Ecuadorians voted Sunday to give their new president more powers to combat the country’s plague of drug-related gang violence, officials said, supporting his hardline stance on security and offering an early glimpse of how could suit him in his attempt to recover democracy. elections next year.
President Daniel Noboa, 36, heir to a banana empire, took office in November after an election season centered on violence, which has risen to levels not seen in decades. In January, he declared an “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military to “neutralize” the country’s gangs. The measure allowed soldiers to patrol Ecuador’s streets and prisons, many of which have come under gang control.
In a referendum on Sunday, Ecuadorians voted to enshrine the increased military presence into law and lengthen prison sentences for certain crimes linked to organized crime, among other security measures. With about 20 percent of the votes counted Sunday night, Ecuador’s electoral authority declared the trend toward approval of security measures “irreversible,” although voters rejected other proposals on the ballot.
Noboa claimed victory on social networks. “I apologize for rushing into a triumph that I cannot help but celebrate,” he wrote in X.
A spate of violence by international criminal groups and local gangs has turned Ecuador, a country of 17 million people, into a key player in the global drug trade. Tens of thousands of Ecuadorians have fled to the US-Mexico border.
Experts saw Sunday’s voting results as an indicator of how strongly the public supported Noboa’s stance on crime. “What is clear is that the people are saying ‘yes’ to the security model,” said Ecuadorian political analyst Caroline Ávila. She said voters also had “high expectations” that the crime problem “will be solved.”
Noboa, who is expected to seek a second term in February, has high approval ratings, although they have dipped recently. He became president after his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, who was facing impeachment over accusations of embezzlement, called early elections; Noboa will be in office until May 2025, the remainder of Lasso’s term.
Some human rights groups have criticized Noboa’s anti-crime tactics as going too far, saying they have led to abuses in prisons and on the streets. Still, most Ecuadorians seem willing to accept Noboa’s strategy if they believe he makes them safer, analysts said.
“Noboa is now one of the most popular presidents in the region,” said Glaeldys González, who researches Ecuador for the International Crisis Group. “He is taking advantage of those levels of popularity that he currently has to catapult himself into the presidential elections.”
Noboa’s military deployment was followed by a decrease in violence and a precarious sense of security, but stability did not last. During the Easter holidays this month, there were 137 murders in Ecuador and kidnappings and extortions have been on the rise.
Two weeks ago, Noboa took the extraordinary step of arresting an Ecuadorian politician who had taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito, in what experts called a violation of an international treaty on the sanctity of diplomatic posts. The move, which drew condemnation across the region, sent a message in line with Noboa’s heavy-handed approach to violence and corruption.
Noboa said he had sent police officers to the embassy to arrest Jorge Glas, a former vice president who had been convicted of corruption, because Mexico had abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission. Noboa said Glas was not entitled to protection because he was a convicted criminal.
Taken together, the raid and the army deployment were aimed at demonstrating that Noboa is tough on crime and impunity, political analysts say. Although polls show Noboa’s approval rating has fallen in recent months, it remains high at 67 percent.
According to the country’s electoral authority, Sunday’s voter turnout was 72 percent. Analysts considered that this figure is low, in a country where voting is mandatory and participation usually exceeds 80 percent.
Just as voters headed to the polls, they received another reminder of the rise in violence, when authorities announced that the head of a prison in Manabí, a coastal province that has become a center of transnational crime, had been murdered.
Some proposals from the Noboa government that were not related to security were rejected on Sunday. Ecuadorians voted against one that would have legalized hourly work contracts, which are currently prohibited. Unions say employers could use them to undermine workers’ rights and essentially pay lower wages than the law requires. A proposal that would have allowed international arbitration of trade disputes was also rejected.
But analysts said the overall result resulted in a solid mandate for Noboa. González said this would “help the government argue that it needs more time in power to continue these changes and reforms in its overall fight against organized crime.”
The results of the referendum are binding and the national assembly has 60 days to turn them into law.
Some analysts said the referendum results had more to do with Noboa’s popularity than the likelihood that security measures would be effective.
“We did not vote for the question; rather we vote for who asked the question,” said Fernando Carrión, who studies violence and drug trafficking at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, a regional research and analysis group.
He added that measures such as increasing prison sentences are likely to exacerbate problems of overcrowding and violence in prisons.
Despite the tumultuous weeks leading up to the vote, some voters said they were unfazed.
“I am going to vote ‘yes’ in this referendum because I am convinced that it is the only way for Ecuador to have a change and we can all have a better future,” said Susana Chejín, 62, a resident of the south of the country. city of Loja.
“He is making good changes for the country, to combat crime and drug trafficking,” he said of Noboa.
Others said they thought the questions about the referendum were not enough to address the country’s insecurity.
“We are still in the vicious cycle of focusing on the symptoms and not the causes,” said Juan Diego Del Pozo, 31, a photographer in Quito. “No issue aims to solve structural problems, such as inequality. “My vote will be a resounding ‘no’ on all questions.”
Thalie Ponce contributed reports from Guayaquil, Ecuador and José María León Cabrera from Quito, Ecuador.