Politics and Petroleum in Ecuador

This is an analysis of the Ecuadorian military regime of 1972-79 and the democratic government of 1979-84 in terms of petroleum politics. The author describes the domestic, international and multinational corporate pressures at work, and sees the Ecuadorian future as ambiguous, since he believes that "one of the irreversible consequences" of petroleum in Ecuador is a dramatic extension of the authority of the state.