Violence-hit Ecuador chooses next president

Violence-hit Ecuador chooses next president

Ecuador's presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, Luisa Gonzalez, looks on during an interview with AFP at her home

Some 14 million Ecuadorans began voting under tight security Sunday, choosing who will lead their violence-wracked Andean nation through its worst crisis in half a century.

Sixteen candidates are vying to become president for a four-year term, including hawkish young incumbent Daniel Noboa and his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez.

The campaigns have been dominated by concerns about a moribund economy and cartel turf wars that have transformed Ecuador from one of the safest countries in the world into one of the most dangerous.

"The country is collapsing. The only thing I ask the new president is that they fix this mess," said 28-year-old businessman Luis Jaime Torres as he prepared to vote in Quito.

Heavily armed soldiers stood watch at polling stations across the country as state emergency services cited "grave warnings" of an unspecified "possible attack against democracy" and election officials.

On the campaign trail both main candidates were shadowed by a phalanx of special forces and bodyguards, hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2023 election when a leading candidate was assassinated.

"We're only human, of course, you feel afraid," 47-year-old Gonzalez told AFP from her childhood home on the eve of the vote.

"There are intelligence reports that say there are risks and that they want to take my life, but there is a bigger challenge here. There is a challenge to transform the country."

The former lawmaker will have to dramatically outperform pre-election polls to beat Noboa -- the son of a banana billionaire who himself ran for president five times without success. 

At 37 years old, Noboa is one of the world's youngest leaders. He has bet his political future on a hardline approach to tackling crime.

As US drug users have shifted to opioids, Latin American cocaine cartels have turned to supplying fast-growing markets in Europe, Australia and Asia via Ecuador's ports.

That trade has brought record rates of murder, kidnapping and extortion. 

Noboa has responded by declaring a state of emergency, deploying the army across the country and gathering extraordinary executive powers to curb the violence.

He ordered the country's land borders with Colombia and Peru to be closed over the election period and the military has even been tasked with distributing ballot papers to 466 polling stations across the country.

Human rights groups believe the aggressive use of the armed forces has led to abuses, including the murder of four boys whose charred bodies were recently found near an army base.

"Ecuador is in a very difficult moment, I think in the worst crisis since we returned to democracy," said Leonardo Laso, a local political analyst, referring to a period of deep crisis almost half a century ago.

- 'Dark outlook' - 

The security plight has scared away tourists and investors alike, hitting an already spluttering economy, which likely entered a recession last year.

Noboa has been forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund to build a $4 billion fiscal war chest.

Easing fears that she may scrap that deal if elected, Gonzalez told AFP that the IMF was "welcome" to help, so long as it does not insist on cuts that hit working families.

Her political mentor, Rafael Correa, pushed Ecuador into default in 2008, refusing to pay international creditors. 

Now Ecuador is also girding for the return of thousands of migrants who are expected to be deported from the United States under President Donald Trump's policies -- and a reduction in remittances which total about $6 billion a year. 

"Our compatriots are now returning to the country again," said Vinicio Colcha, a 45-year-old merchant.

"Obviously, there is already unemployment and there will be more unemployment, more problems, more insecurity, everything in between. It is a dark outlook."

Voting is compulsory. Polls opened at 7:00 am local time and will close at 5:00 pm (1200 to 2200 GMT).

There will be an April 13 second-round runoff if no candidate gathers 50 percent of the vote, or 40 percent and is 10 points ahead of their nearest rival.

bur-arb/mlm

Originally published as Violence-hit Ecuador chooses next president