The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, speaks together with the Vice President Verónica Abad during the appointment of his Cabinet this Thursday in Quito.José Jácome (EFE)
Daniel Noboa arrived at the National Assembly of Ecuador this Thursday with a touch of renewal. The 35-year-old, son of millionaire Álvaro Noboa, who tried five times to reach Carondelet, took the oath of office, which he will hold for 18 months, and received the presidential sash in an atypical ceremony attended by only Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president was the only foreign leader to attend the event, although he arrived half an hour late.
True to the profile he has fulfilled since his candidacy, Noboa delivered a speech of just seven minutes, breaking the pattern of long speeches in a ceremony that previously could last up to three hours. “Few thought there were options, and the result showed that those who see politics as a reality full of extremes and revenge will have no popular support,” Noboa said.
Daniel Noboa was specific, he did not even leave room for the applause of those present: “I am not against anything, I am pro-Ecuador,” and he constantly asserted the idea of what is different and what is young. “I believe in the strength of youth and many will find it difficult to fit me into old political or ideological paradigms,” he added.
He told the lawmakers that the majority represented these “old paradigms” and that, moreover, they were dismissed by the presidential decree issued by Lasso in May and with whom he reached an agreement – which was not publicly announced – with the bloc of Citizen Revolution party, former President Rafael Correa and the right-wing Christian Social Party to appoint the assembly’s authorities. “We cannot continue to repeat the same policies of the past and expect a different result, that is why the citizens voted for a new Ecuador,” he continued his speech, in which he did not refer to who will form his entire cabinet of ministers, that in the last few days there have been two injured people who need to be replaced.
Since his election victory, he has rarely hinted at the first decisions he will make once he comes to power, but in his speech he highlighted security as a priority: “To fight insecurity, we must fight unemployment.” The country needs jobs and for this we will present to the Assembly urgent reforms that must be treated responsibly and with the country in mind.” A tax reform about which no details are known and which would be one of the first documents sent to the legislature and where the pact made with political organizations will be put to the test. He hastily said goodbye with “Let’s get to work and get to work, long live Ecuador.”
The new president anticipates a country with a budget deficit of more than $3.2 billion, which will increase in December, with a debt of more than 62% of Ecuador’s GDP and with power outages across the country due to an electricity crisis that is affecting the outgoing government has not solved it, and with a serious security emergency with one of the highest crime rates in the world, 38 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, due to the abandonment of the state, a space where criminal gangs have occupied and are waging a war between them to control drug trafficking routes.