Daniel Noboa assumes office in an Ecuador besieged by the economy and drug trafficking

Daniel Noboa knows that he does not have the usual 100 days of courtesy and truce with which the new president is received. Not even with one day. This Thursday, the moderate leader assumed the Presidency of Ecuador, a country besieged by drug trafficking and in serious economic difficulties, which will force him to take forceful measures immediately.. The first one expected for an express mandate of only a year and a half confirms it: Noboa is considering declaring the country in a state of emergency.

The official parliamentary group of National Democratic Action (ADN) is already working on the implementation of two bills in the face of the serious economic crisis that affects Ecuador, which for weeks has been facing electrical blackouts due to the lack of energy caused by the drought and the onslaught of the meteorological phenomenon known as El Niño.

The fiscal deficit left by the Government of former banker Guillermo Lasso, valued at 10,000 million dollars, also affects education and national health. To further aggravate the situation, Sariha Moya, the economist chosen to lead public finances, will ultimately not head the key ministry. After meetings in Washington with transnationals and international banks in search of a loan, Noboa has decided to choose a minister with more experience. Moya, who studied at the Madrid University of Carlos III, is 35 years old, the same age as the president-elect. However, it will take charge of the National Planning Secretariat.

“The declaration of a state of emergency during the Lasso Government has been proven to have neither generated major changes nor solved the structural problem of violence, but from a political point of view, and to give an image boost, now with Noboa it seems necessary in the face of a problematic so complex. It is a way to make visible to the country that it takes security seriously,” political analyst Matías Abad deciphered for EL MUNDO.

Noboa thus arrives at the Carondelet Palace endorsed by his surprising electoral victory and with a national acceptance of around 67%, but with the first criticism after signing a great alliance to elect the Christian Socialist Henry Kronfle as president of the National Assembly.. To this end, the government bench signed an agreement not only with the Social Christian Party (PSC), a former ally of Lasso that abandoned him at the first opportunity, but also with the deputies of the citizen revolution of Rafael Correa, the fugitive former president of Ecuadorian justice. The new legislative president obtained a historic vote: 128 deputies in favor and only seven abstentions.

In his first interview, Kronfle assured that they will not seek amnesty for the former president nor the dismissal of prosecutor Diana Salazar, another of the objectives of Correa's political revenge.

With this agreement, the new president seeks a parliamentary cushion for such a short term, knowing that in the two years of Lasso it was the National Assembly that was in charge of making his life impossible, in addition to blowing up different political initiatives.

“This first session should be a harbinger of new times and signs of greater governability to achieve an Ecuador with employment, security, health and education for all,” said Noboa, who defines himself as a “moderate social democrat.”

Aside from the problems in electing the head of the Economy, the distance that separates the president from his electoral ticket partner, the future vice president Verónica Abad, has also transcended.. The meetings he held in Spain with the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, and his landing at the Miss Universe held in El Salvador in the shadow of President Nayib Bukele upset those around Noboa, who were ideologically distant from Abad.

The coldness between the two was confirmed in the delivery of the presidential credentials by the National Electoral Council (CNE).. Noboa avoided his vice president throughout the event and left a sentence in the air: “The path to the top, to the Presidency, also has betrayals, many times from people one does not even expect, people one chooses.”. But that's life, that's human nature.”

Apart from the Vice Presidency and Economy, Noboa has surrounded himself with little-known ministers, young people, women and some experienced. “The challenges of the new Government are in politics and I do not see profiles capable of sustaining the transversality that Noboa seeks. If you want to be re-elected (in 2025) you must enter into a campaign logic and that implies immediate results and managing communication well. I do not see the main ministers with political solvency and experience. It is premature, but the profiles are close people and employees, similar to Lasso's first steps,” warns analyst Abad.