After a year in office, Ecuador’s Lasso is accused of neoliberal policies and authoritarian rule

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Tuesday, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso will end his first year in office. 71.18% of respondents rated his government’s work as poor, focusing mainly on the economy and Covid vaccinations, but performing poorly in social and security areas.

Institutional instability, violence in prisons, unemployment, deterioration of the health, education, social security and road systems are some of the problems that Ecuadorians complain about and that the bankers’ government is to blame for, according to the polls.

The Click Report polling institute states in its latest report that 87.24% of Ecuadorians disapprove of the country’s security management, while 82 to 84% question the cost of living, job creation, public investment and the fight against corruption.

Vaccination to combat the Covid-19 pandemic is the highest goal of the Lasso government, which won the presidential election with 52.5% in its third consecutive attempt and took office on May 24, 2021.

It offers the country a million new jobs, an economy with free and prosperous citizens, free and quality health and education, a reduction in public spending, the fight against corruption, dialogue, and the reunification of the country.

But the offers have no starting point, and even more, the country’s administration is “not yet on track” because “Lasso lives in an immobile situation,” as an editorial in the local daily La Hora explains.

We have moved from counting the dead of the pandemic to counting the dead in prisons. The government has responded effectively to the former with the vaccination plan, and ineffectively to the latter.

Although the success of the vaccination campaign and the management of the pandemic were rated positively by 66%, leaving behind the harrowing scenes that took place in Guayaquil, for example, where the number of deaths from the virus rose beyond measure and took the government of his predecessor Lenín Moreno to task, the great Achilles’ heel was security and, in particular, the problem of prisons, where nearly 400 inmates were killed last year in clashes between drug gangs.

“We went from counting the deaths from the pandemic to counting the deaths in prisons. In the first case, the government has given an effective response with the vaccination plan; in the second case, only ineffectiveness and indifference,” says analyst Italo Sotomayor.

However, the government continues to focus on the macroeconomic figures and believes that this has been a year to “put the house in order.” “We are ready to reap the rewards and create even more opportunities,” says Lasso.

For Professor Hernán Reyes, “the country is in turmoil” and Lasso must be prepared for a very conflictual year with a growing social crisis due to his neoliberal policies “with an authoritarian character” and in which “the macroeconomy takes precedence over the sacrifice of the weakest.”