Elmer Medrano Period 7th 4/3/12

Ecuador
Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia- north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean- west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border with Brazil. Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president of the Union of South American Nations. He was an economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States; he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007. In December 2008, he declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it had been contracted by corrupt/despotic prior regimes. He then pledged to fight creditors in international courts, and succeeded in reducing the price of the debt letters and continued paying all the debt. Rafaels Correa's first term in office had been due to end on January 15 2011, but the new approved constitution written by the new National Assembly mandated general elections for April 26 2009. In that election, Rafael Correa won in the first round with 52% of votes counted. It was the first time since 1979 in which a representative was elected without having to face a second round. Consequently, Correa began a new term in office due to end on August 10 2013, which could be extended by reelection until 2017. To this day, Correas administration has succeeded in reducing high levels of poverty and unemployment. A descendant of the Chilean politician Rafael Correa of Saa and Lazn and Delgado and Flaquito, Rafael Correa comes from a working class family in Guayaquil. His father was Rafael Correa Icaza, born in the Province of Los Ros, Ecuador, March 23 1934 and passed away June 10, 1995; and his mother is Norma Delgado Rendn, born September 1, 1939. When Rafael Correa was a young boy, his father was caught smuggling cocaine into the U.S. and was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison for his crime. Rafael had a troubled and difficult childhood with his father ending up committing suicide and the family struggled to make enough money to pay the bills. The main spoken language in Ecuador is Spanish. Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 275,830 km2 (106,500 sq mi). Its capital city is Quito, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. The country's largest city is Guayaquil. The historic center of Cuenca, the third largest city in the country, was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, for being an outstanding example of a planned inland Spanish style colonial city in the Americas. Ecuador is also home, despite its sizeto a great variety of species, many of them endemic, like those of the Galpagos Islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 mega diverse countries in the world. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights. Ecuador is a presidential republic and became independent in 1830, after having been part of the Spanish colonial empire and the republic of Gran Colombia. Many civilizations rose throughout Ecuador, such as the Valdivia Culture and Machalilla Culture on the coast, the Quitus and the Caari . Each civilization developed its own distinctive architecture, pottery, and religious interests, although consolidated under a confederation called the Shyris which exercised organized trading and bartering between the different regions and whos political and military power was under the rule of the Duchicela blood line before the Inca invasion. After years of fiery resistance by the Caaris and other tribes, as demonstrated by the battle of Yahuarcocha (Blood Lake) where thousands of resistance

Elmer Medrano Period 7th 4/3/12 fighters were killed and thrown in the lake, the region fell to the Incan expansion and was assimilated loosely into the Incan empire. Through a succession of wars and marriages among the nations that inhabited the valley, the region became part of the Inca Empire in 1463. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived from the north, the Inca Empire was ruled by Huayna Capac, who had two sons: Atahualpa, being in charge of the northern parts of the empire, and Huscar, seated in the Incan capital Cusco. Upon Huayna Capac's death in 1525, the empire was divided in two: Atahualpa received the north, with his capital in Quito; Huscar received the south, with its capital in Cusco. In 1530, Atahualpa defeated his own brother, Huscar, and claimed control over the entire empire. Atahualpa's victory was short-lived because he was soon captured by the Spanish conquistadors in Cajamarca, and later executed for the murder of his brother. On October 9, 1820, Guayaquil became the first city in Ecuador to gain its independence from Spain. On May 24, 1822, the rest of Ecuador gained its independence after Antonio Jos de Sucre defeated the Spanish Royalist forces at the Battle of Pichincha, near Quito. There is great variety in the climate, largely determined by altitude. It is mild year-round in the mountain valleys; Humid Subtropical Climate in coastal and Rain Forests in lowlands. The Pacific coastal area has a tropical climate, with a severe rainy season. The climate in the Andean highlands is temperate and relatively dry; and the Amazon basin on the eastern side of the mountains shares the climate of other rain forest zones. Because of the location by the equator, Ecuador experiences little variation in daylight hours during the course of a year. Both sunrise and sunset occur each day at the two six o'clock hours. Ecuador's economy has heavily depended on exporting resources such as petroleum, fish, shrimp, timber and gold. In addition, it has rich agriculture: bananas, flowers, coffee, cacao, guayusa, sugar, tropical fruits, palm oil, palm hearts, rice, roses, and corn. The country's greatest national export is crude oil. Approximately 95% of Ecuadorians are Roman Catholic and the rest, 5% are other religions. Most of the populations are covered by the mestizos. Ecuador is a real interesting country..