Rafael Correa

Rafael Correa was born in Guayaquil in 1963 to a lower middle-class family, studied economics through a PhD at the University of Illinois, and returned to serve as Minister for the Economy in 2005, where he pushed Congress to fund health and education. He won the presidency in 2006 on a platform attacking the political establishment and took office in January 2007 promising to break with neoliberalism and reduce the sway of the World Bank and IMF. He introduced a new constitution, won reelection in 2009 and 2013, and joined the Latin American pink tide, aligning with Hugo Chávez and bringing Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance in 2009. His government increased spending under its own strain of 21st century socialism: poverty dropped from 36.7% to 22.5%, inequality fell, and annual per capita GDP growth nearly tripled compared to the prior two decades, though collapsing oil prices after 2014 tipped the economy into recession and forced cuts by the end of his tenure.