Presidential candidate Daniel Noboa speaks in Olon, Ecuador, after results showed him in the lead in a presidential runoff Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. At left is his wife Lavinia Valbonesi.
Martin Mejía/AP
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Martin Mejía/AP
Presidential candidate Daniel Noboa speaks in Olon, Ecuador, after results showed him in the lead in a presidential runoff Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. At left is his wife Lavinia Valbonesi.
Martin Mejía/AP
QUITO, Ecuador — Daniel Noboa, an inexperienced politician and heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, won the runoff of Ecuador’s presidential election on Sunday, amid unprecedented violence that even cost his life life to a candidate.
With about 96% of the votes counted, election officials said Noboa had 52.2% of the vote, compared to 47.8% for Luisa González, a left-wing lawyer and ally of exiled former President Rafael Correa. González acknowledged defeat during a speech to supporters Sunday night and said she planned to call Noboa to congratulate him.
Noboa, 35, will lead the South American country during a period when drug-related violence has left Ecuadorians wondering when, not if, they will fall victim to it for the first, third or eighth time. Their discomfort has caused them to continually watch their backs and limit how often they leave the house.
The new president’s mandate will only last until May 2025, the remaining term of President Guillermo Lasso. He cut his term short when he dissolved the country’s National Assembly in May as lawmakers conducted impeachment proceedings against him over alleged irregularities in a contract with a state-owned company.
Ecuadorians – young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural – had one universal demand of aspiring presidents throughout the campaign: security. Noboa now expects him to succeed, but the scale of the problem, coupled with the shortness of the next presidential term, could prove an impossible task for the U.S.-educated man who becomes the youngest president of Ecuador.
“I think there would be very little chance that even the best equipped president could end the security crisis in Ecuador in 18 months – that’s such a short period of time – and none of these candidates were the best equipped. Noboa certainly not,” Will said. Freeman, researcher in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “His security suggestions were erratic and gave the impression that he was improvising.”
Violence erupted in Ecuador about three years ago with an increase in criminal activity linked to cocaine trafficking, and the government’s inability to deal with it was exposed in August with the assassination of the presidential candidate and anti-corruption activist Fernando Villavicencio.
Since then, other politicians and political leaders have been killed or kidnapped, car bombs have exploded in several cities, including the capital, Quito, and inmates have rioted in prisons. Earlier this month, seven men identified by authorities as suspects in Villavicencio’s murder were killed while in custody.
Noboa’s political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its economic development commission. The US-educated businessman opened an events planning company at the age of 18, then joined Noboa Corp. from his father, where he held management positions in the fields of shipping, logistics and commerce.
His father, Álvaro Noboa, is Ecuador’s richest man thanks to a conglomerate that began growing and transporting bananas – Ecuador’s main crop – and now includes more than 128 companies in dozens of countries. The elder Noboa ran unsuccessfully for president five times.
Young Noboa’s party will not have enough seats in the National Assembly to be able to govern alone. Securing support from opposing lawmakers will be key to avoiding the difficulties that have plagued Lasso’s tenure.
Lasso, a former conservative banker, continually clashed with lawmakers after his 2021 election and decided not to run in the special election. On Sunday, he called on Ecuadorians to hold peaceful elections and think about what is “best for their children, their parents and the country.” He said voters have the wisdom “to banish demagoguery and authoritarianism as they envision a future of peace and well-being for all.”
Under Lasso’s leadership, violent deaths have exploded, reaching 4,600 in 2022, the highest figure in the country’s history and double the 2021 total. National police recorded 3,568 violent deaths in the first semester 2023.
The outbreak of violence is linked to trafficking in cocaine produced in neighboring countries Colombia and Peru. Mexican, Colombian and Balkan cartels have established themselves in Ecuador and operate with the help of local criminal gangs.
“I don’t expect much from this election,” Julio Ricaurte, a 59-year-old engineer, said Sunday near one of the voting centers in northern Quito. “First because the president will have little time to do anything, and second because the (National) Assembly of our country is an organization that prevents anyone from gaining power to govern.”
Noboa and González, who both served short stints as lawmakers, advanced to the runoff by besting six other candidates in the first round of the election on August 22. Villavicencio’s replacement finished in third place.
A large group of military and police officers as well as private security guards protected Noboa when he voted in Olón, a community on the country’s central Pacific coast. He was wearing a bulletproof vest.
“I believe the trend is irreversible and today we begin to build a new Ecuador,” he said at the polling center, confidently hinting at a victory.
González, a lawyer, was unknown to most voters until the party of Correa, her mentor, chose her as its presidential candidate. She held various government positions during Correa’s ten-year presidency and served as a lawmaker from 2021 until May.
At the start of the campaign, she announced that Correa would be her advisor, but she has recently sought to distance herself in order to court voters opposed to the former president, who remains a major force in Ecuador despite having been recognized guilty of corruption in Ecuador. 2020 and sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. He has lived in his wife’s native Belgium since 2017.
Rosa Amaguaña, a 62-year-old fruit and vegetable seller, said Sunday that security “is the first thing that must be resolved” by the next president.
“I hope the country changes,” Amaguaña said. “Yes, it’s possible. The next president must be able to do even something small.”