Ecuador: victory of democracy

By: Luis Gonzales Posada - 26/04/2024

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, has obtained a notable political victory in the referendum held last Sunday, shining his democratic flags and honoring the memory of the presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, murdered by drug trafficking hitmen.

The death of Villavicencio, a brave fighter against corruption and drugs, whom he faced with courage, despite being threatened with death, opened space for the call for the referendum; and of the 11 consultations raised, the president won 9 of them, the most important. And he won well, by a wide margin, despite the toxic counter-campaign of Correism and the radical left.

73% of the population supported the permanent participation of the Armed Forces in the fight against organized crime, supporting the National Police; 71% voted for the military to carry out weapons control at access to penitentiary centers and 67.69% for criminals to serve their sentences in prison.

Likewise, 68% voted to increase penalties for ten serious crimes, such as drug trafficking, terrorism and hitmen, and for those who finance subversive activities or recruit children for criminal purposes.

On the other hand, 62% of Ecuadorians support the enactment of a new Asset Forfeiture law to transfer to the State the assets seized from criminals and 60% are in favor of the creation of judiciaries specialized in constitutional matters because, currently , all magistrates handle extraordinary protection actions such as habeas corpus or habeas data, without being trained for that specialized function, generating delays, congestion of cases and undue favors.

Another important change is to authorize the extradition of criminals wanted abroad, because it is now prevented by article 79 of its Fundamental Charter, which establishes that “in no case will the extradition of an Ecuadorian man or woman be granted.”

Let us remember that Noboa received a country with an extremely serious prison crisis, where 23 criminal groups, reinforced by the Venezuelan transnational gang of the Aragua Train, govern those facilities, causing bloody riots with hostage taking and more than 400 deaths.

In 2023, there were 7,592 murders, while in Peru, which is a much larger and more populated country, 1,105 homicides occurred, figures that project the dimension of the problem of our brothers to the north.

Once the process is completed, Novoa has the task of implementing the decisions emerging from the plebiscite through constitutional changes, laws and budget items. It is not an easy path because you will be harassed or sabotaged on the internal front and from abroad. The leftist bloc of the hemisphere has already begun to attack. Maduro, for example, cynically maintained that “the people beat up Novoa,” at the same time announcing that “our embassy will be closed until Jorge Glas returns to Mexico and International Law is restored.”

In turn, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcenas, obeying instructions from President López Obrador, stated that she will ask the UN to suspend Ecuador from the world organization for invading its diplomatic headquarters in Quito.

A major nonsense without a doubt, a product of the hatred and ignorance of the Aztec ruler. Not even in extremely serious circumstances for humanity did any politician make such a proposal. Let us remember, for example, that in 1979 a fanatical mob of Iranians, encouraged by Ayatollah Khomeini, attacked the US embassy in Tehran, burned its flag and the archives, kidnapping 52 diplomats for 444 days, but the Washington government was not It happened to propose the separation of the Republic of Iran from the UN; or, recently, I have not heard any voice demanding the expulsion of Russia for invading Ukraine and bombing schools, hospitals and homes.

The duty of all Latin American democrats, consequently, is to provide the most extensive, frank and firm support to the efforts of President Noboa, a ruler with clear ideas and firm decisions, who has proposed to move forward his country which, by extension , it is also ours.

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