More than 460,000 people have already been displaced to South Sudan as a result of the Sudanese conflict. Dec. 29, 2023. | Photo: X/@XHNews
The donation by China will be used to shelter the returnees and refugees at the transit sites and the final destinations.
On Thursday, the government of South Sudan said that trucks carrying humanitarian aid donated by China to support refugees and returnees displaced from Sudan have started to arrive in Juba, South Sudan’s capital.
Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Albino Akol Atak said six trucks carrying a total of 26,145 pieces of plastic sheets arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to support the returnees and refugees.
“This has been a generous donation by the government of China to the people of South Sudan and is a result of our engagement with the international community and donors for them to help the government and to support the efforts of the government in its responses to the influx of refugees and returnees that have come as a result of the conflict in Sudan,” Akol told reporters in Juba.
He said more than 460,000 people have already been displaced to South Sudan as a result of the Sudanese conflict and are in dire need of shelter, food, and medicines in the transit centers and their final destination.
Akol said the donation by China will be used to shelter the returnees and refugees at the transit sites and the final destinations.
He noted that there will be another support from the Chinese government for the displaced persons totaling 1.4 million U.S. dollars, which will be delivered before the end of January 2024.
Akol expressed gratitude for the generous contribution of the government of China, affirming the true friendship between South Sudan and China.
Trade unions are taking to the streets against the dismissal of 7,000 workers and other anti-people policies that are part of Javier Milei’s recent presidential decree
Tens of thousands participating in the protest against Milei’s DNU. Photo: FOL
Tens of thousands are expected to mobilize in Buenos Aires, Argentina in front of the country’s courts on Wednesday, December 27, to reject the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 70/2023 announced by President Javier Milei on December 20 which severely undermines workers’ rights and promotes the deregulation of the economy.
They will also be protesting the dismissal of 7,000 public workers, outlined in the DNU, and made official through another decree published in the Official Gazette.
The government has warned that it will use “all deterrent measures” in response to the protest including the “Public Order Protocol” announced by Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich on December 14. This protocol authorizes the police and security forces to intervene in response to any attempt to partially or totally block any national roads, transportation, or “free movement.” It has been dubbed the “anti-picket” protocol as it targets the historic picket and roadblock tactic of Argentine movements.
Another government “deterrence measure” is the threat from Bullrich that those who participate in protest actions and road blockades that are recipients of social programs will not receive this support: “he who blocks the street does not get paid,” she declared.
Wednesday’s protest has been called for by the country’s major trade union confederations and social movements such as the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), both Workers’ Central Union of Argentina (CTA), the Association of State Workers (ATE), Frente Patria Grande, and other major left movements and parties.
Trade union and social leaders in the country stated that they are mobilizing in front of the courts to highlight the unconstitutionality of Milei’s decree and seek protections from the court to nullify the DNU.
“No one expects us to accept a single layoff,” the General Secretary of ATE Rodolfo Aguiar said in a statement.
He added, “If the government moves forward with these layoffs, workers and families will be directly affected, but indirectly, the entire community will be affected. In the State, any dismissal translates into a loss of rights for all our people.”
Chile’s right-wing forces won the majority of seats in the Constitutional Council in a vote held on May 7. Photo: Servel/Twitter
On December 17, Chileans rejected a proposed far-right constitution in a plebiscite, which would have included provisions against abortion and same-sex marriage and been even more conservative than the current constitution, a Pinochet-era document. The “against” option obtained 55.76% of the votes, while the “in favor” received 44.24% of the votes, generating various reactions at the national and international level.
As a result of the plebiscite, Chile will maintain the constitution of 1980, approved during the Pinochet dictatorship, which has received important, but not structural, modifications during subsequent democratic governments. Chile is left with the text of the current constitution and, according to what has been indicated by various sectors of the ruling party, the constitutional process would be closed for at least two years.
This vote comes a year after the defeat of a progressive proposed constitution, also in a plebiscite.
“Popular sovereignty has clearly expressed its will and the majority has voted against the constitutional text that has been proposed,” said the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, in a speech on Sunday after the results were published.
The president emphasized that “during our mandate, the constitutional process is closed, the emergencies are different… The country became polarized, divided and, apart from this overwhelming result, the constitutional process failed to channel the hopes of having a new constitution written for everyone.”
Boric explained that “politics has become indebted to the people of Chile and this debt is paid by achieving the solutions that Chileans need and demand that we achieve.”
According to the latest count by the Electoral Service of Chile (Servel), corresponding to 99.78 percent of the polling stations counted, 6,888,475 people leaned towards the “against” option, while 5,464,739 marked “in favor.”
In a historic vote called through an automatic registration mechanism and mandatory voting for everyone over 18 years of age, according to the latest count, 13,003,653 people participated, which represented 84.40% of the electorate.
Chilean left reacts to victory
At the headquarters of the Socialist Party (PS), the 10 ruling parties met and reacted to the news, joined by the Christian Democrats.
Paulina Vodanovic, president of the PS, read a joint statement approved by all the presidents of the Parties, in which she valued the triumph of the “against” option. “Today, women said forcefully that we are going to defend our rights and cultural advances, we are not willing to give up what has meant decades of struggle. As we declared at the time, our votes, those of everyone present here, will not be available in congress for a third constituent process,” she said.
The President of the Communist Party, Lautaro Carmona, stated that this vote represented the failure of the project of the right, who had in their hands the opportunity to write a new Magna Carta for the country, but who decided to speak only to their sector.
Diego Ibáñez, president of Convergencia Social, commented that this is a moment that requires humility from political leaders. “Chile has expressed itself in a majority that affirms that here, no one is screwed, that here no one wants to go back on conquered rights. The people of Chile have made a call for attention that the Parties, independent of the political sector, have to take with deep humility, either we move forward together or there is no progress.”
Although Daniel Jadue, the mayor of the Recoleta commune and Socialist Party member, assured that “there is nothing to celebrate” after the failure of the second constitutional process, he also pointed out that the results of the plebiscite represent “a great defeat for the Republicans who took control of this process” and who wanted to make the new constitution even “more Pinochet style than the current one.”
“This is a very good sign that Chile does not like the Republicans and that they are not even capable of thinking about Chile as a whole,” he added.
Finally, Jadue stressed that the difference in votes between both options was even greater in his commune, which would represent—in his opinion—a strategic victory against the Republican Party.
“I am also very happy because in Recoleta the victory is much larger, we got close to 63%, which from the strategic perspective is a victory against the extreme right in the commune of Recoleta and that makes us very happy and calm about the future,” he said.
This article was translated and adapted from reports on El Ciudadano.
According to the new tax reform, basic products will be tax-exempt, while the reform includes a tax on products harmful to health or the environment, such as tobacco, alcohol, sodas, and pesticides
The tax reform will result in a considerable reduction in business costs and an additional annual GDP growth of at least 1 percent.
On Wednesday, Brazilian President Lula da Silva led a session of the Parliament that brought together the entire political class for the enactment of a tax reform considered “historic.”
Approved last week, the new regulations mark a historic milestone by achieving tax simplification that had not been accomplished in the past 30 years. During this period, the tax burden had exceeded 40 percent.
“It’s a extremely important day,” said Lula, celebrating the parliamentary debate on a tax law where around 20 political parties put forth their proposals.
“The reform won’t solve all problems, but it will help address them with a fairer tax system,” the Brazilian president added.
One of the main changes in the new system is the creation of a Value Added Tax (VAT) set at around 25 percent, unifying five taxes applied to consumption.
The text reads, “What makes you happy? It is to see that ‘the economy has grown more than any economist imagined,’ President Lula said during the session in the Lower Chamber on Wednesday when the reform to the Tax Law was promulgated.”
VAT collections will be directed, on the one hand, to the federal government and, on the other hand, to state governments and municipalities.
According to the new tax reform, basic products will be tax-exempt, while the reform includes a tax on products harmful to health or the environment, such as tobacco, alcohol, sodas, and pesticides.
The Lula administration argues that the tax reform will result in a considerable reduction in business costs and an additional annual GDP growth of at least 1 percent.
In addition to worker support, the tax reform received approval from financial markets. In this regard, the credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s upgraded Brazil’s rating from BB- to BB.
His decision will affect all temporary employees of the Federal administration and public institutions.
On Tuesday, Manuel Adorni, the spokesman of President Javier Milei, announced that the Argentine government will not renew around 7,000 public contracts next year and will review over one million social plans to detect irregularities.
Nor will the public contracts registered in 2023 ending on December 31 be renewed in 2024. The rest of the public worker contracts will enter a review process in the next 90 days.
These decisions will affect all temporary employees of the Federal administration and Argentine public institutions. Only workers from state-owned companies will be excluded.
Adorni maintains that some 160,000 beneficiaries of social plans would be benefiting from aid in an “irregular” manner, which means that they would stop receiving public resources worth about US$12.4 million.
“Argentines should not be responsible for this money,” the presidential spokesperson said, adding that the Milei administration seeks to make monetary transfers transparent so that social plans stop functioning as a business for the leaders of social organizations.
More specifically, state cuts mainly will affect the workers of the National Social Security Administration (ANSES), the Comprehensive Medical Care Program (PAMI) and the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP).
After the decree announcing the dismissal of 7,000 workers was made official, Daniel Catalano, the secretary in Buenos Aires of the State Workers Association (ATE), accused the Milei administration of leading Argentina towards a process of generalized poverty.
“They are leading us to be like Haiti. It’s crazy,” he said and asked people to join the mobilizations called by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).
“The government wants to show blood,” Catalano stated and stressed that laying off 7,000 workers who earn US$243 a month does not solve any macroeconomic problem but only harms 7,000 families.
A Peruvian protester holds up a sign that reads “Dina Boluarte, resign”: Photo Zoe Alexandra
December 7 marks one year since the coup against President Pedro Castillo in Peru. He was replaced by the unelected Dina Boluarte, who would quickly unleash a regime of death against mass protests within the country.
On December 7, 2022, Peru witnessed the removal and arrest of its constitutional president, Pedro Castillo. Castillo had attempted to dissolve the country’s Congress and implement an emergency rule in the face of a third impeachment request that year, but the far-right Congress quickly overruled him and approved the impeachment request against him for “permanent moral incapacity” to continue in office. The request was approved with 101 votes in favor, six against and 11 abstentions. Hours later, with Castillo in police custody, his Vice President, Dina Boluarte, became Peru’s new, unelected president.
Following the coup, Peruvians unleashed mass protests, to which Boluarte responded by killing as many as 57 protesters in a series of massacres. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported that the state’s response to protests was characterized by the “disproportionate, indiscriminate and lethal use of force.” It added that in some cases, the actions could be classified as “extrajudicial executions” and “massacres.”
Boluarte later laid the blame on the protesters themselves for these deaths. “In the six months that we have been in government, we have practically been firefighters putting out almost 500 violent demonstrations. Right now, I call on these people who are once again announcing a third takeover of Lima or the third takeover of Peru, how many more deaths do they want? Doesn’t it hurt your souls to have lost more than 60 people in these violent mobilizations,” said Boluarte.
Despite the massacres, the people of Peru kept the struggle alive. July 19, tens of thousands of Peruvians took to the streets across the country to revive the struggle against the coup regime led by de-facto President Boluarte. Workers, peasants, students, members of Indigenous organizations, social movements, and left-wing parties mobilized in over a dozen departments.
They demanded Boluarte’s immediate resignation, closure of the right-wing dominated Congress, fresh elections, a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, justice for those killed and injured by the state forces during the protests, and freedom of those arrested including former President Castillo. The Ombudsman’s Office reported that it recorded mobilizations and road blockades in 64 provinces.
In addition to receiving support from far-right sectors in Congress, Boluarte showed her loyalty to the right and foreign capital by moving to privatize lithium mining on April 10, in addition to other anti-people measures.
Today, following the release of former dictator Alberto Fujimori from prison, the nation once again prepares for a fresh wave of protests.
Farmers thresh hybrid rice in Kihanga, Bubanza Province, Burundi, on June 20. Chinese agricultural experts have set up a multidisciplinary research center in Bubanza where hybrid rice varieties have been cultivated. HAN XU/XINHUA
By EDITH MUTETHYA in Nairobi, Kenya | China Daily Global | Updated: 2023-12-18 09:36
Inclusion of six new members promises to reshape world economic and political order
The BRICS Summit held in South Africa this year will go down in history as a meeting at which a milestone was reached to shape the group’s direction.
During the summit in Johannesburg the BRICS group of emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa extended an invitation to Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are expected to officially join the group next month.
After the enlargement, experts say, the platform will increase the influence of the Global South, which has traditionally been neglected in terms of economic growth and policies.
Aly Khan, an investment banker in Kenya, said the recent developments in BRICS, such as greater cohesion, its expansion and growing local currency settlement, all point to a grouping that is flexing its muscle.
BRICS expansion is significant, he said, foreshadowing a potentially new financial architecture and an ambition to reform global governance.
Cavince Adhere, an expert on international relations with a focus on China-Africa relations, said BRICS expansion will make the bloc an important platform for international collaboration, especially among Global South countries.
The bloc, with a combined population of more than 3.2 billion, accounts for about 42 percent of the world’s population, a quarter of world GDP and 17 percent of world trade.
“That tells you how important it is,” Adhere said. “It’s now composed of the largest market in the world.”
The bloc also brings together resource-rich countries, he said.
The future of BRICS will depend on its ability to deliver on the aspirations of the members that have already joined and those that are keen to join, he said.
The BRICS Ambassador at large, Anil Sooklal, has stated that a further 20 countries, in addition to the recently proposed six new members invited earlier this year, have applied to join the BRICS group. When discussing South Africa’s current Presidency of the BRICS, he stated in late November that “Over 20 countries have formally applied to join BRICS, while the same number have expressed interest. This is affirmation that BRICS is playing an important role in championing emerging and developing economies. There are a large number of interested parties and these will be dealt with by the respective Foreign Ministers.”
At present, the BRICS includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, while Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are expected to join from the coming January 1st.
Argentina was also invited to join however with a recent change in the political regime is now expected to decline. The five current members of BRICS are responsible for 37% of all global trade.
The 20 New BRICS Candidate Countries
In terms of the 20 new candidates, what will be attractive to many is the fact that the BRICS does not insist upon formal trade negotiations and the permanent imposition of tariff reductions. Rather than a defined tariff reduction regime, the BRICS has a far looser approach. This removes political barriers that include insistence on market and political reforms, which is more of a Western approach, and also means that tariff reductions and trade development enhancements can be implemented on an as-need basis. These are fundamental points of interests to emerging economies who may otherwise struggle to compete with cheap imports. It also allows more autocratic regimes to participate without the need to introduce unwelcome reforms that may not be considered in their national interest. Most of the 20 applicants have not been publicly identified, however in my experienced opinion are likely to include the following.
Afghanistan
An outlier, but Afghanistan has significant resources and is a member of the BRI. Diplomatic changes are required, but China, India and Russia are all keen to see redevelopment in the country once political stability can be secured.
Algeria
In terms of market size, Algeria has the tenth largest proven natural gas reserves globally, is the world’s sixth-largest gas exporter, and has the world’s third-largest untapped shale gas resources.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the world’s top five fastest growing economies and is undergoing significant infrastructure and trade development reforms. It shares a 4,100 km border with India.
Bolivia
Asset-rich but relatively poor, Bolivia has the fastest GDP growth rate in Latin America.
Cuba
Cuba’s sanctions defiance has long made it a favorite of China and Russia when wanting to annoy the United States. It also has significant agreements with China and Russia, is a member of the BRI and has significant Caribbean and LatAm influence.
Ecuador
Ecuador is negotiating Free Trade Agreements with both China and the Eurasian Economic Union. It would make sense to substitute these with a looser BRICS arrangement.
Indonesia
One of Asia’s leading economies, Indonesia’s potential has again been raised to join BRICS. In July 2023, Jakarta accepted an invitation to participate in the 2023 BRICS summit.
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan’s economy is highly dependent on oil and related products. In addition to oil, its main export commodities include natural gas, ferrous metals, copper, aluminum, zinc and uranium.
Mongolia
Mongolia is both a problem and solution, while geographically attractive. It requires extensive investment in its energy sector; yet is resource-rich and a transit point between Russia, Kazakhstan and China. It is not a member of any trade bloc, with a looser BRICS arrangement better suited to maintaining its regional impartiality.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a mining play and the leading gold-producing country in Central America. It has a Free Trade Agreement with the ALBA bloc, and is an influential player in the Caribbean.
Nigeria
Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar has announced that the country intends to become a member of the BRICS group of nations within the next two years. Nigeria has a GDP of US$448 billion, a population of 213 million and a GDP per capita of US$2,500. It has the world’s 9th largest gas reserves and significant oil reserves.
Pakistan
Pakistan has filed an application to join the BRICS group of nations in 2024 and is counting on Russia’s assistance during the membership process, the country’s newly appointed Ambassador to Russia Muhammad Khalid Jamali has stated.
Senegal
Senegal is a medium capacity gold mining and energy player, with reserves in gold, oil, and gas. The energy industry is at a growth stage as reserves have only recently been found. The energy-hungry BRICS nations will be keen to secure its supplies.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka isn’t keen on opening up its markets yet has significant economic problems. China is interested in port and Indian Ocean access while Russian tourism investments are increasing. A BRICS agreement would be loose enough to satisfy all concerns, while India will want to keep an eye on it.
Sudan
Sudan’s top five export markets are 100% BRICS – China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and the UAE. Sudan also has regional clout. It is Africa’s third-largest country by area, and is a member of the League of Arab States (LAS). Should Sudan join the BRICS it would give the group complete control of the Red Sea supply routes.
Thailand
Thailand is one of ASEAN’s largest economies, via ASEAN it has additional Free Trade Agreements with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and India, and agreements with Chile, and Peru. Thailand is also a signatory to the RCEP FTA between ASEAN and Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Turkiye
Turkiye’s trade figures with the current and most of the upcoming BRICS members show significant growth. Getting access to BRICS NDB funding may also prove attractive for Ankara as talks are expected across a number of issues.
Uruguay
Uruguay has joined the BRICS New Development Bank – a sure sign that official BRICS membership is pending.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is one of Central Asia’s fastest growing economies, yet it is hampered by being double-landlocked. Membership of BRICS would give it market access to China, Europe, and the rest of Asia in a more protected manner.
Venezuela
Another outlier, but its energy reserves and political stance fit well with China and Russia’s needs.
Additional candidates are also likely to include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Peru, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Cameroon, DR Congo, Kenya and Tanzania among others.
Summary
At first glance this may appear a disparate and disjointed group with little in common. Yet this is part of the appeal. In the West, trade partner economies are typically viewed in terms of economic capability, and their immediate usefulness (or otherwise) to Western economies. Emerging economies that show promise are often ‘encouraged’ to embark on political and economic reforms to ‘bring them to international standards’. What has become apparent is that this tends to mean ‘Western benefits’ take precedence over these economies. That has included inadvisable World Bank loans, and the imposition of US dollar and Euro trade at the expense of their sovereign currencies.
In gathering together the ‘developing’ or ‘emerging’ economies, the BRICS have taken a bet on the future. While some potential members may fall into future difficulties created by regional conflicts, most will not. Absorbing these new members will take time – but could be completed by 2030.
Closer examination also reveals that many of the 20 listed above are significant economies, often amongst the leading players within their own respective trade blocs. These include the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), Latin America’s Mercosur, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and ASEAN, amongst others. Having BRICS members inserted into these regional blocs significantly enhances the BRICS own reach and influence within them. By comparison, the European Union appears strictly rigid in its approach. It resembles a closed market rather than an open one. In this way, the BRICS can be seen as an antidote to the previously over-regulated Western trade group systems, where trade negotiations are measured in decades and political conditions imposed in return for Western market access.
What is happening instead is far more revolutionary, and is leading to a rather more considered, and inclusive multi-lateral approach. The BRICS movement is developing more as a trade philosophy than a specific bloc – and will pave the way ahead in terms of global trade flows well into the coming decades.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the Chairman of Dezan Shira & Associates.
The growing divisions between Luis Arce and Evo Morales came to ahead in the party’s congress held this weekOctober 06, 2023 by Brasil de Fato
Evo Morales poses with supporters during the congress: he said that the current government is worse than that of the neoliberals – PABLO RIVERA / AFP
The split in Bolivia’s ruling political party has become official. President Luis Arce and vice-president David Choquehuanca are no longer part of the MAS (Movement towards Socialism) party, which ratified the decision, informally announced on the 24, to present former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) as its candidate in the 2025 elections.
The MAS held its tenth congress from October 3-4 in the town of Lauca Ñ, a coca growing region in the center of the country. On that occasion, the party decreed the “self-expulsion” of Arce and Choquehuanca, for not attending the meeting, and of 20 other deputies aligned with the Arce government.
On Tuesday, the day of the inauguration of the congress, Arce made a surprise appearance at a meeting of farmers in La Paz. He explained that he wasn’t going to Lauca Ñ because the invite had taken space away from various social organizations, such as the powerful Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Rurales, while the representation of the party apparatus had grown significantly.
Arce’s followers questioned the legitimacy of the congress before the Constitutional Court, which ordered its suspension just hours before it was due to end. Morales expressed concern on his social networks about an alleged police intervention underway, which did not take place. “Unfortunately, the government of Lucho and David, worse than the neoliberal governments, until the last moment wanted to postpone the congress,” said the former president in his speech.
“We continue to make national and international history. The MAS will recover the revolution to save the homeland again,” Morales said.
On X (formerly Twitter), Evo posted: “The unity, determination, conscience and dignity of the MAS members prevailed over the desperate acts that tried in vain to sabotage, even threaten our lives, and politically use some judges to make us fail. The strength of the people is unstoppable and invincible, sisters and brothers.”
The Constitutional Court’s decision could render the congress resolutions legally invalid. The MAS would not have complied with the requirement to renew its leadership required by electoral law, which would jeopardize its legal existence. A committee of Morales’ lawyers told the press that the Constitutional Court’s decision was “fraudulent” and would have no legal effect.
If the Constitutional Court’s decision prevails, the Electoral Court will have to give MAS time to organize a new congress and choose another leadership. Or annul the party, which could have unpredictable political consequences.
At the MAS congress, hundreds of leaders dressed in the party’s blue color, wearing T-shirts and caps with Morales’ image, proclaimed him the “undisputed leader.” At the same time, the farmers gathered with Arce called him an “academic”, a “scholar” and “South America’s greatest economic scientist.”
What is at stake is a contest to decide who will be the candidate of the popular and Indigenous sectors. According to Bolivia’s latest census, 40.6% of the population claim to be Indigenous. Morales was the first president to represent this section of the population. He came to power after a process of population impoverishment—between 1998 and 2002, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita fell by 20% and unemployment doubled—and led a process of income redistribution.
Morales left power after suffering a coup d’état in 2019. After the interim government of Jeanine Áñez, who is now in prison, Luis Arce, who had been Minister of Economy in the Morales government, was elected president in 2020.
This article was translated from a piece in Portuguese originally published in Brasil de Fato.
in the dynamic Ecuadorian political scenario, a figure has emerged that has captured the attention of many: Luisa González, the candidate of Revolución Ciudadana, the party of former president Rafael Correa.
Luisa González obtained 33.3% of the votes and will face businessman Daniel Noboa in the second round. Gonzalez held several positions during the presidency of Rafael Correa, whom she plans to appoint as advisor. She defines herself as “a revolutionary woman of peace”. Her closeness to the Catholic Church and her position on abortion.
After the failed presidency of Lenin Moreno –who governed between 2017 and 2021 mocking his past as a leader of Revolución Ciudadana, a force founded by Rafael Correa– and the chaotic government of banker Guillermo Lasso –who will end his term early–; a woman arrives as a favorite to the second electoral round for the first time in Ecuador’s history.
Luisa González, candidate of Revolución Ciudadana, obtained this Sunday 33.3% of the votes and will also seek to become the first female president of the country. “Ecuador requires peace, work, security, that we become free again”, she celebrated last night and called Ecuadorians to unite again.
Although until recently unknown to most, Gonzalez burst onto the political scene with the bold mission to “recover the homeland.”
“We call for the unity of all Ecuadorians: the private and public sector, all the forces of the country to build a vision of a country that will give us decent conditions for all”, said the presidential candidate.
Gonzalez, who a few weeks ago showed a voting intention of only 5%, emerged as the most voted candidate in a first electoral round crossed by violence with the murders of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the correista leader Pedro Briones. “A revolutionary woman of peace”, this is how the lawyer and candidate of Revolución Ciudadana, born in Quito on November 22, 1977, defined herself. The candidate has already announced that, if she reaches the Carondelet Palace -as the government house is known in Ecuador-, she will have former President Rafael Correa as advisor.
The political career of Luisa González
Born in Quito, she became interested in politics and public service at a very young age. During her career, Luisa has worked hard to improve the quality of life of Ecuadorians, especially those in vulnerable situations.
The favorite for the second round on October 15 is a lawyer with a master’s degree in International Economics and Development from the Complutense University of Madrid, and held several positions during Correa’s presidency, among them, the head of the Ministry of Labor. Until 2007, she was a member of the Social Christian Party (PSC), but when Correa became president, Luisa became one of the closest leaders to the then president.
In 2021 she won a seat as a legislator as a candidate of Union for Hope, the alliance that hegemonized the Citizen Revolution movement. That was her last public position to make the leap to the presidential candidacy, for which she was elected in the internal of correismo on June 10, after the former vice president Jorge Glas rejected the nomination. Glas was detained for five years for a cause that from the correismo denounce as part of lawfare that advanced on the representatives of Latin American progessivism of the beginning of the century, among them, the president of Brazil, Lula Da Silva, and the Argentine vice-president Cristina Kirchner.
“We are going to take the bull by the horns and we are going to face the causes that generate violence and delinquency, such as hunger, poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunities”, assured González that June 10 in her nomination ceremony in the town of Portoviejo, capital of Manabí, birthplace of the candidate and bastion of Correism.
Luisa González’s perspective on religion and abortion
Mother of two daughters, cycling fanatic, Gonzalez refused to wear a bulletproof vest during the campaign, after Villavicencio’s crime. “I have faith in God; he is the one who protects us,” she confided. Perhaps it is this Catholicism that also leads her to oppose abortion, an issue in which the candidate does not see contradictions even from a pro-gay space such as Revolución Ciudadana. “No one has said that being a feminist or progressive is to be in favor of abortion,” she considered.
“During her career, she has worked tirelessly to improve the living conditions of her community and encourage citizen participation in political decision-making,” the candidate is described in the official profile posted on the page of the dissolved National Assembly.
Luisa González has stood out for her focus on issues such as education, health and economic development. She has proposed innovative policies and programs to strengthen the education system, guarantee access to quality health care, and encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
In addition, Luisa González is known for her integrity and her ability to work as a team player. She has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills and the ability to build consensus for the benefit of Ecuadorian society. Her honesty and transparency are admirable qualities that make her a reliable candidate and close to the people.
JSC: Jamaicans in Solidarity with Cuba 