Ecuador supports Noboa’s crusade against crime

Some 13.6 million of the 17.7 million inhabitants were called to vote Yes or No in 11 questions promoted by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa.

Ecuadorians broadly supported the proposal to strengthen the fight once morest organized crime, but largely turned their backs on Noboa with his economic reforms to create jobs by legalizing hourly contracts and attract investment by accepting international arbitration in any jurisdiction.

Among the eleven questions that made up the plebiscite, the ‘Yes’ vote won with percentages between 73.05% and 61.97% in nine questions on measures to strengthen the State once morest organized crime, and the ‘No’ vote prevailed in the proposals for international arbitration (64.88%) and hourly contracts (68.83%).

With this referendum, Noboa is gauging his popular support following having assumed the presidential office less than five months ago and already having the 2025 general elections on the horizon, in which he has already expressed his intention to run for re-election.

The short mandate of Daniel Noboa, who assumed power on November 23 of last year, is due to the fact that he was elected to complete the year and six months that Guillermo Saliente was missing, who decided to dissolve Parliament and call early elections before submitting to a possible dismissal by the Legislature.

Now Noboa, 36, the youngest president ever elected in Ecuador, has emerged strengthened in his crusade once morest organized crime, for which at the beginning of the year he declared an “internal armed conflict” once morest criminal gangs, which he now considers terrorist groups and non-state belligerents.

However, his electoral promise to create jobs for young people has been cut short by the fact that he has been unable to legalise hourly contracts or attract foreign investment, which has declined in recent years.

«We have defended the country, now we will have more tools to fight crime and restore peace to Ecuadorian families“the president said on social media.

The day was marked by the murder of Damián Parrales, director of the prison in the coastal town of Portoviejo (southwest). The official, who had taken up his post five days ago, was shot while having lunch with his family in a restaurant in the nearby town of Jipijapa, according to media reports.

At the end of the day, the Armed Forces reported a riot that left four prisoners injured in a penitentiary in the coastal city of Quevedo (southwest).

Since 2021, more than 460 prisoners have died in bloody massacres caused by clashes between prisoners.