Guillarmo Lasso will receive the heavy heren in Ecuador …

Ecuador’s elected president, Guillermo Lasso, will assume his term on Monday and great expectations are laid on how he will emerge from the dual economic and health crisis the country is going through. Lasso has already given some signs of the direction of his government with the appointment of the new Minister of the Economy, in close contact with international credit organizations. The former banker, who in 2017 was a rival of incumbent Lenín Moreno when he was still a candidate for the correísmo, it eventually became one of its main allies, defending policies such as the recent dollarization defense law, adapted to the IMF.

Last week Lasso, who will be the first president since 2007 not to have a majority in the National AssemblyHe did not hesitate to blow up his coalition with Social Christians in Congress, which seems to complicate the idea of ​​political unity which he used as an emblem during his campaign.

Lasso admitted a few days ago that he faces “very complex realities, unlimited needs, with very, very limited resources”. And warned that will use “very creative tax reforms” to turn the economy around. Between December 2019 and last March, unemployment in Ecuador fell from 4.6% to 5.5%. Yes income poverty increased by 25 percent in december 2019 at 32 percent the same month of 2020.

To overcome the serious economic crisis that the country is going through, Lasso opted for the engineer, economist and IMF representative in Bolivia between 1999 and 2006, Simón Cueva. “The current minister has visited multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And in those meetings he has done quite well,” said the president himself in the newspaper Trade.

The current photo of Ecuador is completed by the dramatic epidemiological situation that the country is going through, with a new wave of infections and the public health system that has run out of essential drugs to calm and intubate any type of patient. To date, the country of 17.4 million inhabitants has recorded nearly 418,000 infections and more than 20,000 deaths, figures however rejected by medical unions who denounce an under-registration of deaths. ATthe rest, the vaccination campaign is just beginning and it will be difficult for Lasso to keep his promise to vaccinate nine million people by September 1.

On a strictly political level, The elected president will rule with a very fragmented Assembly in which, with 49 seats, the correista Unión por la Esperanza (UNES) remains the vast majority.. There are Saturdays, after three unsuccessful attempts to elect the new leader of Congress and break the agreement between CREO and the Social-Christian Party, the alliance with which Lasso won the presidential election barely a month ago, the National Assembly elected lawmaker Guadalupe Llori, of Pachakutik, as its new president. Quite a feat for this indigenous force which came third in the presidential elections, only a few hundredths from entering the second round.

Among the guests at Lasso’s inauguration, one of the first to arrive on Sunday was the King of Spain, Felipe VI. the United States Ambassador to the UN and the delegate of President Joe Biden at the inauguration of the Lasso, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. After participating in a motorbike caravan, the President of Brazil, Jair BolsonaroHe also left for the capital of Ecuador.

At the last minute, Colombian President Iván Duque canceled his trip amid a deep crisis in his country. From Chile, official sources confirmed that President Sebastián Piñera has delegated his representation to Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrés Allamand. The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, canceled his trip due to the sudden death of Interior Minister Jorge Larrañaga. Instead, Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo will attend the investiture.

The Argentine delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Felipe Solá since President Alberto Fernández will remain in the country to deal with issues related to the coronavirus pandemic. At his first press conference after Sunday’s election, Lasso assured that he would invite Juan Guaidó, self-proclaimed president of Venezuela, to his inauguration, although his presence has not been confirmed.

Monday’s agenda calls for Lasso and his vice, Alfredo BorreroAttend the Metropolitan Cathedral Tedeum at 7:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. in Argentina) and arrive at the National Assembly at 9:45 a.m. (11:45 a.m. in Argentina) for the swearing-in ceremony and taking office. From there, Lasso will deliver his first speech as President of Ecuador.