Quito, Ecuador ? Rafael Correa, a leftist economist and friend of Venezuela’s anti-U.S. leader, promises swift and radical changes after he is sworn in as Ecuador’s president today.

His plans have raised the hopes of Ecuador’s poor but stirred worries that he may seek to govern arbitrarily.

Correa, 43, won Ecuador’s November election runoff as a charismatic outsider who pledged to lead a “citizens’ revolution” against a political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

He says his first act as president will be to call a national referendum on a special assembly to rewrite the constitution – something he says is vital to limiting the power of the traditional parties that he blames for the country’s problems.

“Citizens are fed up. We need a profound political reform, including a new generation of leaders,” Correa said in an interview shortly before his victory.

The nationalistic, U.S.-educated Correa has called President Bush “tremendously dimwitted.” He has rejected a free trade pact with America, saying it would hurt Ecuador’s farmers. And he has said he will not extend the U.S. military’s use of the Manta air base on the Pacific coast for drug surveillance flights when a treaty expires in 2009.

Correa joins a string of recently elected leftist presidents – in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Nicaragua – many of whom plan to attend his inauguration. Some, like Correa, admire Venezuela’s firebrand President Hugo Chavez; others have distanced themselves from him.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, Ecuador's President-elect Rafael Correa, center, and Bolivian President Evo Morales talk during a Mass in Zumbahua, Ecuador. Correa will take office as Ecuador's president today.

Correa’s call for a constitutional assembly follows similar moves by Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales, the first Indian to govern his nation.

Some worry that Correa will use the assembly to strengthen presidential power. But he says his reforms aim to make elected officials more accountable, including having congressmen represent districts instead of being elected in a national vote. He supports allowing all elected officials to be recalled.

But Correa could face a tough challenge in a country that has suffered chronic political instability since its return to democracy in 1979.