Valentina Raymond
Ecuador's presidential elections are around the corner taking place on February 7th, 2021. This is a critical decision, considering that the pandemic and past situations have led us to address an economic, social, and sanitary crisis.
On May 24th, 2017, Lenin Moreno, our current President, started his presidential term being Rafael Correa's successor. Correa ended his term doubling Ecuador's debt to 45% of GDP, leaving the country in negative economic growth (-1.2%), with a high public deficit (6.7%), and with the highest unemployment since the international recession of 2008 (5.2%). Correa's followers admire the fact that public works were made, including investment in roads. However, these actions were the ones that contributed to the government's corruption and the wasting of money. For example, in the Odebrecht case, bribes were made for 40 million dollars.
These statistical facts were the starting point for the actions taken by Moreno during his mandate. He was in the position of asking for help from international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the world bank group, the Inter-American development bank, and three more organizations, having in total more than 10 thousand million dollars in loans. Nevertheless, in the necessity of having more funds, the decision that caused more impact between citizens was eliminating fuel subsidies. This action would have created savings of 1,400 million per year. This action was known as the decree 883, starting its validity on October 3rd, 2019.
Despite the fact this measure was taken to reanimate Ecuador's economy, the Ecuadorians did not agree with it, especially the indigenous people. This community started a series of protests led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The social discontent and the resistance formed were so radical that the President accused Rafael Correa of destabilizing his government. He also had to move the government to Guayaquil. After a dialogue between the parties, moderated by the United Nations, the President eliminated the decree 883 on October 14th, 2019.
These events make Ecuador's situation more complicated in need of change, yet it gets more complicated with the pandemic's arrival. In this context, several complaints of corruption arose within the health emergency. Two well-known examples include ones where Abdala Bucaram, Ecuador's ex-president (1996 - 1997), was involved. The first one is the hospital's case, "Theodoro Maldonado," that ended being raided, along with Bucaram's house, to investigate an alleged crime of peculation in the purchase of medical supplies. Bucaram Ortiz was arrested after finding 5,000 rapid tests, 2,000 masks, and one series of medical supplies that, according to the prosecution, coincided with those purchased by the hospital. The second one carries the case of disability cards, where people of Bucaram's social circle tried to use a disability card made by the National Council for Disability Equality (CONADIS) to import a series of high-end vehicles from the United States. As a result of this, other names of politicians emerged for doing the same thing.
Taking into consideration the background presented, we can now analyze the situation of Ecuador's elections. The deadline to enroll all the presidential binomials on the National Electoral Council was August 23rd, 2020. However, before this day, several announcements caused an impact between citizens. On August 9th, 2020, the former President, Abdala Bucaram, announced he would run as a presidential candidate for the 2021 national elections, leaving apart the fact he was being investigated for irregularities in marketing medical supplies for hospitals during the health crisis. Bucaram was facing three criminal cases.
On the other hand, we also had the announcement of Rafael Correa's vice-presidential postulation. Technically the constitution that he established (2008) does not allow his postulation, considering he was re-elected for two terms. Still, the possibility was not taken down.
Now we have 19 presidential binomials as pre-candidates. This is something not well seen. Anyone certainly has the right to exercise political participation, but Ecuadorians doubt a lot of each candidate's real intentions. If we see the possible voting ballot, it includes Rafael Correa, an economist who governed the country from 2007 to 2017 and is currently a fugitive from justice and was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the crime of bribery. Bucaram is omitted, though he is a candidate for assembly with one of the political parties.
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