The predetermined date for the second round is Sunday, October 15, 2023. An eight-week period begins today in which Ecuador’s fundamental issues must be required to be the subject of an explicit statement by the candidates on what to do and how to do it. Not just generalities.

And if the new ruler respects the current constitutional provisions, his government will be from November 30, 2023 to May 24, 2025, i.e. about eighteen months. Another possibility could be going to a consultation on the validity of the constitution, perhaps to the Constituent Assembly or some other adventure. Spend and spend.

Suffrage, the best weapon

The biggest pain of Ecuadorians is the lack of security and the strengthening of criminal violence. How will security levels be achieved? There must be prevention and repression, where appropriate. The promiscuity of the liberal abolition of prison orders and alternative measures, by corrupt judges or in fear of the danger of criminal reprisals, cannot continue. Prevention equipment, cameras that enable the transmission of images to the police and the prosecutor’s office must be functional, and not as decoration, as it would seem, like other security equipment. As for detention centers, they should cease to be centers for dealing with criminal violence, as has been the recent experience.

Stability must be the basis for correcting the economy, no novel essay. The rating of Standard & Poor’s Financial Global, which ranks Venezuela as the worst in Latin America with 42,150 points; followed by Argentina, which would have 2,172 points; Ecuador is very close to deterioration, with 1,904 points, a rating heavily influenced by concerns about servicing external debt, as in the case of credit rating agency Fitch, which downgraded Ecuador from B- to CCC+.

What will be proposed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Development Bank and other external creditors in view of the actual inability to pay?

The internal debt of the public sector to entities from the same sector and to suppliers of goods and services, which exceeds two billion dollars, must be resolved. How will you treat her?

There are also no details on social security, the bankruptcy of which would affect all retirees and workers in Ecuador.

A pathological novelty would be the consumption of reserves and resources from the Central Bank of Ecuador for the supposed activation of the economy, in conditions where immediate return will be impossible, so more than investment, it will be irrational consumption and extinguishing of its availability. The consequence would be that dollarization would jump, which would also happen if electronic means of payment were to be imposed on a mandatory basis; They want to call it “Ecuadólar”, so that the central bank will appropriate real dollars. (OR)