Lasso lost in the referendum questions Author: rebellious youth

A Boomerang… Events in Ecuador continue to show the deterioration of the political situation in which the executive branch found itself, a few days after the parliamentary elections and the constitutional referendum proposed by President Guillermo Lasso: a referendum organized by the President to enhance his image finally turned against him … Not to mention that the regional elections, held in unison, turned into another failure for the ruling party.

For this reason, of course, although having ratified the recognition of the results, the Ministry of the Interior in a statement on Friday asked for the resolution of the “possible and specific doubts” that had arisen. Will there be a way to reverse what the polls have thrown?

It is difficult to determine what was worse for the executive: if the defeat in eight issues with which the president tried to win back lost popularity – according to preliminary calculations – or the positioning of the Revolución Ciudadana, finally with its own personality, at the local level, gaining nine prefectures (governments) and 61 mayors, among them Quito and Guayaquil, the country’s most important and populous cities.

Much lower, the Social Christian Party in government ranked 2nd and 32nd respectively, not counting the promotion of Pashakutik, the political branch of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Konaye), which came in second with ownership in six provinces and 11 municipalities, which is shown on the map. in general, the progress of the progressive forces and the vote of punishment from the citizens to the leadership of the government.

Both results put Lasso’s executive in an even more delicate position, whose public acceptance even before meeting the polls was dubious, at 30 to 12 percent, according to various polls.

Now the president is faced with the task of “fighting” opposition proposals to advance the presidential election scheduled for 2025, which arose as a result of his political weakness.

Lasso is criticized for his leadership of the neoliberal restoration and, above all, dismisses the lack of solutions to insecurity and the unusual rise in crime and drug trafficking, vices for which any sociologist would find important reasons in poverty, which as of June 2022 was 25 percent. while poverty in the city was 16.7 percent, and in rural areas – 42.9 percent … These are the main reasons.

According to official records, 2022 was the most violent year in Ecuador’s recent history, with 25 murders per 100,000 inhabitants; Prison riots are recurring as a result of poor conditions and overcrowding in prisons, and crime and violence are on the rise in cities, it is said that as a result of organized crime, drug trafficking networks that, according to sources, are not officers, would infiltrate the ranks of the police.

The campaign of proselytism left sad evidence of this violent and criminal rise: five candidates were killed, the last of whom belonged to the Revolución Ciudadana and was shot dead shortly before the opening of the polls, so that Omar Menéndez was elected mayor of Puerto López in Guayaquil. , posthumously, so that her position will be held by a fellow believer.

Conscious of his weakness after the elections, the president showed receptivity – “when the people speak, our duty is to analyze, understand and accept it” – and immediately proposed a pact of national unity, rejected by the rest of the political forces – the first of them – the “Civil Revolution” represented by its leader Rafael Correa.

Accepting alliances at this point would mean sailing together to a shipwreck.

Over the past week, eight ministerial changes have been made with the urgency that events demand, while the ruling party has believed weak voices that speak of unproven “shortcomings” in the vote count and alleged alternative electoral centers in an obvious and futile attempt to force silence the strong and clear statement of the polls.

But it doesn’t look like any of those outputs could make a difference.

To top it off, Lasso, along with other ministers, was summoned to the National Assembly in connection with a corruption scandal involving several state-owned companies, which, presumably, was supposed to be run by his son-in-law.

Voting Readings

Although the gap between yes and no was narrow on some issues, the citizens were wise in the face of a referendum in which the alleged “star” proposal was the approval of extradition to send Ecuadorians to the United States. States that have “committed crimes related to transnational organized crime”.

But most could see that such an opportunity would not solve the problem of drug trafficking at all and, moreover, would mean some kind of session of sovereignty.

However, for many analysts, the true purpose of the consultation was to deprive the Council of Civic Participation and Public Control (CCPU), created during the Civil Revolution in government – 2007-2017. — a prerogative within an effort to give more attention to citizens.

In question 5, it was proposed to abolish the right of the Council to appoint authorities, leaving this function in the hands of the National Assembly. However, the CPCCCS is considered one of the greatest achievements, formalized in the 2008 Magna Carta, born of the Constituent Assembly, which imposed itself on the partidocracy – as it calls it – with the rise of Correa and the PAIS Alliance to the presidency. . This is the Constitution that this referendum sought to reform.

Other issues suggested eliminating the number of representatives of various localities in the National Assembly – Ecuador’s parliament – and reducing the number of political movements that could be registered in the electoral register by increasing the number of supporters that had hitherto been required for this.

But other results explain why the previous Sunday’s vote is being described as a failure that put the government “in a dead end.”

The important successes achieved by the Civil Revolution movement, which for the first time participates in the electoral struggle with its own face, confirm the good results achieved in the 2021 presidential election by its candidate Andrés Arauz – the second place after Lasso in the second round. — and the ones he has reaped in the 2022 legislatures, when, under the Unes alliance, his candidates won the most seats.

This is despite the persecution suffered by what has come to be called “el correísmo”, therefore its applicants must represent themselves in both cases under the auspices of the National Union of Hope (Unes) alliance, because it was not allowed to register as a political movement the Civil Revolution (RC), an organization that brings together the followers of this process after former President Lenin Moreno kidnapped the leadership of the Alianza PAÍS founded by Correa and consequently caused its Balkanization.

This fact leads to another reflection: the electoral victory is confirmed, despite the persecution suffered by the followers of the Civil Revolution, thanks to the betrayal of this cause by Moreno, who was proposed by her to replace Correa and then became his successor. executioner.

So this local reflection of the results obtained in the last presidential and parliamentary elections, while surprising many, also reflects the impact that the ROK movement has on the bases, overcoming the demonizing manipulation of the media, along with obstacles such as the legal imprisonment of their leaders under justice Jorge Glas, the former vice president, was wrongfully imprisoned for five years, and Correa was sentenced, also without evidence, to eight years in prison, so he cannot return to Ecuador. Other members of the leadership of the Republic of Kazakhstan who are abroad suffer the same cruelty.

Whether or not there is an early election that Lasso is now beginning to demand, the vote on Sunday, February 5, left Correísmo in better conditions, so that, personified in the Civil Revolution, he returns to power.

This is the beginning, not the end, Correa said.

Source: Juventud Rebelde