Ecuador "risks its life" at the polls
“Trying to be happy in this country became a crime”. Ecuador regretted yesterday, in the mouth of Paola Cabezas, former governor of the coastal province of Esmeraldas, the murder of Jonathan Sánchez, La Polilla, one of its most beloved comedians, national champion of jokes in other times. Sánchez was shot to death by hitmen while he was driving his vehicle through the streets of the capital of Esmeraldas, another of the red spots of the violence that plagues the Andean country..
In such a state of national clamor, sweetened by the victory of the soccer team in its visit to Bolivia, the electoral campaign marked by the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, the investigative journalist who tried to become President to change his country since inside. The organized crime that besieges Ecuador did not allow it.
The centrist Daniel Noboa, candidate and founder of the National Democratic Alliance (ADN), made the most of his youth, 35 years old, to lead a marathon of caravans in different parts of the country, protected with the bulletproof vest that made him famous. His rival, Correísta Luisa González, took advantage of the support of the mayor and the prefect of Guayas to concentrate his forces in Guayaquil, the historical bastion of his political boss and the Social Christians.. Despite being behind in the polls, former president Rafael Correa, who directs the campaign from abroad, trusts in the political and administrative power of the Citizen Revolution to come back and recover power, an essential step for the triumphant return to his country. To deny rumors of distance between the two, which is not real, González once again stated that his main advisor is the great leader of his party.
The first stop of Noboa's final rush was made in Cuenca, capital of the mountains, where the “moderate social democrat”, as he defines himself, tried to reinforce his partial victories in the first round despite the fact that the radical indigenous leader, Leónidas Iza, has called on the militants of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) to vote “against the right”. An ally of Correa, Iza has postponed his presidential bid until 2025 in the face of the emerging conflict within the Pachakutik party.
The marathon later took him to his fiefdom, Guayaquil, where polls assured him of overtaking González, winner in the first round.. On this occasion he shared the spotlight with the hundreds of thousands of his “twins”, cardboard dolls with his life-size image that appeared everywhere..
The tour ended in Santa Elena, the province of which he was a deputy in the first part of the legislature.. “We are where it all began, where our dreams took shape. Let's go for a new Ecuador!” insisted the candidate who grew up between elections: his father, the banana millionaire Álvaro Noboa, ran for president five times without success..
González, aware that she is still behind in the polls but encouraged by the supposed favorable wind that her allies abroad preach, sent her last message out of desperation: “These elections are not just any election, in these elections we are risking our lives.”.
And he is largely right, since the strategy devised by Correa to regain presidential power in his country involves a victory tomorrow at the polls, which would immediately provoke a Constituent Assembly to force his return to the country, his pardon. and his candidacy for 2025. Correa remains a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice after being sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption.
González also did not lie when he assured that these elections are special. Whoever is elected at the polls will be sworn in at the end of December, will subsequently receive the baton of command of the indigenous community, which in the Andean worldview represents the highest political authority, and will govern for a year and a half to finish the current legislature. Both González and Noboa can repeat their candidacy for 2025.