The relationships between the presidents and vice presidents of Latin America are usually dysfunctional. Gustavo Petro has a very cold relationship with Francia Márquez, an Afro woman who was key in his coming to power. Before Petro, Iván Duque ignored and despised Marta Lucía Ramírez. What is happening in Ecuador, however, escapes any understanding. President Daniel Noboa has not had a single conversation with Verónica Abad, his vice president, since they both won the elections. Shortly after they took possession of her, he sent her permanently to Tel Aviv on a “mediation” mission between Israel and Palestine, when the lack of influence that the country has in a matter of this magnitude is well known. . Months later, the prosecutor’s office arrested Abad’s son for influence peddling and ordered her internment in La Roca, a maximum security prison. Abad takes Noboa’s hand behind the case as safe.
This manifest animosity of Noboa towards the person with whom he chose to govern Ecuador could be diluted until the end of the mandate. But there is something key that makes the situation even more tense: the current president, who wants to be re-elected and it seems that this will be the case due to his high popularity, must resign from his position at the end of this year, 45 days before the elections to campaign. , and hand over the position to Abad. This is what the Ecuadorian Constitution mandates, it is written in stone. Noboa tries to prevent this from happening at all costs and that is why she sends constant emissaries who tell Abad that the best thing for her would be to resign. The vice president is being subjected to all kinds of pressures that are increasing day by day. For example, these days, the advisor of a supposedly independent entity has filed a complaint against Abad before the electoral authorities, accusing her of having campaigned earlier than permitted by law. It was like that and that has been recorded on her social networks. The grotesque thing is that Noboa did exactly the same thing. It is assumed that the tricks to unseat Abad will intensify as the date approaches when the president is forced to resign.
Abad lives the hardest time of his life. Through a video call from Tel Aviv, the medium through which this interview was conducted, a distraught woman is observed, sometimes on the verge of crying, especially when she remembers the imprisonment of her son. She even fears for her life. However, she assures that she does not plan to abandon her position and that the day will come when she enters the door of the Carondelet Palace, the presidential residence, even if it is on an interim basis. Noboa has come to hit a wall, against a policy of absolute conviction. In his eyes shines the fire of those who are willing to go to the end.
Ask. Has President Noboa been disloyal to you?
Answer. Exactly. We agreed to fulfill a political project and that project has been betrayed.
Q. Why did he ask you to be his presidential ticket?
R. First, I am a woman, and we have to comply with a law of parity. We needed to place ideas and projects, which is what I have prepared in public policy. We met when he was an assemblyman. I belong to the mountains of our beautiful country, Ecuador, and in that region we win. But this did not happen on the Ecuadorian coast (the president’s native region).
Q. During the campaign you said that gender violence was a myth, that it did not exist. What do you think now?
R. I have not started to say that there is no violence against women. Violence is real, I would be lying. It is undeniable that machismo exists.
Q. Are you suffering from it right now?
R. I suffer political violence, harassment and continuous abuse.
Q. Is the main promoter of this campaign Noboa?
R. There is a whole Government behind it. The harassment and political persecution is very clear. I’m not talking about something I believe: it’s happening. Ecuador has to react to this outrage. We have a Constitution that must be respected. I am here because the Ecuadorian people gave me the right to be vice president. This has to do with democracy, which is sacred. There must be maximum respect for the constitutional order.
Q. What maneuver do you expect from Noboa to remove her?
R. This starts with a presidential decree to banish me, reduce the institutionality of the Vice Presidency to a minimum. By decree, they have taken away my security. Until now we have not had specific functions, because declaring a vice president as an ambassador has never existed. I have been appointed to the peace mission for Israel with Palestine. It is unconstitutional because the vice presidency talks about its functions and we do not have the functions of what we can work on. Achieve peace between Israel and Palestine? It is those two countries that are responsible.
Q. What has been your worst moment in these months?
R. The raid and imprisonment of my son, the most sacred thing. It has cost me many tears as a mother. Justice is not independent of the powers that exist in the rule of law. They continue trying to remove me through a complaint in the Contentious Electoral Court, with ridiculous evidence. I’m waiting until they declare me a person non grata. I don’t know what else Noboa wants to try. Maybe send me to Antarctica, like he said. I have the obligation to speak with Ecuadorians, but twice they have ordered me to be silent so that I do not speak or give statements. It is political violence, emotionally and psychologically; They want to destroy my morals and my decency.
Q. What are your arguments going to be to defend yourself against this electoral complaint?
R. If that applies to me, it also has to be with the president, with the assembly members, mayors and councilors who do the same.
Q. Esteban Guarderas, the counselor of Citizen Participation – an entity that is supposed to represent citizens for the control of power – who has filed the complaint against you has acknowledged that you have gone to Carondelet. Do you know who he’s met with?
R. He goes in and out of Carondelet, but I can’t tell him who he’s meeting with, because I know they’re going to retaliate.
Q. Why doesn’t Noboa want you to take over at any price?
R. At what point did they see me as dangerous? What do they not want to be known? The Constitution determines that, in the event of the resignation or absence of a president, the vice president assumes the Presidency. It is the constitutional order.
Q. Do you want to go all the way, do you want to be president?
R. It’s not that I want it, it’s what has to happen within the Constitution.
Q. Have you come to fear for your life?
R. Of course, especially because of the violent attack against my son. Seeing how he runs over an Embassy, without a doubt, I fear for my life. Therefore, it must be made legal and it is necessary to reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) that can guarantee that I return to the country without being attacked. This went too far. I have been a very prudent woman. By denouncing abuse and violence, am I now disloyal? Now I’m a Correísta (a follower of left-wing President Rafael Correa, the ideological antipodes of Abad)?
Q. Do you think that in Ecuador there is an authoritarian drift with the Noboa Government?
R. Completely. A person who believes himself to be above the law is, without a doubt, an authoritarian government. He destroys people for wanting to do his will. I have been an advocate for a representative democracy, which has now been taken away.
Q. What did you think when you saw the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito ordered by Noboa?
R. Horror. There is no justification. My son was also raided in the most brutal way, like many other politically persecuted people.
Q. Is Jorge Glas, Correa’s vice president, taking refuge in the embassy to avoid a court case that he considers a persecution?
R. Justice has to say that. The persecutions are real when they are proven. My son has not been proven guilty. I have an investigation for influence peddling, they have had my visa to the United States revoked. They seek my dismissal through the Electoral Court. The Secretariat of the Presidency asks me for the last report from April so that the Executive can see if I am fulfilling my duties or not. There is sequential violence. I call on the international community. What is happening is very serious. The totalitarian State prevails.
Q. Do you think that what happened in Oloncito is a case of corruption or influence peddling (Noboa’s wife was planning to build a luxury resort on a protected forest, but his company has withdrawn the project after the scandal became known)?
R. Correct. That is authoritarianism, abuse of power against those people who are not armed or wanting to attack, but defending nature, institutions. The democratic freedom of the country is in danger.
Q. Are you sometimes tempted to resign?
R. The Ecuadorian people gave me this responsibility, I have fulfilled it. I’m not going to quit, I’m not going to. I owe it to the Ecuadorians who elected me, I don’t want to leave them alone. If I take a step back at this moment, the women’s fight, especially on the issue of parity, would be abandoned after so much effort. It is not fair for the people to have this discussion of powers when what is worrying is somewhere else. He doesn’t deserve the Show that the Government raises every day to divert our eyes from what is really important.
Q. Will she run as a candidate in the presidential elections or will she give up politics?
R. I have not thought about running for president, but I am not going to give up this race. I am a politician, not a diplomat.
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