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The aim of this paper is to elaborate a periodization of the historical-spatial transition in South America from the end of the last century to the present day. In methodological terms, this periodization proposal is based on an analysis of critical junctures at the regional level during which there is a measurement of forces among strategic political projects. The identification of these conjunctures allows us to define five significant moments: 1) the collapse of the neoliberal and unipolar financial project between October 1998 and April 2002; 2) the construction of alternatives: the development of the Atlantic Axis and the "No al ALCA” [No to ALCA] between April 2002 and November 2005; 3) the strategic advance of Latin American popular nationalism in a postneoliberal and South American continental key between November 2005 and 2011; 4) the emergence of the Pacific Alliance, the resumption of the unipolar offensive, the stagnation of autonomous regionalism and the weakening of popular nationalism between April 2011 and October 2015; 5) the onslaught of the financial, neoliberal and unipolar project and the reflux of nationalpopular forces in Latin America between October 2015 and June 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: The article analyzes the relationship between the State and financial elites in Ecuador during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2014), framed by what is known as the turn to the left. This government carried out a decorporatizing fight to delink state management from private interests that had captured the State during the neoliberal cycle. This entailed two simultaneous movements: breaking the institutionality in force in different spheres of public policy (education, finance, health, communications media, among others) governed by actors with veto powers and special interests and, at the same time, building a new institutionality capable of responding to wider interests and demands, within a democratic and inclusive spirit. Methodology: The empirical exploration of this case was performed with a qualitative methodology based on an analysis of the press and regulations and the tracking of processes, which allowed offering evidence regarding the mechanisms for the capture and decorporatization of the State, within the framework of governments whose favorite adversaries are the economic elites committed to neoliberalism. Conclusions: The institutional reconfiguration carried out by the Citizen's Revolution within the sphere of finance achieved greater margins of state autonomy, through new institutional designs of financial system bodies, such as the Monetary and Banking Boards, to keep the private interests of bankers from permeating state management. Originality: The text contributed elements to bridge the gap found in studies on elites in Latin America and their relationship with the State, specifically, regarding the mechanisms for the capture and "de-capture" of state management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]