On Feb. 21, Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the official results of the Feb. 7 presidential elections, showing that Andrés Arauz of the Union for Hope Alliance (UNES) won 32.7%, against his closest opponent, neoliberal banker Guillermo Lasso with 17.9%, and in third place, indigenous leader Yaku Pérez of the Pachakutik party. Arauz is a 36-year-old economist who held several positions in the 2007-2017 government of President Rafael Correa, and shares Correa’s pro-development policy outlook. During his 10 years in office, Correa brought about extraordinary growth, and reduced poverty through close cooperation with China and Russia. Given the absolute hatred of the current neoliberal President Lenin Moreno, who has produced an economic disaster in the country, and the fact that banker Guillermo Lasso has almost no chance of being elected, Arauz is the likely winner of the April 11 runoff election.
For that reason he is a target of dirty operations aimed at discrediting him or eliminating him from the race altogether. Recall that Correa, like Lula da Silva in Brazil and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina, was the victim of an internationally coordinated “lawfare” campaign which resulted in him being run out of politics and out of the country on charges of “corruption.” He was prohibited from participating in the current elections. Now, Arauz has been accused of receiving financing from Colombia’s narco-terrorist National Liberation Army (ELN), based on “intelligence” discovered by the Colombian Army and handed over to Ecuador’s Attorney General. This matter is under investigation, and it’s unclear it will be concluded by April 11, according to La Hora today.
On the same day that CNE announced official election results, without warning the Attorney General’s office and the Comptroller General’s office announced they were going to impound computers at CNE headquarters to do a “forensic analysis” of the vote, based on allegations of vote fraud. In a press conference on Feb. 21, Arauz denounced the “gross interference” of the two government agencies, which, he said, have no authority to get involved, and are acting illegally for the sole purpose of preventing the April 11 runoff election, Europa Press reported him saying. He announced he was filing a complaint before the special Electoral Tribunal (TCE) “for this gross violation of the law.” Correa immediately tweeted, “Attention Latin America and the world. Ecuador once again is experiencing a coup d'état.”
