Daniel Noboa, candidate for the presidency of Ecuador: "My 18-month-old son wakes up to gunshots at midnight"
The candidate for the presidency of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, arrives at this interview with 20 minutes “dodging the bullets”. He says it sarcastically, but at the same time knowing that this is the harsh reality that plagues Ecuador. In the last four weeks, four politicians have been assassinated in this South American country. On July 17, Rider Sánchez, a candidate for the National Assembly, was the victim of crime; on the 23rd it was the turn of Agustín Intriago, mayor of Manta; on August 3, the bullets hit Miguel Santos Burgos, director of land for the municipality of Durán; and this Wednesday a group of assassins ended the life of Fernando Villavicencio, candidate for the presidency.
After the murder of Villavicencio, a state of emergency and military mobilization have been decreed to guarantee security. In addition, the homicide occurs in the middle of the electoral campaign, since the presidential elections are called for next Sunday, August 20.. It also happens in the midst of a wave of violence fueled by drug trafficking, unemployment and other factors explained by the candidate for the ADN alliance in this interview. In fact, he comments that, despite living in a tourist area, the underworld has reached a few streets away from his house and that his family is forced to go out into the streets with 14 armed bodyguards.
How has the murder of Villavicencio affected you? My wife and family are terrified and rightly so, as are the families of the other candidates.. Last night I spoke with three candidates, with Yaku, with Otto and with Hervas and everyone is in the same. We no longer have guarantees. We go out to some event and it is a 50-50 that they can shoot you. There is total restlessness. Something happens every week.
Have you felt that feeling of insecurity on other occasions? I have lived it. I have been in violent areas where there have been armed people within two or three blocks. It feels like you're campaigning in a war zone.. In fact, we have received three death threats and six provincial parliamentarians have also received death threats.. Our Assembly candidate for Esmeraldas even had to leave the country for two weeks because they were following his daughters. Ecuador has already become a narco-state. Politics and public administration are intertwined with criminal organizations. I would say that the vast majority of candidates are in one way or another involved.
Why this situation? There is a total lack of action by the current Government. In addition, today there is no correct intelligence system, there is no joint action plan, there is no prison control, and there is no control over weapons.. Only civilians who want to take care of their homes are persecuted, but there are people with war rifles. Villavicencio was killed with a war rifle that only the military should have, not a 9mm.
Is there something else behind this wave of violence? In the last year and a half, unemployment and underemployment have been rising. The unemployment rate for those under 29 years of age is 10% and that of underemployment is 35%.. This means that one in two young people between the ages of 18 and 29 do not have a fixed income.. Added to this is the increase in drug export routes. Heroin and other drugs are smuggled across the southern border, a zone that has been demilitarized since 1998. Then, like Pedro, the criminals with weapons, with drugs, with contraband, with everything, pass through his house.. There is no border control or port or highway control.
Do you think the Sinaloa cartel is behind the murder of Villavicencio? I think so. Here are the big criminal organizations. It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 tons of cocaine leave Ecuador every year and the wholesale price is between 30 and 40 million dollars per ton. If a calculation is made, with that the external debt is paid. The General State Budget does not exceed 36 billion, but they move approximately 60 billion dollars in cocaine.
How was your relationship with Fernando Villavicencio? He was not my friend, but he was my colleague in the Assembly. He had another way of doing politics. My policy is more propositive and his was more of denunciation and control. But, even if it was the worst of people, who was not, no one deserves to die for reporting crimes or a criminal group.
After the event, the state of exception has been decreed for 60 days. What freedoms are currently restricted? We have been in and out of the state of emergency for two years. It is not really something extraordinary what they have done. The difference is that you cannot have massive events or campaign free association in the next three days at least. And from there it will be reviewed what will happen next. But it is that in itself, you can no longer go out on the street. Two weeks ago someone was killed with a rifle one block from my house.. My 18-month-old son wakes up with rifle bullets at 12 at night. I do not believe that the state of exception is the solution, we are already in a state of war.
The electoral elections will be in ten days. Can elections be held during the state of emergency? I'm not a lawyer. I have asked constitutionalists and what they tell me is that by not having the freedom to promote proposals, there is no freedom of free elections. Therefore, elections should not be held in this way, because it violates the constitutional right of the participation of the candidates.. I am sure that no candidate is going to denounce the State for that, because the situation is understandable, but a legalist explained it to me that way.
If you were to become president, what measures would you take to control violence? In the first place, I would consult the Constitutional Court if we are in a state of war, because according to the detail the conditions of a war are met. We are against narco-terrorist groups, with other principles and purposes, but similar to what happened with ETA in Spain. They are enemies of the state.
What happens when considering them enemies of the State? Considering them enemies of the State, the army can enter and act, since they are violating the sovereignty of the State. The main constitutional problem is that they are considered common criminals, who only have to shoot at the police. But if they are considered terrorists they become enemies of the State with limited rights.
I understand… I would also seek real international cooperation, not promises, with allies we have. We have a plan with the Government of Israel that would even help us with comprehensive intelligence systems, surveillance systems, border protection, weapons. In this way, we have a central intelligence agency that can provide real information to the police and the military.
Would he fill the streets with security cameras? Not just fill the streets. There are ways, sensors and cameras that detect threats. If they see irregular movements in the neighborhood. It is a way to correctly detect the threat and thus also attack it.
What other steps would you take if you became president? There has to be a judicial and important reform through consultation, because in the first 90 days it is important to make the reforms and because the popular consultation or the referendum is the fastest democratic mechanism. So in 90 days you ask the citizen directly and you make the constitutional reforms that you have to do. In Ecuador, the jury system worked for 80 years and now everything falls to judges and prosecutors who can be corruptible or threatened. By having a random system of 21 citizens from a bank of eligibles in which it is not easy to detect where the verdict comes from, fairer sentences can be given. That way criminals would be afraid of the judicial system.
What motivated you to run for president? Because I see that things are very bad and because I don't want my children to have a worse country than the one I had. Otherwise they will have to emigrate and I don't want that to happen. It's that easy. I am having a worse country than my parents' and my children could have a worse one than mine.
At first you mentioned to me that your family is scared, are you scared too? I am afraid of them. But I have the peace of mind that I am the only candidate who has had nothing to do with past governments. I have never had a public administration corruption scandal. Everyone else has had them and unfortunately that is the reality. I have never been a state contractor either. That is the peace that I have, that they are not going to come to collect a favor for some stupid thing that I have done in the past. That is the problem with other candidates.