Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado

Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado , 1963–, Ecuadorian economist and political leader, president of Ecuador (2007–), b. Guayaquil. A leftist economist (Ph.D Univ. of Illinois, 2001), he served briefly as minister of finance (2006) under interim President Alfredo Palacio before running as populist reformer in the 2006 presidential election. A friend of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez , Correa called for constitutional reform, restructuring Ecuador's foreign debt, antipoverty programs, and anticorruption measures. Although Correa placed second in the first round of voting, he won a solid majority after a runoff against businessman Álvaro Noboa. In 2007 he won a referendum on calling a national assembly to rewrite the constitution, and the resulting charter, which increased the president's and the government's powers, was adopted in 2008. Correa was reelected in 2009; he promised increased socialist measures after winning a second term.