Despite years of political persecution, a misinformation campaign aimed at undermining support for the leftist coalition Union of Hope (UoH) and barriers to electoral participation deployed by the Moreno administration in collaboration with the US, Andres Arauz of the UoH emerged victorious in the first round of Ecuador’s Presidential elections on 7 February. Arauz took 32.72% of the votes, 13% more than the second-place candidate Guillermo Lasso of the right CREO-PSC alliance. Arauz and Lasso go on to the second round of elections on 11 April. But the dirty misinformation campaign against Arauz has continued, with baseless accusations of electoral fraud. The push for a soft coup in Ecuador has recently escalated to calls for an outright military coup.
Yaku Perez, the candidate who took third place for the indigenous Pachakutik party, has championed these calls. Perez lost second-place by fewer than 0.5% of votes. The National Electoral Council’s (CNE) delay in announcing the official results was criticised across the political spectrum for fostering uncertainty, with both Lasso and Perez declaring a second-place win before official confirmation. The CNE, alongside the serving right-wing President Lenin Moreno, made a hard push to delay the elections when it became apparent the left was securing popular electoral support. In line with Ecuador’s constitution, a change in the date of elections can allow for annulment of the entire electoral process. The CNE is controlled by the political elite and has been instrumental in waging ‘lawfare’ against progressive candidates, as reported by the progressive journalist outlet Ecuador on Q.
After failing to have the elections postponed, or cancelled, on 27 January Moreno held a secret meeting with Luis Almagro, President of the notoriously interventionist Organisation of American States (OAS). The anti-Cuban US Republican Marco Rubio was also in attendance. The subsequent February election was riddled with formal and informal obstructions to mass participation including excessively long queues and television adverts discouraging people from voting. Arauz won big in spite of this, demonstrating that people are looking towards ‘socialism for the 21st century’ to resolve the political and economic crisis caused by imperialism and worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Perez latched on to the delay in the announcements of results to declare a fraudulent election. Without any evidence, he claims ballots have been stolen, hidden and miscounted while accusing Arauz of securing illegal funding from the ELN in Colombia to secure his first-round win. Perez demanded a recount of six million votes and an investigation into Arauz. Perez’s claims were given weight by the CNE undertaking a partial retake, despite there being no basis for one. The OAS then stepped in to express its ‘concern’. When only 31 ballot cards came back with any issues, Perez turned to endorsing intervention from the Armed Forces to annul the results.
Perez emerged as a late challenger in the race. He was put forward as the candidate for Pachakutik which operates as the political arm of CONAIE, the indigenous confederation of Ecuador. CONAIE received widespread support for its role in helping to lead the October 2019 anti-government uprisings that forced the government to temporarily backtrack on their plan to eliminate fuel subsidies. Pachakutik has previously received support from the US government in its attacks on former left-wing President Correa. The Grayzone exposed the party’s leaders as being trained by the National Democratic Institute, operating under the guidance of the US state-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Perez supported the fascist US-backed coup in Bolivia, aligning himself with US imperialism but using a cover of ‘environmentalism’. He employs the same xenophobic claims as Moreno and the US government that the left movement in Ecuador is infiltrated by paid Venezuelans controlled by Maduro. During his electoral campaign Perez announced he ‘[wouldn’t] think twice’ before signing a deal with the US. Deals with the US and IMF imposed austerity measures have devastated Ecuador’s poor and indigenous, as well as destroying much of the middle-class. Three in five Ecuadorians now live below the poverty line and depend on informal work.
The indigenous movement is not united behind Perez. Even before his attack on democracy sections of the movement were put off by the banking and big business interests that indigenous leader Leonidas Salazar claims operate within Perez’s inner circle. Since Perez’s campaign for intervention, further indigenous groups have broken away to announce their support for Arauz in the next round of elections.
As the Ecuadorian ruling class realise Perez cannot command the popular support necessary to overturn the first-round votes and as they lose faith in their election candidate Lasso, appeals for a military coup intensify. Eduardo Ledesma, head of the Ecuadorean Association of Banana Exporters, is the latest representative piling on the call. Over 12,000 people in Ecuador’s capital Quito took to the streets to support Arauz in the days leading up to the February election. They will need to continue to mobilise to ensure free and fair elections and another victory for Arauz in April.
Ria Aibhilin
