Andrés Arauz presents his plan in New York | The c …

Between dozens of flags of Ecuador and the American winter, the migrant community of Queens, New York, received presidential candidate Andrés Arauz. The winner of the first round of the February 7 elections traveled to the United States where he also plans to meet with investors and the American press.

The largest community of migrants Ecuador has abroad received Arauz between the chinstrap with the Ecuadorian flag. “Here we are celebrating our resounding victory in the first round” the Union for Hope candidate told supporters in Newark, New Jersey, about 10 miles from New York City. “We have already been leading second-round preferences for a long time and that is why they want to play tricks on the National Electoral Council, to avoid our landslide victory,” he said. Visit of Arauz It also includes meetings with Alejandro Werner and Kirshna Srinivasan, director and deputy director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund..

Arauz won the first round of the presidential elections with around 33% of the vote, and it remains to be decided with whom he will participate in the second round on April 11. The banker, Guillermo Lasso, and the indigenous leader Yaku Pérez are waiting for the cash vote each with their 19% and a difference of a few thousand votes not yet resolved. “The good thing is that this will be an election where two broad approaches to what Ecuador should be are clearly opposed. One that will take us to a privileged country, a few bankers who want to share what little remains in the country and another for a country of progress, ”he told the Newark migrant community.

The Union for Hope (UNES) candidate was also interviewed on the American show Democracy Now! In the interview, Arauz spoke about the current situation in Ecuador with the health crisis due to the covid-19 pandemic and the second strongest economic crisis in the country’s history. “We are facing a double crisis, on the one hand, the pandemic under the absolutely negligent management of the government” insured. Ecuador records over 260,000 infections and 15,392 deaths from covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. “Only four thousand vaccines have circulated for a population of over 17 million people”. To face the current scenario, the candidate proposes an investment plan that would include emergency aid similar to that carried out by the US government with controls for the most vulnerable populations. “We are also planning an aggressive program to – in the short term – make the vaccine available as a public service,” he said. In addition, Arauz said he had spoken to the Argentine president and allegedly obtained 4 million doses of the vaccine produced in Argentina.

The candidate He also spoke of the wave of layoffs the healthcare system has led amid the pandemic. “More than six thousand public health workers have been made redundant due to austerity policies which have had an impact on the Ecuadorian population, increasing poverty and inequalities”, he denounced. Arauz wants to go against these policies carried out by current President Lenín Moreno. “We want to implement a heterodox economic policy, which increases public investments, which increases the social protection of the population. And that in itself can create a short to medium term recovery for the people. “Among the problems highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic, the candidate talked about internet connectivity and its effects on students. “Half of the student population in Ecuador could not continue their studies due to a lack of connection. We also need an emergency program for the Internet, this implies investments in infrastructure to cover the entire Ecuadorian territory with a quality connection, especially for young people ”.

Arauz also questioned the anti-extractivist agenda of presidential candidate Yaku Pérez, who is still awaiting the final vote count that will define whether he will win or lose against Ecuadorian corralito banker Guillermo Lasso. “The anti-extractivist agenda needs to be a bit more sophisticated and detailed because there are many issues that need to be taken into account, including the industrialization of mines and the development of neighboring communities. We cannot have a neocolonial extractivist agenda, but perhaps we can seek an oil, mining and agricultural agenda that takes into account the needs of communities and makes them the main actors ”.

Finally, Arauz was consulted on the case of journalist Julian Assange, to whom current Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno revoked political asylum in one of his first actions as head of the country. “When his political asylum was taken away, human and civil rights were violated, including the revocation of Assange’s citizenship as an Ecuadorian citizen. This is something that I will be looking at and if the situation changes we will see how to act internationally.. However, I think Assange’s human rights must be respected“He told the founder of WikiLeaks that British justice has refused extradition to the United States where they hope to put him on trial for revealing the US government’s war crimes to the world.