"Texaco (now an American oil brand of the Chevron Corporation) started its work in Ecuador in the 1960s when former CIA officer Philip Agee revealed that a modest budget allowed the CIA to play a huge role in Ecuadorean politics. Referring to a program that funded right wing politicians and journalists in Ecuador, a 1961 diary entry of Agee’s stated that “It costs about 50,000 dollars a year and in a place like Quito a thousand dollars a week buys a lot. The feelings I have is that we aren’t running the country but we are certainly helping to shape events in the direction and form we want.”"