2023-08-20 09:04:05
Ecuadorians go to the polls this Sunday to choose a new president who they hope will lead the country out of the spiral of violence and economic hardship.
Ecuadorian voters are voting this Sunday for a early presidential electionupset by the assassination of one of the main candidates, once morest the backdrop of an unprecedented wave of violence linked to the booming drug trade.
The assassination traumatized the country and reshuffled the cards for an election for which none of the eight candidates now seems able to win by an absolute majority and avoid a second round on October 15.
Drug trafficking, insecurity and institutional crisis
Long an oasis of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been contaminated in recent years by drug trafficking from neighboring Colombia and Peru, sponsored by Mexican cartels. To the point of threatening the stability of institutions and resembling the bloody Colombia of the 1990s.
If the Pacific coast with its strategic port of Guayaquil has long remained the epicenter of violence, Quito now lives in fear. The nationwide homicide rate doubled in 2022 and will set records this year. Since 2021, more than 430 detainees have also killed each other in prison in massacres between rival gangs. Added to this violence is a institutional crisis stripping the country of Congress for the past three months following unpopular conservative incumbent President Guillermo Lasso decided to call a snap election to avoid impeachment for corruption.
“Ecuadorians are going to vote with three feelings”, sums up Santiago Cahuasqui, political scientist at the SEK International University: “fear of insecurity, pessimism regarding the economic situation and distrust of the political class”.
Who are the eight presidential candidates in Ecuador?
Some 13.4 million voters are called to vote between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. (between 2 p.m. and midnight, Belgian time) to elect the president and vice-president, as well as the 137 deputies of the unicameral Congress.
The new president will be elected until May 2025the theoretical end of Mr. Lasso’s mandate.
A tattoo-loving socialist lawyer, a journalist appointed at the last moment to replace his friend who fell under the bullets and an ex-sniper from the French Foreign Legion will compete for the votes of voters, among eight candidates living in fear of an attack and only going out wearing bulletproof vests and under armed escort.
The time having run out to print new ballot papers, the face of the late Villavicencio will always appear on those of his replacement at short notice, the journalist Christian Zurita, 53 years. Villavicencio’s best friend and colleague, he was part of all the investigations that brought to light major corruption scandals. The main one resulted in the conviction of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) to eight years in prison, forcing him into exile in Belgium. “The relay is an ethical necessity,” Zurita told AFP, promising to apply the program if he wins. anti-corruption of his murdered friend.
Death threats
Luisa Gonzalez was the favorite in the polls until Villavicencio’s assassination. But the tragic death of the ex-journalist “has exacerbated anti-Correa sentiment”, according to political scientist Santiago Cahuasqui.
On Saturday, his Construye (centrist) party denounced “death threats” to him on social networks. “Tremble, Cristian,” commented on the candidate’s TikTok account user “Cartel Jalisco N, G,” according to the party. “The threats once morest my life and my team will not stop,” replied Mr. Zurita on X (ex-Twitter).
Shortly before his assassination, Villavicencio said he was threatened by an imprisoned gang leader whose group, “Los Choneros”, is believed to be linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
Mr. Zurita’s rival, the only woman in the presidential race, Luisa Gonzalez, 45, was an adviser to Mr. Correa for a long time and has promised to make her his adviser if he wins. Ms Gonzalez was the polls’ favorite until Villavicencio’s assassination. But the tragic death of the ex-journalist “has exacerbated anti-Correa sentiment“, believes Mr. Cahuasqui.
Behind Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Zurita come former sniper and ex-paratrooper Jan Topic (right), indigenous leader Yaku Pérez (left) and former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner (right)according to polls in early August.
The short election campaign was marked by three more murders: a mayor of a large port, a candidate for Congress and a local Corréiste leader.
Voters also vote this Sunday in a referendum on the continued oil exploration in the Yasuni Amazon jungle (Northeast), indigenous land and unique biodiversity reserve. A “historic” consultation in the eyes of defenders of the environment and the indigenous cause.
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