The recently elected mayors of Guayaquil and Quito face big but different challenges.

Our capital is suffering from a long-term crisis, a series of mayors who for decades could not reduce the bureaucratic burden, but gradually increased it, so that in the end, current consumption would grow by unbearable percentages, which reduced the investment capacity, the accompanying impact on the quality of life. Companies, municipalities or states that do not invest have an unquestionably bleak future.

But to the accumulated problem mentioned here is added a very severe political crisis, which kept the Municipality on the edge and ended with the possession of Santiago Guarderas as mayor, who at least managed to avoid a collapse that would have been very serious for the city, something that time will recognize.

Pabel Muñoz: The mayor of Quito is me and Rafael Correa, the lifetime president of the organization

Quito is not solved by the mayor’s decision. Quito is not resolved even with a few councilors siding with the mayor. It is decided by the decision of the city, of all Quiteños. The municipality of Guayaquil fell into a deep crisis and it was necessary to close it. Not that we’re suggesting it, but the “closure” in Quito implies the city’s decision to reduce mass, eliminate redundant bureaucracy, and bring municipal finances to a sustainable point.

On the other hand, it cannot be expected that, with the large subsidies that the Ecuadorians have already given for the metro in Quito, the state will continue to provide funds for this white elephant. Where will the funds for work and debt payment come from? From the very conception, it was known that its operation based on “politically” acceptable tickets was unfeasible. He didn’t ask himself where the money would come from, because that’s the last thing politicians wonder about and the last interest of populism. Therefore, the challenge for the new mayor is to ensure that the city understands and accepts these serious problems, and that painful solutions are accepted by all citizens.

Pabel Muñoz, elected mayor of Quito. Photo: API

The mayor of Guayaquil faces a much smaller problem. It is about correcting what was unfortunately badly managed and which left the municipality, which was very liquid, without liquidity.

At one point, through this column, a public consultation was proposed in the city to protect a model that has been successfully applied for years and produced a visible transformation of the city. This was not done, and the successful model was seriously injured by one of his daughters.

The new mayor does not have to turn the city around, as the mayor of Quito does, but to correct the wrong done and direct the city to the path of progress it can have.

If the mayors of Quito and Guayaquil are used for partisan political purposes, and with a short-term vision that seeks what is convenient for the next presidential election process, a third of the country’s population will be delayed and concrete solutions to the problems of the two cities will become difficult to achieve that partisan and populist interest.

The fact that Guayaquil wants to make everything transparent and see where mistakes have been made is not only a necessity, but also an important diagnostic tool to improve things. The desire to “wipe and go again” of the city can waste the inertia that the people of Guayaquil used to appreciate and value, and this can seriously harm the potential that the city has.

The mayor’s work is political, yes, but in the minority. The majority and basic work is administrative, serving the community. Presidents are not necessarily excellent administrators; For this they have ministers, who manage, and they should be chosen well, because the work of the president has elements of administration, but his great task is fundamentally political. But mayors do not have ministers: they are the ones who should be directly above the administration of their cities. And I hope that the new mayors of the two most populous cities in Ecuador understand this, for the sake of Quito and Guayaquil, and thus all of Ecuador. (OR)