Ecuador President Rafael Correa has defaulted on international debt payments, causing a crisis in the financial affairs of this Andean nation. See this Bloomberg article for details. This default is likely to cause Ecuador to stop using the U.S. dollar as its national currency, according to Bloomberg.
See this Reuters article for a slightly different "take" on the same subject, but one that reaches essentially the same negative conclusion. This article puts more emphasis on Correa's friendship with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
