Ecuador elects president under drug violence and the horror of an assassination

In the midst of the commotion over the shooting death of a candidate and the violence linked to drug trafficking, Ecuador will vote this Sunday in early elections to elect a new president and put an end to an institutional crisis.

LOOK HERE: Ecuador Elections 2023: Campaign closes disrupted by the murder of Fernando Villavicencio

The right-wing president William Lassocornered by a political trial, dissolved in May the Congress opposition and advanced the general elections.

But 11 days after the vote, the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio when he was leaving a campaign event, he overshadowed the elections.

“These are completely atypical elections, in a basically horrifying situation that Ecuador is going through the violence that was installed, but that manifests itself in a more acute and atrocious way with the murder” of the politician, the political scientist told AFP Anamaria Correa Crespocoordinator of International relations of the San Francisco de Quito University.

Crime altered the electoral spectrum. Luisa Gonzalezdolphin of the former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), favorite march in the polls, but without a sufficient percentage in the intention to vote to avoid the ballot.

To be proclaimed the winner in the first round, 40% of the valid votes with an advantage of 10 points over the second.

In back of gonzalez the journalist is located Christian Zuritafriend and replacement of Villavicencio; the ex-sniper and ex-paratrooper JanTopicthe indigenous leader Yaku Perez and the former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner.

The 137 members of the Assembly National to complete the current four-year period, until May 2025.

Some 13.4 of the 18.3 million Ecuadorians must exercise the vote mandatory between 07:00 and 17:00 local (12:00 and 22:00 GMT).

KNOW MORE: China says Milei would change her mind about them if she visited the country

“Emotional vote”

The face of the deceased Villavicencio will appear on the ballot papers along with seven other candidates, since they were already printed when it was shot by a Colombian hitman.

Shortly before being murdered, the journalist and former legislator had accused the detained leader of the criminal gang The Chonerosan ally of the Mexican drug cartel sinaloato threaten him with death.

He had also denounced parliamentarians before the prosecutor’s office, some of them correistasfor allegedly being involved in a plan to end his life.

After the assassination, the popularity of Luisa González was hurt.

his mentor Belt and Villavicencio were bitter rivals, ever since one of the journalistic investigations of Villavicencio and zurita led to the sentence in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption against the former president.

“We were going to win in a single lap” but the murder of Villavicencio “moved the electoral board”admitted Beltwho since leaving power has lived in Belgium.

From exile, he maintained that it is a “political plot” to accuse correísmo of the crime and benefit the right “to achieve a second round, for everyone to unite and defeat us.”

Political scientist Correa Crespo dismisses, however, that “The impact is strong enough to alter the fact that it will be in the second round”scheduled for October 15.

Luisa González leads two recent polls (with 24% and 24.9%). One of them, from the firm cedatoslocated Villavicencio second (12.5%) and to the right JanTopic third (12.2%).

for the analyst Blasco Penaherrera SolahCorreísmo could receive a “punishment” at the polls. “We are going to have an emotional vote” as happened in 1990 in Colombia, when the liberal Cesar Gaviria He was elected after occupying the position of Luis Carlos Galán, a former journalist who faced drug trafficking and was assassinated by hitmen.

READ ALSO: Biden strengthens ties with Seoul and Tokyo against China and North Korea

Hard times

Topic, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, vows a strong hand against gangs, emulating the work of the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.

Curly Strap write down that “there is a promotion” on his popularity. He is now among the leaders in some polls.

In the basement are the rightist Daniel Noboa and the center-right Xavier Hervas and Bolivar Armijos.

In full campaign of these elections they were killed also a mayor, a candidate for deputy and a local correísmo leader.

“We are living very hard times for our democracy”says the political scientist, for whom “the penetration of drug trafficking in Ecuador (…) It’s been several years. It has been a perhaps silent phenomenon, but it is demonstrating its power”.

Ecuador faces an onslaught of drug trafficking and organized crime.

Gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels in war for control leave prison massacres with more than 430 prisoners dead since 2021 and a record of homicides in the streets of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, almost double the previous year.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.