Correa did not resurrect

By: Pedro Corzo - 28/04/2025

Guest columnist.
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It seems more than evident that the Ecuadorian people have realized what the return to the presidency of Rafael Correa, a convicted criminal for corruption who will regret until his dying day having supported Lenin Moreno in his quest for the nation's highest office, would mean for them and their country.

This individual, once again in power, would have taken a turn of the screw that would irrevocably rob them of their future, just as has happened in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela, where Castro-Chavez's proposals have plunged those people into a state of moral and material prostration that is very difficult to overcome.

The populism sponsored by this autocrat is extremely dangerous because it embodies the enlightened despot who, armed with academic knowledge, uses that insight to more effectively exploit the prerogatives of the citizen. Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt.

Individuals like Correa exert a kind of fatal attraction over a segment of the population. They are capable of interpreting the yearnings of a significant group of people who, regardless of the abuses and mistakes they commit, will always be on their side. They have a following that moves to the rhythm of their piper and revels in the vicissitudes of the abyss.

Correa, like Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Evo Morales, and Daniel Ortega, to name just a few of the Castro-Chavista leaders, possesses that magical charm that, for their supporters, places them beyond good and evil, a reason that makes them a real danger in any democratic society.

An individual with firm democratic convictions can never agree to have their rights violated by a ruler who assumes the power to interpret the nation's desires by creating committees of whistleblowers who scrutinize the lives of others or by allowing economic changes that would deepen the misery of all.

To claim that Nicolas Maduro represents a legitimate regime is an absurdity from the early days of 21st-century socialism, like when Hugo Chávez proclaimed he would lead Venezuela to the Cuban sea of ​​happiness. Both Cuba and Venezuela are far from being a paradigm for any society, and anyone who proclaims this is committing political suicide, as candidate Luisa González did.

Furthermore, the survival capacity of these individuals is unprecedented. They are capable of allying themselves with their bitter enemies in order to remain in power, as Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua when he reached an electoral agreement that allowed him to win the presidency in 2007, or as Fidel and Raúl Castro did in Cuba, who have managed to blame the US embargo for all their guilt, even though they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on that market, while imposing a blockade that has been in place for 66 years on the people they misgovern.

Apparently, Ecuadorians have become acutely aware of the reality when they realized that the election of a Correa front man would imply his return, since he would have carried out the necessary maneuvers to secure the fugitive from justice, just as the Argentine Justicialist leader Héctor Cámpora did in the 1970s. Upon becoming president, he eliminated all existing restrictions against Juan Domingo Perón, making it possible for him to become president.

The fugitive was the loser of the election, not candidate González. However, I do not doubt the survival capacity of these demiurges, as Anatole France would say, and as my friend Alberto Paz, a profound connoisseur of Ecuadorian and Cuban reality, has told me. He believes that Correa's failure was a consequence of the many campaign errors of his front men, as some media outlets in the South American country also claim.

The thing is, these guys never lose. They accuse the winner of fraud, yet they haven't filed a complaint backed up with sufficient evidence.

The former president has proven himself one of those who believe themselves chosen. His vision of reality only allows him to appreciate the existence of two colors, black and white, a character he manages to instill in his supporters, just as it enables his followers to seek only confrontation, the all-or-nothing attitude we experienced in Cuba when the masses demanded a firing squad without knowing why or for whom.

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