Today's election in Ecuador

There are many articles today framing the presidential election in Ecuador as a microcosm of Latin American political divisions, the left versus the right, the haves versus the have-nots, free trade versus socialism, Venezuela versus the United States. Kudos to the Washington Post for publishing an article rejecting such alarmist and simplistic analyses:

No matter who wins Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday, many outside the country will view it as a decision between dueling political stereotypes: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's dream of a unified region liberated from U.S. influence, or that of free-market backers embracing a globalized economy.

For most who will actually make the choice, it's nothing of the sort.

Ecuador has experienced some of the worst instability in the region in recent years, and people want someone who will provide results. Unfortunately, the following is also true:

"It doesn't matter which of the two candidates wins, Ecuador will have a weak president, at the mercy of the Congress and facing difficulties of governability," said Adrián Bonilla, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Quito.

So let’s stop claiming that Latin American elections are a titanic struggle between the opposing forces of Chávez and Bush, which essentially removes Ecuador from the equation through the claim that we can only understand the election by looking outside the country.