Ecuador Is Not Venezuela

Ecuador’s political orientation is often lumped together with Venezuela as a socialist dictatorship that is anti-private business and anti-American.  For some reason, the media sees fit to bundle Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa as though they were identical in their political viewpoints and in their strategy to “unseat the empire” so to speak.

I’ve often pointed out, as I did in this article, that Rafael Correa is not Hugo Chavez, Ecuador is not the same as Venezuela, and indeed, Ecuadorians have one of the most pro-Everybody attitudes in all of South America.

Most of the media criticisms toward Ecuador come from Correa’s seemingly adversarial position toward large mining and oil companies targeting the bounty contained in Ecuador’s relatively small portion of the Amazon Rainforest.

These mulit-national goliaths, who basically had their way with past Ecuadorian administrations, are finding Correa tougher in terms of environmental and tax controls.  A long standing law suit with Chevron over environmental clean up has been used to paint Correa as a socialist with an interest in nationalizing industries and confiscating private property.

However, this statement by Hillary Clinton during her recent visit to Ecuador would dispel many such criticisms, and comes closer to accurate than I would normally give her credit for:

Clinton: “We have reached out and feel very much as though we are forging a new set of relationships,” she said referring to Ecuador’s current administration. “It’s the 21st century. It’s 2010. We’re not turning the clock back.

“We’re not expecting countries that have their own internal agendas in order to accomplish their own economic and social goals to be exactly as we are. If we ever did, it’s no longer the case. I think the goals that Ecuador and its government have set are goals that the United States agrees with.” (1)

Hillary would not make this statement in reference to Venezuela, now would she?

And I very much applaud this statement by Rafael Correa, which confirms what I believe to be true about Ecuador and Ecuadorian people following my recent visits to the country:

“The new left that I represent is not anti-anything,” Correa said at a news conference in the presence of Hillary Clinton. “We are not anti-capitalist. We are not anti-American. We are not anti-imperialist. We are pro-dignity, pro-sovereignty, pro-social justice, pro-good life for our people. We are in favor of the good things.” (2)

Of course, we have to take political comments like these with a grain of salt.  But the point is that politically, Ecuador is a far cry from Venezuela, and is probably not headed in that direction as long as Correa stays in power.

When questioned about the “safety” of owning property in Ecuador, I’ve often said that if I were a large mining  or oil company dependent on a government concession for my project, perhaps I would be concerned about the government’s stance.  But as a home owner, condo owner, acreage owner, farm owner, or as a small scale property developer, I would have no greater concern about potential property ownership risks in Ecuador than in Panama or any other Latin American country.

All foreign property ownership comes with some risks, but outright confiscation is not any likelier in Ecuador, than in Costa Rica, Mexico or any of the other traditional vacation and retirement destinations (we’ve heard plenty of stories of property purchases gone wrong in both Costa Rica and Mexico).  Indeed, property taxes in Ecuador are so low that as a property owner you feel much more like the owner than in the US or other developed countries where property taxes are typically 10 to 20 times higher than in Ecuador.

Michael Manville

Retire Worldwide

The Ecuador 101 – Guide To Living and Investing In Ecuador, 2010 Edition is one of several free downloads available to Members of Retire Worldwide.

References:

(1) http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/536886/201006092348/Hils-Ecuador-Lovefest.aspx

(2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060804251.html

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