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2017-04-02 Caribbean-Latin America
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Venezuela crisis casts shadow over Ecuador presidential election
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Venezuela's political crisis is looming over Sunday's tight presidential election in Ecuador, where a leftist government aligned with Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro is hoping to prolong its decade-long rule.
Ecuador pro-business candidate Guillermo Lasso has doubled down on accusations that government-backed candidate Lenin Moreno would turn the Andean country into Venezuela, alluding to a recent Supreme Court move there to neuter the National Assembly that foes denounced as a lurch into dictatorship.
"A coup annulling the National Assembly! Is that what you want?" right-wing challenger Lasso told a crowd of supporters at a rally in the sweltering city of Guayaquil this week. "Then let's go for change! Change is avoiding Venezuela's suffering."
The outgoing administration of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has scoffed at the accusations, slamming them as desperate attempts by Lasso, a former banker, to spook voters and cover up his plans to slash welfare programs.
"They've been trying to confuse the population with the argument that Ecuador is going to turn into Venezuela," Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said on Friday. "But no, Ecuador is not Venezuela."
The Ecuadorean economy, like the Venezuelan, is heavily dependent on oil and is suffering a downturn. But Ecuador's situation is a far cry from the full-blown crisis in Venezuela, where millions of people are suffering food shortages and raging inflation.
Critics have long accused Correa of clamping down on the press, stacking institutions with supporters and being hostile toward business - just as they see happening in Venezuela's self-styled "21st century Socialism."
Lasso accused "foreign mercenaries" - and alluded to them being Venezuelan - of trying to attack him with rocks, sticks, and knives after a soccer game on Tuesday. The Ecuadorean government rejected the accusation. 
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Posted by Steve White 2017-04-02 00:00||
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Posted by Skidmark 2017-04-02 10:29||
2017-04-02 10:29||
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