RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Vaccination against Covid-19 and institutional cordiality marked the beginning of the Government transition process between the outgoing President of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, and the newly-elected Guillermo Lasso.
Both held their first official meeting of the handover process at the Carondelet presidential palace in Quito, parallel to another of their respective transition teams and the vice president, María Alejandra Muñoz, with the vice president-elect, Alfredo Borrero.
“Be assured, Mr. President-elect, that the Government will deliver all the complete and transparent information, to such an extent that the next government has from the beginning the best elements to be able to move forward in such a hard task as governing,” said Moreno at the opening of the meeting.
THE TRANSITION OF GOVERNMENT BEGINS
For his part, Lasso responded that “without a doubt, we are beginning to take on the first challenge and that is the government in transition,” at the same time, he thanked the president for the creation “of a commission dedicated to the transfer of information and data.”
The mentioned commission developed its work in coordination with the UN Development Program (UNDP) and includes documentation from different ministries, public companies, and other government agencies, and gathers 131 priority initiatives of the outgoing Executive, as well as 65 norms in production, according to the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency.
Moreno acknowledged in his meeting with Lasso that he is not left with an ideal economic situation and that “it will start being difficult.”
“With respect to whether the table is served, no, it is not served, Mr. President. However, we have started a process of vaccination, we have deeply taken care of all the economic resources, we have renegotiated the debt,” he said.
After winning the presidential runoff against Andrés Arauz on April 11, Lasso will take office on May 24, becoming the first conservative president in two decades in the Andean country.
The outgoing Executive, which this Monday offered a gala welcome to the incoming president, resolved to stop all hiring processes until the inauguration. At the ceremony, Lasso was received by a colorful guard of honor of the Granaderos de Tarqui, the presidential escort.
OBJECTIVE: TO PROMOTE VACCINES
The president-elect reiterated that one of the central points of his administration would be the vaccination against Covid-19, defending that “there is a concern and what the Ecuadorian family wants is to be vaccinated under a wide, equitable and egalitarian process,” alluding to the irregularities occurred in the last months as VIP lists.
After the first contact, the transition teams will hold on Tuesday their first meetings of the different bilateral commissions “to take advantage of the methodology approved by the UNDP,” informed the head of Lasso’s team, Juan Carlos Holguín.
He emphasized that the vice-president-elect, Borrero, is leading the efforts together with the president-elect, who maintains contacts with “friendly presidents to achieve the greatest number of vaccines in the short term in Ecuador.”
According to what Moreno reported on his social networks on Monday, out of a country with more than 17 million inhabitants and a program that began in January, Ecuador has administered more than half a million doses.
Ecuador reports more than 358,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of 2020, as well as more than 17,600 deaths confirmed and probable due to the disease.
“The first and most important point is vaccination and health, we know that we are in a hard moment of the pandemic and that things have been getting complicated,” expressed Jorge Wated, head of Moreno’s transition team, who revealed that the “complete vaccination plan is being discussed” by both parties.
Lasso has reiterated his campaign pledge to vaccinate 9 million people in his first 100 days of Government, although this will depend on access to vaccines in the market.
INSTITUTIONAL CORDIALITY
The meetings took place in an atmosphere of cordiality and openness on both sides, which the interlocutors highlighted.
Ecuador had not had a real change of government since 2007, when Rafael Correa came to power for the first time. In 2017 Moreno was elected as a Correa supporter, but he later distanced himself from his predecessor, although many of his ministers were veterans of the prior regime.