This winter, President Rafael Correa, of Ecuador, a protégé of Chávez, came to Tehran to sign a number of trade deals. At the ceremony, Correa, a big man, arranged himself on a sofa in an expansive, loose-limbed way. Ahmadinejad looked scrawny beside him; he wore a cardigan and a rumpled gray suit. He smiled at odd moments, and seemed awkward, unsure of what to say. They were like a mismatched bride and groom in an arranged marriage. Correa struck all the right notes for a foreign leader hopeful of obtaining financial credits from Iran. “We consider Iranians a heroic people who knew how to rid themselves of a bloody dictatorship that was backed by the West,” he said. “This example inspires us in Latin America.” Looking pleased, Ahmadinejad turned to Correa, embraced him, and exclaimed, “I’ve found a new friend, and I am not going to lose him now.”
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