Actually if you overlook the religious facade in Northern Ireland, the situation is very simlilar - it is an economic struggle in reality. The Prortestants are the ruling elite and the Catholics are the working poor. The comparison is not totally off base.

Anyway, if Correa truly wants to change his country, he should learn from Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese paramount leader. Deng single handedly liberated the Chinese people from their economic woes via a now famous comment he made in 1986, in which he said - "If China does not change, there is no hope for the country".

Deng also adopted a pragmatic approach to the economy, which effectively means going capitalistic. Of course China did not call it as such (just called them economic reforms), after all it is still a communist country! Deng has another famous quote in this regard, in which he said "Doesn't matter the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat". Hey Ecuador is just socialist, and if Communist China could be pragmatic back then it is a lesson that Correa could very well emulate - starting with the mining laws.