Electoral fraud in Ecuador was planned and structured long before the April 13 runoff between candidate Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution movement and the far-right candidate Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action party.
Although all polls, including the Corpmontpubli poll endorsed by the National Electoral Council, predicted González’s victory, the final count declared Noboa the winner with 55.65% to 44.35% for her opponent—a completely implausible percentage given that even the Pachakuti indigenous movement had offered its support to the progressive candidate.
Among the anomalies González presented regarding the “fraudulent process” were the declaration of a state of emergency just hours before the start of voting in seven provinces where the Citizens’ Revolution always wins; the CNE’s restrictions on voting from abroad; the reassignment of 18 voting registers; the CNE’s approval of irregularities committed by Noboa; and the validation of documents by the electoral body without signatures favoring the winner, among others.
Symptomatically, all the hegemonic media outlets and the powerful digital media of the international right supported President Noboa in an attempt to hide the numerous anomalies in the electoral process. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), for its part, stated that “what has happened in this country is not just a case of administrative irregularities: it is a systematic setup, aimed at forcibly imposing an authoritarian project whose rise to power by Noboa lacks democratic legitimacy.”
“The signs of fraud,” he added, “are multiple and alarming: last-minute alterations to polling places, arbitrary use of state resources for clientelist purposes, deliberate exclusion of international oversight bodies, and the unacceptable suspension of voting by thousands of Ecuadorians abroad.”
For ALBA-TCP, the runoff took place under a biased and unprecedented state of emergency decree, impacting the provinces with the longest tradition of popular elections. Furthermore, there was an “atmosphere of general intimidation of citizens and open advantageous behavior by Daniel Noboa’s government. This percentage represents more than a 10-point advantage in an election that experts and pollsters predicted would be difficult to predict.”
But let’s analyze other important facts and figures. Five days before the runoff, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the discredited and annexationist OAS had developed a “Multidimensional Security Program for Ecuador,” the first in Latin America designed by the organization for the security and defense of a member country.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro of Uruguay and Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld discussed the details of the program at a meeting in Washington. They discussed regional cooperation to combat narcoterrorism and OAS support for Ecuador’s upcoming electoral process.
It couldn’t be clearer. Everything was looking like the right-wing, pro-American Noboa would emerge victorious.
For several months now, the United States has virtually controlled most operations in the country. Noboa, in his neoliberal agenda, has long been subservient to Washington by facilitating the establishment of US bases such as the one in the Galapagos Islands (declared a World Heritage Site), where troops are now free to move around the country.
This Florida-born son of a billionaire has signed two military cooperation treaties with the United States since December 2023. These treaties include the presence of submarines, military personnel, and equipment in the Galapagos Islands for maritime control of the Pacific. He is now in talks to return the Malta base, which was closed by Rafael Correa’s government, to Washington.
U.S. AWACS intelligence aircraft fly over major cities in the country, such as Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, and Ambato, monitoring any suspicious activity 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 known 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 strengthening intelligence and criminal investigation systems, controlling illicit arms trafficking, and community and school prevention programs against violence and child grooming.”
The elections in Ecuador took place under all the conditions outlined above. It was very difficult for Luisa González to emerge victorious against a well-oiled machine of right-wing forces, both internal and external, working to commit fraud. The Monroe Doctrine, revived by the Donald Trump administration, has its tentacles in Latin America. These are the “democratic” elections they proclaim: if the left wins, it’s fraud; if the right wins, it’s fair. The peoples of our America must learn the disastrous lesson that occurred in Ecuador.
(*) Cuban journalist. He writes for the daily Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones. He is the author of “Cuban Emigration in the United States,” “Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa,” and “Miami, Dirty Money,” among others.
Although I haven’t heard of these accusations before from my sources, it is valid criticism.
However, why do the criticism now when the imperialist siege in Ecuador is ongoing? Could you help me clarify what is your position here and what are you looking for in Ecuador?
I live in Ecuador, I wanted Luisa to win, I campaigned for her.
The anti gay adoption and anti trans education letter can be seen here: https://www.vistazo.com/politica/elecciones-ecuador-2025/2025-03-11-segunda-vuelta-ecuador-daniel-noboa-luisa-gonzalez-rechazan-ideologia-genero-FM8943016
The segment of the debate where she said she’d recognize Maduro to deport Venezuelans can be seen here: https://youtube.com/shorts/wiSuQI7QE9Y
I supported Luisa and the Citizens Revolution Party because they previously renegotiated oil contracts to increase state revenue and they gave us massive infrastructure spending, tripled the minimum wage and the country benefitted hugely from their administration.
Noboa is a failure and a tool of the imperialists, an amerikan citizen himself, he’s overseen a doubling of the crime rate and given impunity to the military for its actions massacring civilians in Nueva Prosperina and Socio Vivienda, marginal neighborhoods of Guayaquil. Noboa plans to sell off state oil production for personal gain and this will permanently damage Ecuador’s development prospects.
I understand the consequences of this election first hand, I have lived here since the beginning of Rafael Correa’s administration, I saw a country move forward for a decade and I’ve suffered the consequences of the last eight years of maladministration.
I want to see the left regain power, I want the peace and moderate prosperity we enjoyed under the left to return. But I am also willing to criticise my own side for the obviously failed strategy of attempting to move right on certain issues.
I am a Correista, I support Rafael Correa, the man who gave us a constitution with universal citizenship and openness to people from all parts of the world to come here and enjoy an equality under the law - something that I benefitted from as a migrant. To see the party candidate proclaim an intention to deport Venezuelans was a betrayal. If we are going to regain power, we must recognize our mistakes. Fraud it was, but the support for Noboa is not entirely fictional, the rejection of the project by millions of Ecuadorians is real, we must deal with these issues so we can hope to regain the presidency.
Thanks for being so thorough! From my side, I apologize if I appeared insensitive and rude.
Sadly, there have been a lot of left anti communists readily attacking anti imperialist countries like Venezuela/Cuba and resistance movements in ill times(example of this behavior can be found in the fractured piece of the PCV in Venezuela that called for joining hands with the fascists such as Maria Corina Machado). The objective of these left comm groups is well known and it is just to disrupt and weaken the solidarity of the groups opposing the imperialists.
Once again, thanks for explaining your position. I really hope that ecuadorians could best this horrible situation shoved into them.
Oh I understand the need to be skeptical, much criticism is unprincipled and opportunistic. I know that these criticisms that I have raised are not being covered outside the country and received little attention here either.
The debate is illustrative of the failure to clearly offer an alternative to the failed model the country is currently following. If you understand Spanish and want to see why we lost, just go watch the debate - Luisa attacked Noboa but failed to offer a clear plan for how she’d do better, when asked about her economic plans she said “she’d eliminate corruption” and then launched into another attack on Noboa for his corrupt acts. If she was a new candidate with no baggage this may have worked, but the media have spent the last 18 years tying the party to acts of corruption.
Rafael Correa has a talk show, where a week before the election he decided to talk about the inevitable downfall of the dollar in the world with Ricardo Patiño - they were correct in their analysis but the thing was taken out of context and to the average low information voter - all that was heard, is these people want to take our dollars away. Give the 96% approval of dollarization in Ecuador this was a massive communicational error.
Many mistakes were made. Blaming it all on the fraud will not help us. Even if we could prove we should have won, which we don’t have enough evidence for yet, we still couldn’t overturn the results because Noboa has control of the electoral authorities and courts.
Unfortunately we must accept the reality and make plans for the future. Powercuts and privatization are on the horizon, it’s a grim time and crying about fraud isn’t going to energize anyone except the base.