In Ecuador’s regional elections Feb. 5, President Guillermo Lasso suffered an unexpected defeat from the Citizen Revolution party founded by former President Rafael Correa. Not only did his party lose in seven regions, including mayoralties in the all-important capital of Quito and the coastal city of Guayaquil, but the referendum on changes to the 2007 Constitution, written during Correa’s presidency, also went down to defeat.
Against the backdrop of many months of social protest, indigenous mobilizations and violent prison uprisings which resulted in many deaths, it’s unclear whether Lasso, a neoliberal banker, can survive this defeat. One analyst speaking with Argentina’s El Destape, described the situation as “volatile and uncertain.” After three of his cabinet members resigned right after the election, Lasso then reshuffled his whole cabinet, but some members of the unicameral Legislative Assembly immediately called for his resignation and early elections.
In a video comment directed to Lasso after the elections, former President Correa said that the election results vindicated him and members of his party who have been unjustly persecuted with phony corruption charges, jailings and costly legal cases for years. Like other Ibero-American Presidents—Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff, Cristina Kirchner de Fernández—Correa has been a victim of an international Wall Street and City of London-directed “judicial party” meant to knock him out of politics for good.
“You are not part of the solution” to Ecuador’s problems, Correa told Lasso and called on him to resign for the good of the country.
