"Stupid Face"

Just in case you thought the rhetoric surrounding the U.S. elections was exceedingly juvenile, I thought I should share this recent exchange between the two leading candidates in Ecuador's presidential election:

President Correa: [Lucio] beats his wife; he has a stupid face; he's unqualified and incompetent morally and intellectually; he's a puppet; and he's a vain marionette descended from a hairy Guayaquileña. (I'm not sure about the translation of that last one: "fantoche de la peluconería guayaquileña" -- any help from you native Spanish speakers would be welcome).

Former President and 2009 runner-up candidate Lucio Gutierrez: "I've never beaten my wife or any women. You, Rafael Correa, I accuse in front of the whole country of having beaten you father, don Rafael Correa Icazas, God rest his soul, when he returned from the U.S. where he was detained for 5 years for drug trafficking [true story, at least concerning the detention]. You, as is your custom, taking advantage of your youthfulness, beat your father."

These two men have each served as President of Ecuador, and together captured more than 75% of the votes in last week’s election. Gotta love politics.