On 30 September 2007, the people of Ecuador voted for Rafael Correa to form a constituent assembly that would reform the 1998 Constitution. The wide-ranging support he achieved consolidated his position as head of the country, following his previous electoral victories. The aim of the Ecuadorian president is to turn around the future of a country which, until the present, has suffered from constant changes (often not very democratic ones), and from unstable, corrupt governments that have not succeeded in introducing the reforms that the population needs. The financial crisis of the 1990s led to a collapse of the banking system and the ruin of the domestic economies of thousands of Ecuadorians, who left their country to emigrate to Spain, Italy and the United States in order to rebuild their lives. This wave of emigration has been fruitful in terms of remittances, but it has left the country bereft of skilled labour. Ecuador's population of 13 million people is distributed along the coast, in the mountains and the jungle, in a patchwork of ethnic groups and with enormous socioeconomic inequalities that become accentuated between the rural world and the city. But apart from its human resources, Ecuador possesses natural resources and a rich biodiversity that should enable the sustainable development of the country without damaging the environment or the indigenous people who are the trustees of the country’s natural and cultural knowledge.

ISSN: 1132-6107

60 pp.

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