LIVE: Guillermo Lasso assumes the presidency of Ecuador

Guillermo Lasso He assumed the presidency of Ecuador on Monday after defeating Correísmo and regaining power for the right after two decades, represented in Quito by presidents and political leaders from South America and Spain attending the inauguration .

To the act of possession by the unicameral National Assembly leaders from several countries are participating, such as the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro; and the leaders of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, although Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou canceled his trip due to the death of a minister. Also present are the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Solá.

After handing over the presidential sash and after the Lasso oath, Lenín Moreno withdrew from the Assembly to general applause.

Later, the brand new president began his inaugural address. “We must examine whether, throughout these years, we have lived up to the Republican ideals that gave birth to us,” he said. “In recent years, have you enjoyed freedom in Ecuador? Did the law and the independence of powers prevail? We were not up to the task, today we receive a country with historic unemployment rates, a country that has dazzled by its inability to cope with a brutal pandemicLasso remarked.

Lasso, a 65-year-old former banker inherits an economic crisis that has spread to social and health aspects due to COVID-19, with Ecuador being the seventh in Latin America with the most cases (418,851) and death (20,193).

“Our leaders let us down, they failed to measure up to the people,” he added in his speech. “This new century of republicanism that we are about to begin puts an end to the era of the caudillos. The era of warlords ends», He stressed.

He also added: “Those who seek all power end up asking for mercy for the crimes that occur when that power gets out of hand.” For this reason, he assured that his government will remain faithful to the margins imposed by the laws.

After a decade of institutional instability (1997-2007), during which Ecuador had seven presidents – three of whom were overthrown – and the correista era, Lasso is the first right-hander to be elected.

The president-elect began the day with a mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito, before addressing the National Assembly. During the religious ceremony, he was with his relatives and closest collaborators, such as the elected vice-president, Alfredo Borrero, and his new ministers.

As a prelude to the change of command, a right-wing Ibero-American forum was held in Quito on Sunday, organized by the International Freedom Foundation (FIL), led by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and in which Lasso and José María Aznar, former Governor of Spain, and Andrés Pastrana, of Colombia.

At the conclave, which was also attended by Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, the challenges of freedom were debated at a time when the Colombian government faces social protests and in Chile it has awakened the left.

In a recorded message, Duque celebrated that “we have in Ecuador, with President Guillermo Lasso, a new ally at the head of state to continue to jointly defend democracy in the region”.

“We are going together on this path for democracy and freedom throughout the American continent,” said López, sentenced in 2015 in his country to nearly 14 years in prison after being accused of inciting violence during demonstrations against the government. have the information.

In the ballot, the former banker took revenge against the former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) by beating his runner-up, the economist Andrés Arauz, by 4.72 points.

For his four-year term, he promises a “government of the encounter” that will seek to overcome the polarization between correísmo and anticorreísmo, and a fierce fight against corruption.

(With information from AFP)

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