Ecuador elects new president after violence and power outages

Ecuador elects new president after violence and power outages

Ecuador's voters face the challenge of electing a new president for the second time in 18 months. This comes in the context of an unprecedented security crisis in the country. Incumbent President Daniel Noboa, son of a banana tycoon, was elected in 2023 to finish the term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, who resigned, dissolved parliament and triggered new elections to avoid impeachment.

Who is Daniel Noboa?

The 37-year-old entrepreneur Noboa was the surprise candidate in the 2023 election and beat his rival Luisa González in the second round. During the election campaign, he tried to portray himself as a “left-wing liberal,” but during his short time in office he took a tough line on crime.

Noboa has declared numerous states of emergency during his time in office, deployed military units to the streets to combat gang activity and began construction of a new maximum-security prison after a notorious criminal leader escaped from custody. “I have declared war on terrorists,” Noboa said in a recent interview with CNN. “These are not conventional gangs, but terrorist groups that are well organized and structured and terrorize entire regions.”

The political competition

In Sunday's election, Noboa will face left-wing politician González and 14 other candidates. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote or the gap between the two most popular candidates is more than 10%, the election will go to a second round in April.

González, close to former leftist President Rafael Correa, has vowed to fight drug trafficking as vigorously as Noboa. She calls for the abolition of the SNAI agency, which oversees the prison system, and wants to invest in facial recognition technology to reduce violations of the law. It also plans to restore the Ministry of Justice, which Ecuador dissolved in 2018 to reduce public spending.

The increasing violence in Ecuador

Ecuador has become a major center for cocaine trafficking, which has led to an ongoing security crisis. UN reports and reports indicate that Ecuador is located between the two largest drug producers, Peru and Colombia. Violence has increased sharply since 2021, with the murder rate three times higher, although the government reported a 16.5% decline in murder cases in 2024. Criminal organizations and local gangs have been involved in corruption and extortion and have threatened political actors.

Economic challenges

In addition to the crime crisis, a drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon has also severely affected the country's hydroelectric power plants, leading to energy shortages. To reduce electricity consumption, the government organized several blackouts that lasted up to 14 hours. These power outages occurred amid a tense economic situation in which more than half of Ecuador's jobs are informal and unregulated. Experts warn that the next president will have the difficult task of stabilizing an economic situation that is on the brink of collapse.

The presidential elections in Ecuador are therefore characterized by serious domestic political challenges that have both security policy and economic dimensions. The voters' upcoming decisions could be decisive for the future of the country.