The choice in Ecuador is between dictatorship and democracy

Ecuador’s 2021 general elections show a people moving forward in the transition from dictatorship to democracy. The Correista / Castro-Chavista candidate was rejected by more than two thirds of the voters when obtaining the insufficient 32.72% which opens the second electoral round to elect the president and vice-president. The decision of the Ecuadorian people – led to elect in the first round from among 16 candidates – reminds the candidates that the election in Ecuador lies between dictatorship and democracy.

In an election with a high turnout of 80.99% of voters, the National Electoral Council published the results of the first round in which Andrés Arauz obtained 31.72% with 3,033,753 votes, Guillermo Lasso 19.74 % with 1,830,045 votes, Yaku Pérez 19.39% with 1,797,445 votes, Xavier Hervas 15.68% with 1,453,906 votes. The other 12 candidates marginal percentages from 2.08% to 0.21% and representing 12.46% of all.

Rafael Correa held power for over 10 years and made Ecuador a “dictatorship of 21st century socialism” as defined by former president Osvaldo Hurtado in his book “The dictatorships of the 21st century the Ecuadorian case” : “He allowed himself to circumvent the laws, exercise unlimited power, subjugate legislative and judicial functions, subordinate control bodies, restrict freedoms and rights, limit pluralism, avoid responsibility, hinder political alternation and manipulate electoral processes.

The Correa government from January 15, 2007 to May 24, 2017, with a constituent assembly between the two, applied all the methodology imposed by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, Bolivarian populism, 21st century socialism, today Castro-Chavismo . Ecuador has been stripped of all essential elements of democracy and turned into a country controlled by a regime that violates human rights, with persecuted people, prisoners and political exiles. The rule of law and the division and independence of public authorities have disappeared to give rise to the use of justice to violate human rights, commit crimes and ensure impunity.

The “gag law” was complete proof of the Correista / Castro-Chavista dictatorship. In 2015, the Inter-American Press Association officially declared that “two years after the Ecuadorian communication law came into force, this is the worst gag law in America.”

Corruption with impunity shows the case of “lava jato” as notable and others such as oil contracts with China, confiscations, the narco diplomatic bag, overpriced purchases and works, association and protection of the FARC, Ecuador a narco-state and more. The return to the rule of law has started to break impunity and for one of these cases Rafael Correa was tried and sentenced to 8 years in prison and is a fugitive with res judicata.

There are hundreds of books, chronicles, claims and causes about the Correista / Castro-Chavista dictatorship that we remember in this tight summary, but the most important thing is that the Ecuadorian people know it, remember it and repudiated him with his vote. Lenin Moreno was an extraordinary leader who initiated and advanced the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy in Ecuador, which now offers free and fair elections.

In this scenario, Castro-Chavisme is maneuvering in Ecuador, using the infamy that worked for him in Bolivia and Argentina, consisting of using a “white stick” to cover the criminal dictator, conspiring to return to power and give him the impunity. In Bolivia, along with Luis Arce, the former minister of Morales, they took the presidency with monumental fraud, in elections during the dictatorship and within days they freed the dictator from dozens of processes and trials that include abuse of minors and Evo Morales is today the “chief dictator” with impunity. In Argentina, with Alberto Fernández, former Minister Kirchner, with Cristina Kirchner as vice-president, and today they are manipulating the total control of justice to consolidate their impunity.

They are repeated in Ecuador with Andrés Arauz, former Minister of Correa who campaigns with the rigid image of the dictator. The white stick or the person who lends his image to the dictatorship to take the presidency and use the power to give impunity to the accused is confessed. Res judicata is not an obstacle for Castro-Chavisme because in Bolivia, they have just adopted a law of impunity and amnesty so that in addition to judicial manipulation, there is no doubt about the operation to clean up all crimes of Morales and his group of human rights violators, murderers, drug traffickers and the corrupt. It is about using politics to commit crimes and have impunity.

The focal point of the April 11 elections in Ecuador is democracy and dictatorship, the people know that. Hopefully the non-Castro-Chavez candidates remember this.

* The author of this article is a lawyer and political scientist. Director of the Inter-American Institute for Democracy