Closing of Andrés Arauz’s campaign in Ecuador: “the …

From Quito. Andrés Arauz closed his presidential campaign in this capital on Thursday. He was accompanied by male and female candidates who will run for the National Assembly in the elections next Sunday. “One Return” has been one of the most repeated slogans, referring to the attempt of the candidate for the citizen revolution to win in the first round and avoid the ballot.

“This February 7 will result in a strong vote in a single round (…) the Ecuadorian people have had enough of the traitors and he will not stand one more betrayal, I can swear complete loyalty to the citizen revolution project, “Arauz said from the stage, where he was preceded by a recorded message from the former president Rafael Correa.

The candidate evoked the three main axes of his government proposal: work, dignity and future. “We know that we are in a very hard crisis, a difficult time in the world, we are facing a pandemic, what I can guarantee you is that we will never sacrifice the dignity of our people, our priority will be still on the Ecuadorian people, “he said.

The event took place in the same location where in February 2019 took place the epicenter of the indigenous and popular uprising that opposed the adjustment agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in particular the increase in the price of gasoline, which sought to bring forward the government of Lenin Moreno. One of the wounds of those days was Jahaira Urresta, who has lost an eye on repression, and is now a candidate for the legislative branch.

“Since the start of the pre-campaign we have had threats where we are looking for a way to damage the elections, or even extend the duration, or somehow cancel the vote, our call is to international organizations , to be guarantors and monitors for the suffrage of the Ecuadorian people ”, declared Urresta during the ceremony.

Some of the threats to the electoral process indicated by Arauz’s candidacy and Andres Rabascall as vice-president, they focused on the National Electoral Council (CNE). For this reason, at the end of the demonstration, to which delegations from various regions of the country came, a caravan took place which advanced at the beginning of the night to the seat of electoral power.

One of the irregularities reported is, for example, the difficulty of voting in several foreign countries. So, on the same Thursday, a demonstration took place in front of the Ecuadorian consulate in New York, where they were denounced, for example, the lack of necessary monitors for the electoral district and the decision of the CNE that the vote count take place in Ecuador and not at the voting table.

Shortly before the start of Arauz’s act, Guillermo Lasso, CREO strong candidate in alliance with the Christian Social Party, closed his campaign in Guayaquil, in the province of Guayas, decisive point for the elections on Sunday. The day before, he had done so in the city of Quito, another of the epicenters necessary to accede to the presidency. Lasso, former president of Guayaquil bank and current shareholder, accused of having numerous offshore accounts, proposes, among other things, to leave the Constitution approved in 2008, that is to say under Correa’s first term.

Most polls show Lasso – already lost in 2013 and 2017 – in second place, behind Arauz, with a difference of more than ten points between the two, and the possibility that the first could reach the 40 points required for victory in the first round. There is, in turn, a percentage of undecided, close to 20%, which could modify the results of the polls, as well as the existence of a hidden vote, which, for example, during the Bolivian elections of 20 last November a significant weight.

The possibility of a victory for the candidate of the citizen revolution has given rise to several media attacks, in particular via social networks, a campaign which was associated with Lasso, president of the foundation Free Ecuador, part of Atlas Network, which brings together around five hundred right-wing foundations around the world which, among their activities, consists in carrying out actions of this type.

The country is coming to the fray after four years that have meant a 180-degree turn by the government of Lenin Moreno, that he should pursue the citizen revolution project and, instead, lead a process of neoliberal openness, political, judicial and internal media persecution towards the force that led him to the presidency, and unrestricted alignment with the United States.

The consequences of his policies became dramatically visible not only in the 2019 crackdown on an uprising that lasted for a week and faced a militarized response, but in the face of the pandemic with the images of corpses in the streets of Guayaquil, the collapse of hospitals and the lack of response from the government. Currently, in the face of the second wave of coronavirus which is already crossing the country, responses regarding vaccines have been few, with 8,000 doses from Pfizer brought in at the end of January, little information on its application process and how the continuity of the vaccination plan.

Sunday will then be a turning point for the future of Ecuador, where the deepening of the neoliberal model will now be played by the hand of a banker, or the return, updated to the circumstances of that time, of the policies promoted under the Correa governments, which are remembered as years of stability and growth, despite media campaigns aimed at erasing their achievements.