This Sunday, Ecuador is holding the most atypical elections in its contemporary history. Called early, thanks to the death decree issued by President Guillermo Lasso to avoid censure by Congress, the campaign was the most violent in the country's history after attacks against political leaders, including those of candidate Fernando Villavicencio and political leader Pedro Briones.
All this violence has caused Ecuador to go to the polls in a state of emergency for the first time in its history, as declared by President Lasso. Starting this Friday, a security plan will be implemented in the country's electoral precincts.
Next Sunday, the Fuerzas Arañadas (FF.AA) and the National Police here will not only be in charge of the transport and custody of the electoral material, they will also be empowered to combat criminal organizations in the face of possible threats.
Recently, the Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón, justified the state of emergency as the only tool they have to deploy the military in the face of the wave of violence.
"It is that the situation is extremely complex, only the simplistic can think that this is fixed overnight, the penetration of organized crime and drug trafficking did not come overnight, it is a complex and difficult issue that It has many edges, obviously with responsibilities, from the government at the head of course”, the official asserted.
According to a mapping carried out by the police, there are seven provinces where the greatest risk is concentrated: Manabí, Esmeraldas, Los Ríos, Guayas, Santa Elena, Santo Domingo and Pichincha. Therefore, even those areas, considered the most conflictive and where the police institution anticipates greater action and special security, elite teams will be transferred.
Violent campaign closure
This Thursday was registered a casualty shooting during one of the campaign closing ceremonies of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Daniel Noboa, according to sources from his presidential campaign, about an event that the government ruled out as an attack against the businessman and former assemblyman.
The incident occurred during a caravan that the candidate, protected with a bulletproof vest, was carrying out in Durán, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Guayaquil known for being one of the areas with the highest crime rate in Ecuador, and designated by the authorities as an area that the drug traffickers use cocaine to collect, which is then taken to the port.
Although the members who accompanied him denounced at first that it was an attack against the candidate, the Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, Juan Zapata, ruled out that it was an armed attack against Noboa.
They ask Lasso not to issue any more last-minute decrees
For her part, the correísta candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador, Luisa González, asked this Wednesday the president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, to refrain from issuing last-minute decrees, since he has less than three months left in power.
González, candidate of the Revolución Ciudadana movement, led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), assured that if she is chosen as Lasso's successor, she will review all the actions of the current government, but insisted that the president must refrain to generate decrees that could affect the future administration.
The candidate said that she expects Lasso to leave before the scheduled deadline, since the new administration must prepare the state budget for next year.
"I hope (Lasso's departure) happens sooner because the budget needs to be approved," he reiterated, and he should refrain from issuing decrees or making controversial decisions "because he's already leaving."
"There are things that Guillermo Lasso has done that I'm going to review," such as reducing local government budgets in anticipation of the arrival of the El Niño climate phenomenon, which is expected to have strong to moderate impacts on the region, the candidate added if she wins the election.
González assured that, if she is elected, she will immediately create a commission to investigate the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead by hitmen on August 9 as he was leaving a campaign rally in Quito.
Ecuador taken over by criminal gangs
Former President Rafael Correa reacted on his Twitter account, now X, to the death of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was assassinated this Wednesday in a crowded sector of Quito, Ecuador, after leaving a political rally.
"Fernando Villavicencio has been assassinated. Ecuador has become a failed state. You are hurting your country," the former president wrote, sparking widespread criticism about the domination of criminal gangs that have overtaken state power.
Independent investigations have revealed that several organized crime groups linked to large drug cartels from Mexico and Albania operate in Ecuador. Ecuadorian prisons have become points for recruitment and centers of operations.
This has contributed to Ecuador becoming an increasingly important player in the global drug trade, unleashing a wave of extraordinary violence that has transformed the lives of millions of Ecuadorians.
Ecuador's homicide rate fell under former President Rafael Correa, who ruled from 2007 to 2017, thanks to increased police surveillance and a commodity boom that helped lift millions of people out of poverty.
Lenín Moreno prioritized paying off the country's foreign debt and imposed austerity measures and budget cuts that further weakened the national security apparatus. Guillermo Lasso also looked more outward than inward, neglecting the rise of these criminal groups.
A total of 53.707 officials will join the security operation that will be activated for the electoral process that will take place next Sunday in Ecuador. More than 100 officials are active from this moment to guard the Ecuadorian vote.
