'People are dying in the street': Ecuador election overshadowed by violent crime
Dan Collyns in Guayaquil
Sat, 14 October 2023 at 6:00 am GMT-5·5-min read
Ecuadoreans will this weekend choose between a centre-right presidential candidate who is the scion of one of country’s wealthiest families, and a leftist disciple of the former president Rafael Correa, in an election overshadowed by violent crime and the assassination of a third candidate.
Polls ahead of Sunday’s vote put the banana industry heir Daniel Noboa, 35, slightly ahead of Luisa González, who has promised free medicine and increased worker protections.
Both presidential candidates have promised to militarise ports and airports to fight drug trafficking as headline-grabbing violence becomes ever more brutal and commonplace, particularly in coastal regions around the port cities of Guayaquil, Manta and Esmeraldas, where gangs vie for territory and trafficking routes with the backing of Mexican cartels.
The campaign has been marked by bloodshed, including the brazen assassination of the anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot in August as he left a campaign event. Last week, six Colombian suspects in the assassination were themselves murdered in prison. A seventh suspect was killed in another jail the following day.
In just a few years, Ecuador has gone from being an island of peace compared to its cocaine-producing neighbours, Colombia and Peru, to becoming one of the most violent nations in the region.
More:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/people-dying-street-ecuador-election-110041856.html
It would be hideous if the son of Álavaro Noboa, one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest man in Ecuador, actually won this election. He represents no one but the tyrannical oligarchs of the country.