Ecuador

A patchwork of indigenous communities, people of colonial Spanish origins and descendants of African slaves, Ecuador is a microcosm of Latin American cultures.

Its capital, Quito, once a part of the Inca empire, also has some of the best-preserved early colonial architecture on the continent.

Traditionally an agrarian country, Ecuador's economy changed radically after the 1960s, when industrial development and the discovery of oil triggered rapid growth and progress in the spheres of health, education and housing.

But the extra money generated also fuelled inflation and boosted consumer imports, in turn increasing the foreign debt.

By the end of the 20th century a combination of factors, including falling oil prices and damage to the oil pipeline by the weather phenomenon El Nino, drove the economy into recession.

Inflation, which had become the highest in the region, led the government to replace the national currency with the US dollar in an effort to curtail it.

Furthermore, not all Ecuadorans benefited equally from the oil money. The traditionally dominant Spanish-descended elite gained far more than the indigenous and mestizo peoples, who make up a large proportion of those who live in poverty.

Additional steps to stabilise the economy, such as IMF-inspired austerity measures and privatisation, have generated widespread unrest, primarily among the indigenous poor, who bear the brunt of higher fuel prices.

For a small country, Ecuador has many faces. They include Andean peaks, tropical rainforests and - 1,000 km (600 miles) off the coast - the volcanic Galapagos Islands, home to the animals and birds whose evolutionary adaptations shaped Charles Darwin's theories.