A lot has changed in Ecuador in recent years. When Guillermo Lasso took over the presidency from the hands of in May 2021 Lenin Morenothe country seemed disenchanted with years of socialist populism Rafael Correa, which left the treasury heavily drained and represented a tendency towards the centre-right movement. Moreno himself, Correa’s vice president and who came to power in 2017 as his party’s candidate, broke the postulates of his predecessor and iIt initiated an economic turning point that Lasso tried to complete.
The economy and recovery from the pandemic were priorities when Lasso’s government began, but the bloody escalation of violence over the past two years and the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio have made uncertainty the central issue in elections due this Sunday took place the new President and the new members of the National Assembly will emerge. “The elections will take place in a context of unprecedented violence and insecurity is now the main concern of Ecuadorian voters,” he said. Gabriela Patricia Garciaan expert from the University of Exeter in the UK.
Banker and lawyer, highly respected in the business world for his extensive experience in private banking, Lasso promised to end the era of “caudillos” Allusion to Correa and an aggressive fiscal consolidation plan Liberate Ecuador from the spiral of waste and oil dependency which had led to him having to ask the International Monetary Fund for help.
In his swearing-in speech, he offered a “balance between economic growth and social justice” as “the basis for a more prosperous and just country,” but the public took notice His government worked much harder to reduce the deficit than it did to improve living conditions in a country that has the second highest rate of child malnutrition in Latin America and where only 3 out of 10 have a formal job.
It wasn’t long before he encountered obstacles that proved insurmountable. Shortly after a year of his tenure, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) launched a general strike to protest fuel price hikes and basic necessities. The powerful indigenous movement managed to cripple much of the country’s economy and survive violent clashes with the police in the main cities. At the end of the month, Lasso relented and withdrew most of the measures that outraged protesters, including cutting the fuel subsidy.
By then, the other major problem had already become apparent: the cancer of organized crime and drug trafficking that had been silently eating away at Ecuadorian society. The country was rocked by one A series of prison riots broke out in Guayaquil, killing dozens, one of the largest cities, became the epicenter of the war between criminal gangs competing for territory and the lucrative drug trafficking business. After five people were killed in an explosion there in August 2022, lasso imposed a state of emergency, a measure that critics found lukewarm and has not helped stem the escalation of kidnappings, extortions and contract killings.
Increasingly weakened and unpopular, Lasso saw his Correísta rivals launch a political process in Parliament in May to take it down by exploiting a scandal surrounding alleged corruption at the state oil company. To prevent them from going unpunished, Lasso then activated what is known as the Constitution Mechanism “Crucifixion”which allows the President to dissolve the legislature and call new elections, provoking a “serious political crisis and internal unrest” in the country.
Knowing that he had no chance Lasso waived re-election. The new president and congressmen will only do so until 2025, when the original mandate of the previous ones expires. However, the polls indicated the Correísta as the favorite Luisa Gonzalezthe murder of Villavicencio changed everything.
Ecuadorians could choose the candidate who shows the greatest steadfastness in the face of rampant crime. In recent days, the media has highlighted the name Jan topic, than to try to impose his strong proposals and his past as a member of the French Legion. But the only safe bet is that the new president will have a hard time restoring a country in “shock” to normal.