Correa's presidency was part of the Latin American pink tide, a turn toward leftist governments in the region, allying himself with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and bringing Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009.

[1][2][3][4] On 3 July 2018, a judge in Ecuador ordered a warrant for Correa's arrest after he failed to appear in court during a trial surrounding the kidnapping of his political opponent Fernando Balda.

[12] Following the conclusion of his studies at UCSG, Correa worked for a year in a mission at a kindergarten run by the Salesian order in Zumbahua, Cotopaxi Province, where he taught Catholicism and mathematics.

[10] As finance minister, Correa met with a number of Latin American presidents, including Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

[18] During his four months in charge of the portfolio, Correa was skeptical of signing a free trade agreement with the United States and declining advice from the International Monetary Fund, instead working to increase Ecuador's cooperation with other Latin American countries.

Arguably his most notable decision within the Ministry of Finance was to reverse the fact that surpluses from oil sales go directly to prepay Ecuador's foreign debt and instead go to investment in health and education.

[23] During his campaign, he described himself as the head of "a citizen's revolution" against the established political parties and corrupt elites,[24] and depicted himself as the leader of a second independence movement devoted to freeing Ecuador from American imperialism.

[57] In a radio address on 13 December, Correa said that he wanted to force a "big discount" on creditors, whom a day earlier he called "true monsters who won't hesitate to crush the country".

After his election victory of 15 April 2007, he pledged to maintain dollarisation during the entire four years of his administration, though he also indicated his support for the idea of replacing the US dollar with a regional South American currency at some point in the future.

[60] On 16 April 2009, Finance Minister María Elsa Viteri embarked on a trip to Europe in a mission to present Ecuador's offer to buy back global bonds 2012 and 2030 at 30% of their current value.

Amongst these were economic moves to correct Ecuador's debt imbalance, distancing from the United States, a rift with its northern neighbor Colombia, and a strengthening of ties with ALBA (including Venezuela and Bolivia), as well as Iran.

[70] According to the Ecuadorian government, the attack happened 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) inside its own territory, lacked its permission and was a planned strike, intended to be followed by the incursion of Colombian troops by helicopter.

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa had reason to believe that the Colombian warplanes had penetrated 10 km into Ecuador's territory and struck the guerrilla camp while flying north, followed by troops in helicopters who had completed the killings.

[81] On 3 March 2008, Colombia's police said that documents found in a camp in Ecuador where Colombian troops killed Raul Reyes, a top guerrilla boss, showed ties between the FARC rebels and Correa, including contacts about political proposals and local military commanders.

[107] The NGO Amazon Watch claims that the reason for the projects is the government's 7-billion-dollar debt to China and the desire to get Chinese funding to build a 12.5 billion dollar oil refinery.

[112] On 3 August 2007, Correa ordered the deportation of Sean O'Hearn-Gimenez, director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, saying that he would not allow "gringuitos" (literally, "little gringos") to tell Ecuadorians what to do or to pursue local fishermen.

[131] Correa announced that on Monday 26 July 2010 Ecuador would enact reforms to a hydrocarbons law that aims to expropriate foreign-company operations unless they sign service contracts increasing state control of the industry.

[136] In what was called an attempted coup d'état, protests included road blockades, storming the National Assembly and state-run television station, and the military seizure of the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito.

[citation needed] Correa also asked that UNASUR create a commission to investigate the events that led to the 30 Sep police revolt in Ecuador in which about a dozen people died and 270 were wounded.

"Ecuador's autocrat cracks down on media freedom," was the title of an editorial published by The Washington Post on 27 July 2011: Last week the president personally attended the trial while thuggish supporters threw eggs and bottles at the defendants outside the courthouse.

To no one's surprise, the provisional judge hearing the case quickly ruled in the president's favor, sentencing Mr. Palacio and the three El Universo directors to three years in prison and awarding $40 million in damages to Mr. Correa – an amount that exceeds the total value of the newspaper.

The Ecuadorian people were asked to vote on ten questions, including a reform of the judiciary, although opposition members denounced what they called a "power grab" on behalf of Correa's government.

They argue that it has been able to decrease the response time for everyday emergencies such as life-threatening illness,[181] and have cited the system as a large factor in the dramatic drop in crime in Ecuador since its installation.

[192] The support march on the Government concentrated on thousands of demonstrators coming from different zones that met in a park where they enjoyed artistic shows put on to celebrate the Woman's International Day.

The Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society won the WSIS 2013 prize in category C5: Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs with the project Digital Training through Mobile Classrooms.

[clarification needed] He was sentenced to 8 years in prison for leading the corruption network that, between 2012 and 2016, received "undue contributions" at the Carondelet Palace to finance his political movement in exchange for awarding state contracts to businessmen, along with former Judiciary Secretary of the Presidency Alexis Mera, former Ministry of Housing and Urban Development María de los Angeles Duarte, former congresswoman Viviana Bonilla, and former Constitutional Judge—and his secretary—Pamela Martínez.

"[229] Correa's suit is based on Article 230 of the country's penal code that sets prison penalties of up to two years for contempt, expressed in "threats or libel that would offend the president.

"Ecuador offers the United States economic aid of US$23 million annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human rights", said a government spokesman.

Ecuadorean officials announced that the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht will not be able to sign any future contracts with public institutions in Ecuador, as authorities continue to investigate alleged corruption in its operations.

According to Geovanny Vicente Romero, a political analyst, "Ecuador is in the midst of presidential elections and its lame-duck president Rafael Correa wants to leave the house in order for his successor by taking a position in favor of investigating the Odebrecht case.