Ecuador Strongly Rejected the Lasso Administration: Paola Pabon

During an interview broadcast by teleSUR on Monday, Paola Pabon, the re-elected prefect of Pichincha, analyzed the results of the subnational elections held in Ecuador on Sunday.

Referring to President Guillermo Lasso’s eight-question referendum, the Citizen Revolution militant emphasized that the victory of the “NO” option implies a resounding rejection of the current administration.

“We are experiencing a very strong insecurity crisis. Before the presidency of Lasso, Ecuadorians did not experience in everyday life phenomena such as drug trafficking and organized crime, which have taken to the streets and are claiming more lives.”

Pabon explained that the referendum tried to disguise Lasso’s true political intentions by including questions on the issue of insecurity. In doing so, however, the current government “underestimated the intelligence of the Ecuadorian people.”

“The results of the elections mark the beginning of the recovery of the homeland. The electoral campaign was very hard and implied a lot of suffering for our people,” she said, noting that Ecuadorians voted remembering that they had a noticeable improvement in their quality of life during the administrations of President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

“The problems facing Ecuador are urgent and we need to face them jointly and responsibly. That is what an anguished citizenry, overwhelmed by unemployment, insecurity, fear, and frustration, is asking of us.”

Referring to the victory achieved by the left in the main provinces and cities, Pabon asserted that “the triumph of the Citizen Revolution continues with that Latin American current in which the people ask that the progressives assume the government to resolve the crisis.”

“In the face of anguish and need, left-wing positions and approaches continue to be the best option,” she pointed out.

Pabon stressed that the electoral results imply a resounding defeat for the right-wing parties in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, where the country’s political and economic power is concentrated.

“We have won like never before… We won the Mayor’s Office of Quito… We also won the Mayor’s Office of Guayaquil and the Guayas Prefecture. These territories were controlled by the right for the last 30 years. This is a very important victory.”

The Citizen Revolution leader also explained that the electoral results meant a forceful rejection of the merciless political persecution that social fighters and left-wing activists have experienced over the last 7 years.

In the midst of this, former President Correa “remains the political leader with the greatest acceptance among citizens.”

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We are the Citizen Revolution Again: Ecuador’s Rafael Correa

On Sunday, former President Rafael Correa celebrated the results achieved by his Citizen Revolution party in the subnational elections held in Ecuador.

“We achieved the impossible: we are the Citizen Revolution again! Until victory, always!” he said in a video where he appears playing the guitar and singing “It Changes, Everything Changes,” (Cambia, Todo Cambia) an emblematic song of Latin American social struggles.

“Do you know what we have achieved after being persecuted for six years of persecution and with just one year of the Citizen Revolution party?,” Correa asked to emphasize the magnitude of the leftist victory over right-wing parties.

On Sunday, over 13.4 million Ecuadorians went to the polls to elect 23 provincial prefects, 221 mayors, and 7 members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control, an entity that appoints authorities such as the Attorney General and the Comptroller.

They also participated in a referendum through which President Guillermo Lasso intended to modify the Constitution so as to consolidate a conservative political project.

Former President Rafael Correa’s tweet reads,

“Omar Menendez, our winning candidate for mayor of Puerto Lopez, has just been murdered. The Homeland is falling apart. Hugs to his family and all the comrades from Manabi.”

The Ecuadorian right-wing parties, however, suffered a resounding defeat both in the subnational elections and in the referendum. The Citizen Revolution candidates for the prefectures triumphed in the provinces with the largest population.

This happened with Paola Pabon (Pichincha), Marcela Aguiñaga (Guayas), Leonardo Orlando (Manabi), Juan Lloret (Azua), Johana Nuñez (Santo Domingo), Richar Calderon (Imbabura), and Yofre Poma (Sucumbios).

The progressive forces also prevailed in the main cities with Pabel Muñoz in Quito, Aquiles Alvares in Guayaquil, Wilson Erazo in Santo Domingo, Vicko Villacis in Esmeraldas, Pedro Solines in Milagro, and Alexis Matute in Quevedo.

The magnitude of the people’s support for the Citizen Revolution became evident in an unprecedented event: Ecuadorians elected Omar Menedez as mayor of Puerto Lopez, despite the fact that this young man was murdered by hitmen on the day before the elections.

[Telesur is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua. It was launched in 2005, under the government of Hugo Chávez, promoted as ‘a Latin socialist answer to CNN’.]