As I write these lines, ADN blocs and allies plus PSC and RC are preparing to form a majority for the appointment of powers of the Assembly, which implies certain guidelines for joint action. Hopefully that includes course correction, because we’re headed for the cliff today.

A legislative agreement between the Correístas, the Social Christians, the government and the minority sectors is already underway

The problem is cooking in a belt. That decade was like a family that wins the lottery, lives well for a few years, but the money finally disappears, the debts remain, the creditors eventually take the house and the car, and the family is worse off than before the lottery. Correa spent money from before (the money saved by Noboa, Gutiérrez and Palacio and the $9 billion he took from central bank deposits), money from the time (the spectacular oil revenues from 2007 to 2014) and the future (revenues from oil through advance sales and huge contracted public debt). All that money was wasted and the state has no way to pay the debt.

Jaime Nebot: It was time for the political class to show that it is capable of agreeing on basic issues

To overcome this situation, Lenín Moreno reached an agreement with creditors, who agreed to reduce the debt and reschedule its repayment for 2026 onwards, so that there is a respite until the legislation is changed to attract more private investment. It was expected that by 2023, Ecuador could start paying off its debt without further support from multilateral organizations as the economy will grow strongly.

The country is moving towards a new crisis like the one from a quarter of a century ago.

Lasso complied with the debt reduction, began returning funds that had been seized from the Central Bank, and promoted the country to foreign investors. But he failed to reach agreements in the Assembly or mobilize the bureaucracy, and he appointed ultra-ecologists judges to the Constitutional Court. The three institutions did their part to stop the investments. Under these conditions, debt reduction causes very little economic growth. The country is moving towards a new crisis like the one from a quarter of a century ago.

The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutionality due to the form of reform of the regulations of the Environmental Protection Act

To change the course, it is necessary to solve two problems:

– Stop the growth of current consumption. Current regulations call for an annual increase in health and education budgets of $1.2 billion annually. The Constitutional Court ordered Lasso to comply with the salary increase for the unfunded teaching profession. Collective agreements in the public sector include automatic wage increases. Labor judges order the employment of fired employees with retroactive payment of wages plus interest and penalties. The government did not prevent the role of budget payments to grow by $467 million and 7.1% in the first nine months. This has to stop.

Taking a stand, a constitutional right of political groups exploited by Construye

– Obstacles to investments must be removed. The legislative majority must approve the laws that make this possible, and President Noboa and his team must ensure that the bureaucracy does their bidding. We must ensure that the extreme environmentalist majority of the Constitutional Court refrains from obstructing any investment that requires prior environmental consultation, especially in oil and mining which generate revenue for the exchequer. The closure of ITT not only means the loss of expected sales and revenue from the only oil field in development, but also the cost of the infrastructure sale, which must be completed in 2024, is $2 billion. This is unsustainable. (OR)