Richard Gott

The red tide sweeping through Latin America, checked in Peru and Mexico­, has achieved another memorable record this week in Ecuador. The substantial electoral victory of Rafael Correa, a clever, young, United States- educated economist and former finance minister, marks a further triumph for Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his Bolivarian revolution, which has long sought to ignite Latin America’s "second independence".

At a petrol station outside the Cuban town of Cienfuegos, half a dozen teenage girls stand languidly by the pumps, jumping to attention when a car or lorry pulls up. They work the pumps efficiently, take payment and enter the transaction on to a large official form. They are dressed neatly in T-shirts and jeans and a slogan across their backs proclaims their identity as <i>trabajadores sociales</i>, or social workers. They are Fidel Castro’s latest army of guerrillas.

The large vote for Evo Morales, the socialist and indigenous candidate in the presidential election in Bolivia, and the expected ratification of his success by the congress, marks a new and fascinating moment in the unrolling of radical politics in Latin America. Morales is a charismatic figure who represents important strands in Bolivia’s political traditions.