For those who think South American Countries have political issues, just consider the Alberta royalty tax plan.  Although the royalty payments just announced are less than originally proposed, the big shock is the renegotation of contracts with some of the large oil sands players that were originally to run for another 9 yrs.

Just imagine the hysterics if  Ecquador or Venezuela were to do something like that!  All the bashers would be howling how risky investments are in those countries!

The point I'm trying to make is that Ecquador is not that risky a place to invest compared to "safe" places like Canada.