Correísta Luisa González and businessman Daniel Noboa compete this Sunday for the Presidency of Ecuador, in an exceptional election for a period of barely fifteen months in power, but one that will be transcendental for the future of the country.
If he wins this Sunday, González, bishop of former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), would be the first woman elected in a popular vote. His victory would also mean the return in another body of Correa, in exile and sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption.
The last survey published before the ban on not disseminating polls at the national level gave Noboa an advantage of 6.56 percentage points in valid votes, obtaining 53.28% compared to 46.72% for González.
Who is Luisa González and what does she propose? We tell you.
The hope of the return of Correism
Luisa González, a lawyer with peasant roots from the Ecuadorian coast, raises Correism’s hope of returning to power and “recover the homeland” after seven years without governing the country, and also become the first woman from Ecuador to win a presidential election.
(Also read: Ecuador: Correismo candidate for president denounces plan to attack her)
Become a bishop of the Citizen Revolution, the political movement led by former president Rafael Correa, González (Quito, 1977), who will face businessman Daniel Noboa this Sunday in the presidential second round, has defined himself as an “authentic manaba” from the coastal province of Manabí, although he was born in the country’s capital.
He was born when his parents were visiting Quito, but shortly after seeing the light in this city embedded in the Andes, he returned to his nest in Canuto, a town very close to Chone, a prodigal agricultural land where “montubios” are also forged, the strong peasants of the coast.
He worked in the fields with his grandfather, who taught him to temper his character, to ride a horse, handle the machete and carry out the hard tasks entrusted to the montubio, a word that comes from the term “montu” (from the coastal mountain), “fluvius” (rivers) and “bio” (life).
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With a strong Catholic conviction, a crucifix hangs from his neck and since she was in her twenties, she has had roses tattooed on her skin that symbolize her commitment to the Lord, one with a stem formed by the words of a fragment of the Bible.
At 45 years old, he looks young, with outfits that have become emblems of his electoral campaign, such as the polarized blue glasses that he had to wear when during the first round of elections he had to breathe pepper spray thrown by police during a struggle. with his supporters.
She studied at the International University of Ecuador, where she obtained a law degree, and earned a master’s degree in Economics. and Development at the Complutense University of Madrid.
Single mother, with two children, she is a lover of Manabi cuisine, sports and animals, to the point that at home he has two dogs and a rabbit that they gave him on one of his tours around the country.
(Also: Correismo will be the first force in the Ecuadorian Congress after the elections)
The political career of Luisa González
González was linked to Correismo from the beginning, when Rafael Correa began his political life and quickly achieved the Presidency of the Republic in 2007.
That is why she is loyal to the former president, of whom she was his Strategic Agenda coordinator (2010), a key and close position that allowed her to understand the difficulties of power.
She also served as vice minister of Tourism Management (2014), general secretary of the Presidential Office (2015). and national secretary of Public Administration (2017).
He served as vice consul of Ecuador in Madrid (2011) and consul in Alicante (Spain) in 2017, as well as general secretary of the Companies Administration of Quito.
(Also: How organized President Guillermo Lasso really leaves the accounts in Ecuador)
After Correa’s term ended in 2017, he launched into active political life and In 2021 she was elected as a member of the National Assembly (Parliament).
As a legislator, she harshly criticized the current government of conservative Guillermo Lasso, whom she blames for the economic crisis. social, political and insecurity facing the country.
His name began to be heard just after Lasso invoked the so-called “crossed death” last May, a constitutional mechanism that allowed him to dissolve Parliament and call early elections.
The president ended the legislature just when the opposition majority in the Legislature, led by Correismo, was preparing to vote on a motion to impeach Lasso, within the framework of a political trial where he was accused of alleged embezzlement (embezzlement).
(Keep reading: Ecuador: ‘While the State has been lost, crime has been well organized’)
Without the Assembly, in which González and Noboa acted as legislators, The Citizen Revolution appointed Luisa along with Andrés Arauz, who was Correismo’s presidential candidate in 2021 and is now running for the Vice Presidency.
In one of his last campaign actions, González called on the population to “vote for change” to get out of the critical situation that affects the country.
“We have never had an Ecuador so destroyed,” so this Sunday “we are risking our rights,” said the candidate who also called “to take care of the vote.”
At his campaign close in Guayaquil, González also assured that in this second round of the elections the country is risking its life, because these elections can mark “a before and after”, and she promised to “lift up Ecuador” if she wins.
“In unity we are going to raise this Ecuador, a country that cries out for peace, for security, for employment, for health, for medicine, for places in universities, for fair prices for our farmers, for our women, who Every day violence and femicides increase. For all of them, I am here,” he said.
(You can read: Insecurity and economic crisis, the challenges of the next president of Ecuador)
Furthermore, he insisted that his political project wants to stop “migration, hopelessness” and “that country where we have no security, where there is no longer freedom, where we are prisoners still in our home.”
In unity we are going to lift up this Ecuador, a country that cries out for peace, for security, for employment.
González promises the return of a more supportive State after the right-wing governments who followed Correa and admits that the former president will be his main advisor although he assures that he will maintain independence.
One of its priorities is the fight against insecurity when Ecuador is approaching the record of 40 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants due to violence linked to drug trafficking, four times more than in 2018.
He is also concerned about the low level of health and education in the “destroyed” country after the right-wing governments that followed Correism. González attributes the crime to the governments of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) and Lasso, which “prioritized an agenda of political revenge and hatred over the well-being of the people.”
But without an absolute majority in Congress and facing a short government, any of the candidates will face difficulties in making their reforms a reality. Hit by poverty (27%) in a dollarized economy, Ecuadorians will vote with “two major concerns, which are security and unemployment,” said David Chávez, professor at the Central University.
The truth is that the winner will have a very short mandate, fifteen months, only to complete the 2021-2025 period. that the current president Lasso will not finish.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL*
*With agencies
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