to destroy his country. Correa also asked that UNASUR create a commission to investigate the events that led to the 30 Sep police revolt in Ecuador in which about a dozen people died and 270 were wounded. The uprising was led by police upset over a new law that would deny them promotion bonuses. During Friday's summit, leaders also approved a democratic charter that would serve as a guide for the 12-nation bloc if any of them faced an attempted coup. The charter would have been an effective tool during Ecuador's revolt, Correa said. On 29 November 2010, UNASUR's presidency passed from Ecuador to Guyana. In 2014, Correa opened the $65 million
headquarters in Quito.
Lawsuit against the El Universo newspaper and Big Brother authors Correa announced another lawsuit this time against an editorial writer and the directors of El Universo newspaper. The legal action included the opinion editor of the paper, Emilio Palacio, who was sued for defamation by a high-ranking public official last year. Correa alleged that several of Palacio's editorials were "accusations" and "slander", where Palacio stated "...ordered fire at will and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people..." In an official Universo editorial it was said that Correa committed
crimes against humanity reasons, which Palacio was sued for. El Universo says the president's suit was announced several hours after the newspaper published an article about an information access request denial. While Palacio claimed, he was sued for calling Correa a "dictator". "We are not only suing the editorial writer, but also the newspaper El Universo's directors", said Correa, in a radio interview on Ecuadorinmediato, quoted by El Universo. "Ecuador's autocrat cracks down on media freedom," was the title of an editorial published by
The Washington Post on 27 July 2011: Last week the president personally attended the trial while thuggish supporters threw eggs and bottles at the defendants outside the courthouse. To no one's surprise, the provisional judge hearing the case quickly ruled in the president's favor, sentencing Mr. Palacio and the three El Universo directors to three years in prison and awarding $40 million in damages to Mr. Correa – an amount that exceeds the total value of the newspaper. As of 16 February 2012, the National Court of Justice (Ecuador's highest court) confirmed the lower court's award of $40 million in damages, as well as the three-year prison sentences against a journalist and three executives of the newspaper. The case related to unrest in September 2010, described by Correa as an attempted coup, which saw him trapped inside a hospital for several hours by police officers. In an opinion article from February 2011 which appeared in
El Universo, Emilio Palacio alleged that the president had ordered soldiers to fire on the hospital, which was full of civilians. Correa also filed a lawsuit against Juan Carlos Calderón and Christian Zurita, investigative journalists and authors of the book
Gran Hermano (Big Brother). Rafael Correa insisted that if the authors of the book admitted wrongdoing and asked for forgiveness he would pardon them. The lawsuit is based on the book's accusation that Correa knew of his brother Fabricio Correa's multimillion-dollar contracts with the government, a journalistic "investigation" into contracts signed between the president's brother, Fabricio Correa, and the State. The authors claim was based on a testimony by Pablo Chambers, who based his accusation on a manipulated video of Correa during an interview with a radio station in Quito. Following wide condemnation of the sentences in the El Universo case, Correa announced on 27 February 2012 that he would pardon the four individuals involved, also reminding that from the very beginning he asked for a rectification by the newspaper or an apology, both which the newspaper refused, instead claiming this was censorship, including asking Correa what he wanted them to publish. Despite the subsequent pardons, "the lawsuit had," according to Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, "a powerful chilling effect on the press." Correa also said he would drop his case against the authors of
Gran Hermano. Correa has been accused, in the words of the President of the
Inter-American Press Association, of mounting a "systematic and hostile campaign to do away with the independent press and establish, by law or through the courts, ownership of the truth that all the Ecuadoran people must swallow." Although an exit poll conducted by the Santiago Perez pollster showed that the 10 questions won with the 62% of the votes, as the count continued the "yes" lost presence even going as far as slightly losing to the "no" for a short period of time in questions 4 and 9. Correa pledged that the data had been manipulated by counting first the votes from the provinces where the "no" have won to create the "sensation of
fraud" and he predicted that the "yes" will win with at least 250.000 votes on all 10 questions. At the end the "yes" won all 10 questions but only the first question got more than the 50% of the votes This was the eighth election to pass during Correa's term in office.
Chinese credits In 2010 and 2011, Ecuador received Chinese credits for around US$5 billion. One of this financing model's projects is the hydroelectric Coca Codo Sinclair that China builds and it finances with something more than US$2 billion. Correa pointed out that China gives credits to Ecuador at 7.0 percent, but the credits are to finance projects with 23 or 25 percent of profitability, that is extremely good business, when referring to two thousand million dollars which will be dedicated to public investment initiatives. The Chinese credits are a "good business" with interests of 7 percent to finance projects with a profitability that goes from 23 to 25 percent. Correa discarded the idea that Ecuador is delivered to or have mortgaged its petroleum to China. On this point he mentioned that in the year 2006 75% of the Ecuadorian petroleum went to United States, in exchange for nothing. "Now we have 50% of the committed petroleum with China, in exchange for thousands of millions of dollars to finance the development of this country. In 2012, China loaned Ecuador 240 million dollars for the purpose of overhauling the Ecuadorian security system. This system comprises 4,300 new surveillance cameras, drones, automated evidence processing systems, and increased manpower to manage each of these new technologies, which have been collectively dubbed the ECU 911 Integrated Security Service. Much of this new hardware has been developed in Ecuador, but in laboratories designed and set up by China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), which is a state-owned company and a subsidiary of national defence contractor
China Electronics Corporation (CEC). The CEC has also undertaken similar surveillance overhauls in Venezuela and Bolivia and has also introduced technology to monitor the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. The Ecuadorian government has highlighted the benefits of this extensive security system, which has been installed across the nation's 24 provinces. They argue that it has been able to decrease the response time for everyday emergencies such as life-threatening illness, and have cited the system as a large factor in the dramatic drop in crime in Ecuador since its installation. Some individuals have expressed concern about the nature and the pervasiveness of these technologies, however, and how they may be used to create an Ecuadorian
police state. was created the Council of the Transitory Judicature integrated by three members Tania Aryans (delegate of the Legislative), Paulo Rodríguez (delegate of the Executive) and Fernando Yávar (delegate of the Function of Transparency). This advice has 18 months to restructure the Judicial Function Among its functions it was the one of creating the new National Court of Justice whose possession was given January 2012, 21 whose members will be in the positions for nine years. The court of justice was created through a competition of merits and opposition. Correa who participated of the act of possession of the new domestic magistrates, said that the administration of justice is an imperium of the state and at the same time, it is a public service, also it expressed his total back to the new judges of the National Court of Justice (CNJ) In 2014, the law is amended to allow same-sex unions to benefit from legal recognition.
2012 Ecuadorian protests Ecuador's largest advocacy group for Indians, the
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, planned a two-week march to Quito beginning on Thursday to protest Correa's land and water policies that they say were hurting their way of life. Correa condemned the action and accused them of being hypocrites for having allied with the extreme right, of seeking to exploit mining for themselves and of trying to destabilize his government, urging his followers to mobilize against them. The Indians were supported by the Popular Democratic Movement, a leftist party, the National Union of Educators and CONAIE, which supported Correa at the start of his administration in 2007 but soon moved to the opposition. The support march on the Government concentrated on thousands of demonstrators coming from different zones that met in a park where they enjoyed artistic shows put on to celebrate the Woman's International Day. The march began in an Amazon region to the southeast and it arrived in Quito on 22 March. It had the support of the teachers' organizations and students. Correa declared that the protests were intended to destabilize his government and he encouraged his followers "to keep mobilized until March 22"... "to resist peacefully. Those in favor of the Government also announced countermarches in various localities, such as in Cuenca where they had a concentration that gathered around fifteen thousand people.
Sex education and contraceptive services Correa established the National Interagency Strategy for Family Planning and the Prevention of Teen Pregnancies (ENIPLA) in 2011. It had an annual budget of $2 million and focused on preventive doctor visits and family planning, including access to the morning-after pill. In the four years since ENIPLA was established pregnancies amongst girls between the ages of 11 and 14 decreased by 18 percent. At the end of 2014 Correa replaced ENIPLA with Plan Familia (a family-based abstinence only program). One study found that this shift led to an increase in teenage pregnancy in Ecuador.
CIA Correa alleged that the United States attempted to meddle in the country's affairs during his presidency, saying that a representative from the American
Central Intelligence Agency requested a meeting with him at the start of his administration and that the accounts of senior state officials had been hacked. Former British diplomat
Craig Murray claimed that the CIA had tripled its budget to destabilise Rafael Correa's government during 2012.
Third presidential term: 2013–2017 , 7 November 2013 , 6 July 2015 , 10 December 2015 General elections were held in Ecuador on 17 February 2013 to elect the President, the National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and members of the Andean Parliament. Correa was reelected president, winning by a large margin in the first round of the presidential election. According to the quick count released by Participación Ciudadana, the Alianza PAIS movement (AP) reached two-thirds of the new National Assembly. The results gave the movement 100 of the 137 seats contested in the polls. Correa's closest electoral rival,
Guillermo Lasso (with 11 of the 137 seats in the new National Assembly), conceded shortly after the election concluded. The Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society won the WSIS 2013 prize in category C5: Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs with the project Digital Training through Mobile Classrooms. In 2013, a comprehensive
communication law was adopted, called Ley Orgánica de Comunicación.
Economy Correa's government accepted a US$364 million loan from the
IMF for earthquake reconstruction. At the same time, inequalities, as measured by the Gini index, decreased from 0.55 to 0.47. Between 2006 and 2016, poverty decreased from 36.7% to 22.5%. In April 2014, Correa's government ordered all
US Defence Department employees working in the US embassy out of the country. Correa had previously stated that the US had too many military officers in Ecuador and that they had "infiltrated ... all sectors" of the country. == Post-presidency ==