Ecuador, Noboa strengthens with referendums: tightening of security

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It is the logic of the iron fist and in Ecuador it has strengthened. In Sunday’s referendum, President Daniel Noboa won, receiving a “yes” vote in 9 of the 11 questions posed to voters: those relating to security which involve a strong militarization of society. The Army in the streets, therefore. However, a parliamentary passage will be necessary.

It was one of the safest countries in Latin America. In a few years it has transformed into a place of violence, murders and denied rights. Ecuador, in the followingmath of the referendum wanted by Noboa, maintains a State of Emergency climate which has been confirmed for the next 60 days. Referendum centered on the issues of security, militarization as well as the flexibility of the labor market and legal relations with large companies.

The majority of Ecuadorians, according to initial data, therefore welcomed the introduction of exceptional measures in the security field, while they rejected, by voting “no”, the other two questions, of an economic-legal nature. The first is what would have introduced further flexibility in the labor market, the second would have led to a loss of legal sovereignty. The latter has been called “Arbitration”. The “no” vote prevailed in the two questions, respectively, with 64.88% and 68.83%.

Noboa has released statements speaking of a “triumph”, but the opposition, led by presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez, has also expressed satisfaction with the two rejected questions. «If the “yes” vote had won, society would have been seriously impoverished, with the hourly work contract». A measure defined as slavery to the detriment of a pueblo already exhausted by the long crisis. The arbitration question was rejected even more clearly. It was a ploy to favor some companies, which might have resolved disputes without resorting to the courts but with the intervention of “other subjects” identified by the parties involved. The objective would have been to constitute a tool for resolving international financial disputes. It’s a proposal that Noboa said was supposed to make Ecuador more attractive to foreign investors. A political idea opposed by civil society: it would in fact undermine the country’s sovereignty by making it more difficult to defend itself from potential lawsuits from larger companies.

Ecuador is caught in a triple vice. The first is that of drug trafficking, becoming one of the central countries in regional and international trafficking. In fact, it borders Colombia and Peru, the top two cocaine producers in the world. The second is the violence which records disturbing murder rates: in 2023 there were 8 thousand murders, almost double compared to 2022, with a rate of 40 per 100 thousand inhabitants. Violence recorded especially in the political sphere; the most sensational murder concerns that of Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist who was a presidential candidate in the last elections with an anti-corruption program.