By Hedelberto López Blanch on April 14, 2025
The electoral fraud in Ecuador was planned and structured long before the voting on April 13th between the candidate Luisa González of the Citizens’ Revolution movement and the far-right Daniel Noboa of National Democratic Action.
Despite the fact that all the polls, including the Corpmontpubli poll, endorsed by the National Electoral Council, gave the victory to González, the final count declared Noboa the winner with 55.65% of the vote against 44.35% for his opponent, a completely implausible percentage when even the indigenous Pachakuti movement had offered its support to the progressive candidate.
Among the anomalies presented by González for the “fraudulent process” are the state of emergency a few hours before the start of voting in seven provinces where the Citizen Revolution always wins; the CNE’s restrictions on voting from abroad; the reassignment of 18 voting registers; the CNE’s consent to irregularities committed by Noboa; validation of documents by the electoral body without signatures favoring the winner, among others.
Symptomatically, all the hegemonic media and the powerful digital media of the international right wing gave their support to President Noboa in an attempt to hide the numerous anomalies in the electoral process.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) stated that “what has happened in this country is not just a case of administrative irregularities: it is a systematic set-up, aimed at forcibly imposing an authoritarian project whose rise to power of Noboa lacks democratic legitimacy.
“The signs of fraud,” the statement added, ”are multiple and alarming: last-minute alterations in polling places, arbitrary use of state resources for clientelist purposes, deliberate exclusion of international observers, and the unacceptable suspension of the vote of thousands of Ecuadorians abroad.”
For ALBA-TCP, the run-off took place under a biased and unusual decree of a state of emergency, with an impact on the provinces with the greatest tradition of popular elections. In addition, there was an “atmosphere of general intimidation of the citizens and of open advantage-taking by the government of Daniel Noboa. This percentage represents more than a 10-point advantage in an election that experts and pollsters predicted would be close and difficult to forecast.”
But let’s analyze other important factors. Five days before the ballot, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the discredited and annexationist Organization of American States (OAS) had drawn up a “Multidimensional Security Program for Ecuador,” the first in Latin America designed by the organization in the area of security and defense of a member country.
The details of the program were discussed by the OAS Secretary General, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, and the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, at a meeting held in Washington, where they addressed issues of regional cooperation to combat narcoterrorism and the OAS support for the upcoming electoral process in Ecuador.
It couldn’t be clearer. Everything was pointing to the right-wing and pro-US Noboa winning the election.
For several months now, the United States has practically controlled the majority of the shares in the country. Noboa, in his neoliberal agenda, has long been subservient to Washington by facilitating the establishment of US bases such as that of the Galapagos Islands (declared a World Heritage Site) and whose troops can now move freely throughout the national territory.
This Florida-born billionaire’s son has signed two military cooperation treaties with the United States since December 2023, which include the presence of submarines, military personnel and equipment in the Galapagos Islands for maritime control of the Pacific, and is now talking about handing over the Malta base, which was closed by the government of Rafael Correa, back to Washington.
US AWACS intelligence planes fly over the country’s main cities such as Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca and Ambato to monitor any suspicious movement against the regime.
Weeks ago Noboa hired the US military company Blackwater, led by mercenary Eric Prince, to wage “the war on crime”. Blackwater is notorious for crimes committed against civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The OAS, directed by Washington, is in charge of what happens in the Andean country and Almagro himself reported that the program is a “technical assistance strategy that includes the strengthening of intelligence and criminal investigation systems, the control of illicit arms trafficking, community and school-based violence prevention programs, and the recruitment of minors.”
The elections in Ecuador were held under all these conditions. It was very difficult for Luisa González to emerge victorious against a well-oiled machine of internal and external right-wing forces committed to committing fraud.
The Monroe doctrine, resurrected by the Donald Trump administration, has its tentacles all over Latin America. These are the “democratic” elections they proclaim: if the left wins it is fraud, if the right wins, it is clean. The peoples of our America must learn this fateful lesson that occurred in Ecuador.
Hedelberto López Blanch is a Cuban journalist. He writes for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones and the author of many books.
Source: Cuba en Resumen