In Quito, when Pabel Muñoz and Paola Pabón took over as mayor of the capital and prefect of Pichincha, one of the cheers from the audience was “Paola and Pabel, the voice of Rafael”. The masses shout anything, and also what they are forced to do, so the fans of the Civil Revolution see Correia’s incarnation in every individual from his movement that wins part of the government (both Correistas in power achieved close to 30% of the electorate’s vote). But it is worrying that the new authorities point to Correa as their north of political governance.

Who is Correa at this point? He is a fugitive from justice: someone who has been found guilty of crimes defined by law and who, in order to avoid going to prison, has evaded the control of justice. This is today’s Correa. What kind of mental pirouette are some local authorities doing to hide in the shadow of convicts without any shame? What kind of politicians are they who, ignoring the calls of justice, create their own reality, the one in which Correa allegedly spent the country’s most important historical experience in his republican life? Are these politicians who deny reality like this trustworthy?

In Guayaquil, Aquiles Alvarez and Marcela Aguiñaga are, with almost 40% and 35% of the votes respectively, the mayor of the port and the prefect of Guayas. They showed their obedience to Correa in the election campaign. In the case of Aguiñaga, she was also an assistant in Correa’s administrations. Didn’t they find out about the corruption mechanism that the Civil Revolution set up as an organization? How will Muñoz, Pabon, Alvarez and Aguiñaga – the authorities of two very important regional poles in Ecuador – be in the position they have? Will they see it as an opportunity to vindicate the fugitive?

(…) respecting the law so that they are not the voices of Rafael, the fugitive, but take over their own.

Will the mayorships and prefectures that will command in the coming years be a space to encourage the development of these communities or will they be a mere political instrument to favor the release of their leaders in different ways? Can they weigh the damage correísmo brought to the country’s democratic institutions, of which, with the exception of Alvarez, they were the main and co-responsible characters? How do they manage to distance themselves from the mechanisms of the Civil Revolution – repression and authoritarianism – which devised a perverse scheme whose existence is unquestionable?

The new authorities face challenges in their regions. As in the rest of the country, Quito, Guayaquil, Pichincha and Guayas are communities with serious service delivery problems, neglected needs and high dissatisfaction; These are places that need politicians with sufficient capacity to rationalize public spending, undertake significant works and rebuild spaces for coexistence where people’s lives are preserved and the population is guaranteed a certain level of equality. And also respecting the law so that we are not the voices of Rafael, the fugitive, but take our own. (OR)