Any other unfavorable comparison would be anodyne. But with Venezuela? In a radio interview, the candidate of the Civil Revolution stated that Venezuelans are returning to their country “because Venezuela has better living conditions than Ecuador; Yes, absolutely.” Many fear that if González wins, the RC will take over all the powers of the state and that Correa will return in triumph to send us off the Venezuelan cliff. González lends credence to that scenario.

Venezuela with better living conditions? What does UNDP say, which rates countries according to the Human Development Index (HDI)?

Luisa González assures that ‘Venezuela has better living conditions than Ecuador’

In 1999, when Hugo Chávez took power, the UNDP rated Venezuela and Ecuador almost identically in the IDR. Since then, the performance of both has been lower than that of Colombia and Peru; Ecuador improved by just 0.35 points on the annual average, but Venezuela by a paltry 0.15, the second-worst performer among the 191 countries in the index, surpassed only by Saint Lucia, a tiny Caribbean island that belongs to ALBA.

Despite this modest growth, Ecuador has risen from the third level, medium development, to the high level of development and is in 95th place. Venezuela lags behind among medium-developers, falling 40 positions since 2015 to #120, below Bolivia.

Before Chávez, Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America. According to ECLAC, “economic activity experienced a 30% decline in 2020, the largest reduction documented in Venezuelan economic history. This record marks seven consecutive years of GDP contraction.”

10% of Venezuelans escaped from Maduro’s hell, and half a million of them came to Ecuador…

Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard, observes: “It’s really hard to imagine a human tragedy of this magnitude in a country that hasn’t suffered a civil war.”

Those seven years coincide with Maduro’s government, the worst in history since national accounts have been kept. Economic mismanagement led to inflation of 9.586% in 2019; the bolivar was ground into powder. To mitigate this, Maduro has allowed the economy to be informally dollarized, the opposite of what Andrés Arauz intends for Ecuador: that savers cannot handle dollar bills.

No water, gas or electricity: every man for himself in Venezuela

But wages are paid in bolivars, and the minimum wage is $5.30 a month. Ms. González, and you? Do you think that a Venezuelan has better living conditions than an Ecuadorian who earns $450?

10% of Venezuelans escaped from Maduro’s hell, half a million of them came to Ecuador, most of them with one hand in front, one behind, without anyone they know in Ecuador to help them. Wine of everything. There are professionals and technicians who bring innovative knowledge and have successfully established themselves. There are also those who look for coins at traffic lights. It is natural that some of us who have done well return. Given that they are fleeing because of insecurity, as González says, let’s remember the strong presence of Venezuelan criminals in the country. They also introduced new techniques.

In the years of booming Venezuela, it was a favorite destination for Manabi migrants. Ms. González, ask your province if they continue to migrate to Venezuela. Convince them that the living conditions there are much better than here. (OR)