The United States has lost another Latin American ally—Ecuador. Rafael Correa was officially declared president of Ecuador on December 4 by the nation’s electoral court. Correa, who has publicly bragged about his friendship with anti-U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will be sworn in January 15.

Correa will be Ecuador’s eighth president in 10 years. The last president, U.S. ally Lucio Gutierrez, was ousted from office by Ecuador’s Congress and forced to flee the country in April 2005 when thousands of protestors took to the streets of the capital city. Gutierrez ran on a populist anti-U.S. platform like Chavez did, but unlike Chavez he reversed his position and began working with the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund to bring the nation out of its economic woes.

Correa, who ran on a platform similar to the one Gutierrez originally espoused, secured the support of Ecuador’s majority indigenous population and managed to win with 57 percent of the vote. Now the U.S.-trained economist must face the challenge of balancing Ecuador’s economic recovery and keeping his constituents happy.

It is the same challenge that Gutierrez miserably failed to overcome.

Correa has pledged to close down the U.S. military base in Manta and plans to renegotiate oil contracts to increase royalties paid to the country. The money would then go to fund massive social programs in health care, education and employment to help the indigenous populations.

However, Correa faces strong opposition from Congress, which he labeled a “sewer.” Because he and his party didn’t field any candidates for the legislature, Correa now must battle a Congress controlled by his opponents who can block his leftist proposals.

This means Correa could either become the next president to be ousted or he could turn into another Chavez and eventually take control of Congress.

Regardless of his fate as president, the people of Ecuador have shown they do not support the U.S. Back in May, during public strikes and protests, the government canceled some of its oil contracts with U.S.-owned Occidental Petroleum and transferred them to the nationally owned company Petroecuador. These are the kinds of measures the U.S. can expect Ecuador to take—the kind that leave the U.S. out of the picture.

Thus, Ecuador joins the anti-U.S. club in South America, along with Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Unfortunately for the U.S., the club keeps growing.