Ecuador's Succession Politics Get Ugly

When the government candidate eked out a victory in the bitter runoff for president of Ecuador in April, incumbent Rafael Correa was ebullient. The willful populist who ran the small Andean nation like a private finca for the last decade had staked his legacy on the continuation of his "Citizen's Revolution," pulling out the stops for his anointed successor against a surging opposition.

So it wasn't unreasonable to expect both gratitude and fealty from his understudy. But in the two months since taking office, President Lenin Moreno has been anything but the doting mentee. Calling for a national dialogue, he reached out to opposition leaders, including Correa's blood enemy, former president Abdala Bucaram. At a time when high-ranking Ecuadorean officials from Correa's administration are being questioned for graft, he announced an anti-corruption drive, and granted generous property rights to indigenous communities with whom Correa had repeatedly clashed.