The photos illustrating the biggest news in Latin America this weekend could not have differed more. One was of a vigorous and victorious Rafael Correa in Ecuador, winning a third term in office Sunday; the other was of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela?s ailing president, smiling but, weeks after surgery for cancer, still lying in a hospital bed.
As Latin America moves into 2013, with Mr. Chavez?s full recovery still an unknown, many have questioned who will take over the leftist helm in the region if Chavez indeed must step down. And while not nearly as endowed with natural resources as Venezuela?s Chavez, Mr. Correa?s name is always on the short list. His clear, third-term victory Sunday positions him even more for the job.
But, as if an indirect message to Correa, Chavez might not be ready for a handover: Just as Correa was enjoying the global spotlight, Chavez took it back. In a surprise move, he returned in the middle of the night back to Venezuela from Cuba where he?s been convalescing, unseen and unheard from for weeks.
?We have arrived back in the Venezuelan fatherland. Thanks, my God! Thanks, my beloved people! Here we will continue the treatment," Chavez said on his Twitter account.
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CORREA THE 'NEXT CHAVEZ?'
Correa won nearly 60 percent of the vote on Sunday, avoiding a runoff and making clear that no Ecuadorian leader can compete with the charismatic, former economist who was trained in the US but has maintained a cold distance with the nation of his alma mater.
But he?s also emerging as a can't-beat leader of Latin America?s left, with a flair for the rhetoric that has resonated across the world's most unequal region. His win Sunday, he said in a victory speech, will deepen the "citizens' revolution,? a reference to the empowerment that left-leaning leaders have sought for the region?s poor, much of it via social programs funded by natural resources. ?In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital," he said.
In a recent story by The Christian Science Monitor questioning who was poised to lead the left if Chavez steps down, Mart?n Alalu, a political analyst at the University of Buenos Aires, said he believed Correa was Ch?vez?s natural successor.
?He has Ch?vez's antagonistic, anti-American discourse, oil reserves, and a leadership style that promotes a plebiscitary democracy," Mr. Alalu told The Monitor's reporter in Buenos Aires, referring to the 2008 vote to reform Ecuador's constitution.
And that regional leadership position is something that many agree Correa seeks. "Correa aspires to be that next mythical figure [of the Left]," said Colette Capriles, a political analyst at the Sim?n Bol?var University in Caracas, in January.
But it might not be an attainable goal for now, and not just because of more limited resources. As long as Chavez is alive and in power, few if any can or would usurp his long-forged role as Latin America?s leftist voice.
On Sunday, just before dawn, euphoria spread across Caracas. Reuters reports that fireworks were set off and that government ministers celebrated on live television. ?He?s back, he?s back,? one said of Chavez's return.
And Chavez joined in to celebrate. "I remain attached to Christ and trusting in my nurses and doctors," Chavez tweeted. "Onwards to victory forever! We will live and we will conquer!"
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/red-letter-weekend-latin-americas-left-correa-wins-150021643.html
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