RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador concludes this election year 2021 with several protagonists, starting with the president, Guillermo Lasso, his Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, and continued by three Olympic gold medalists, the weightlifter Neisi Dajomes, cyclist Richard Carapaz and Paralympian Poleth Méndes.
GUILLERMO LASSO
In his third attempt, this businessman and former banker managed to reach the Presidency at the age of 65 (today he is 66 years old) after winning in the second round against the candidate from Correista Andrés Arauz in April, giving a turn to Ecuadorian politics which had not seen a right-wing government in almost two decades.
He has fulfilled his central campaign promise of vaccinating nine million citizens in 100 days of Government, increasing the basic salary to 425 dollars and lowering the Tax on Foreign Exchange Outflows, reforming the Communication Law, the Higher Education Law, and promoting tax reform. For the time being, he also managed to weather the scandal due to his appearance in the Pandora Papers.
LEONIDAS IZA
After starring in the anti-government social protests of October 2019, Iza, 39, was elected in June president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and since then has led a frontal opposition to Lasso’s Executive, to which he claims the freezing of the price of fuel at a reduced price.
The indigenous leader, who has led dialogues with the Ecuadorian Government, on the other hand, called for demonstrations in October and new mobilizations for January 2022 because of what he considers a lack of agreement and has deepened the division with the plurinational movement Pachakutik, whose leaders he accuses of being fractious.
YAKU PEREZ
The presidential candidate of the indigenous movement Pachakutik challenged the traditional struggle of forces between the right-wing and the Correísmo in Ecuador, with an environmentalist proposal that won many followers, especially after the alleged fraud in the first round and being left out of the ballot by a small margin.
Fifty-two years old and a doctor in Jurisprudence, he was not only the surprise of the elections, but he also set a new agenda in Ecuadorian politics by calling for a null protest vote, which reached a historical record of 16.33%, more than 1.7 million voters in the runoff.
XIMENA GARZÓN
Doctor in Medicine from the Central University of Ecuador and with a Ph.D. in Public Health and a post-doctorate in Epidemiology, Garzón has become one of the visible faces of the Executive in the management of Lasso’s most ambitious and successful plan: the 9/100 vaccination against covid-19.
Supported by the business sector, this campaign allowed the country to leave behind a stumbling vaccination and, splashed by corruption scandals, place Ecuador among the countries with the highest rate of vaccinated children from 5 years of age.
NEMONTE NENQUIMO
Considered among the 100 most involved Latin American figures in climate action this 2021, and after being awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2020, known as the Nobel Prize for the environment, Nemonte Nenquimo has continued her relentless defense of nature this year by leading numerous protest actions against the extractive policies of the Ecuadorian Government.
Among the latest campaigns in which the leader of the Waorani indigenous nationality of the Amazon has participated is an unconstitutionality lawsuit against a presidential decree that promotes the doubling of oil production in Ecuador to one million barrels.
JORGE YUNDA
The ex-mayor of Quito made headlines by starring in a tug-of-war with the current councilor Santiago Guarderas after being charged in a corruption case that led to his removal from office after several months of political and legal uncertainty in which the Municipality of the capital of Ecuador was without direction.
Yunda served from May 2019 until last September, although partially since June, due to precautionary measures weighing on him and his frequent court appearances for a case of alleged irregularities in the acquisition of anti-covid-19 tests by the City Council in 2020.
TANNYA VARELA
In March, the Government of Lenín Moreno appointed Tannya Varela, who served as chief of staff, commander general of the Ecuadorian Police, becoming the first woman in the history of the Andean country to hold that position.
In May, the new president, Guillermo Lasso, ratified Varela as head of an institution with more than 50,000 members. Her main challenges include reducing the level of crime in the country, the prison crisis, and drug trafficking.
RICHARD CARAPAZ
Carapaz, 28, became on July 24 the first Ecuadorian cyclist to win an Olympic gold medal and the second athlete in Ecuadorian history to make the podium at the Olympic Games.
He did so after winning the Tour of Switzerland, finishing third in the Tour de France, and participating in the Tour of Spain, which earned him being named by the Government as Ecuador’s traveling sports ambassador in recognition of a career that has made him the most recognized Ecuadorian athlete in the world in the last 25 years.
NEISI DAJOMES
Neisi Dajomes was proclaimed Olympic champion in weightlifting in Tokyo on August 1, changing the history of her country at the age of 23 by becoming the first woman from Ecuador to reach the podium at the Olympic Games.
The Ecuadorian weightlifter won gold in lifting 76 kg with 263 kg, 118 kg in snatch, and 145 kg in a rebound, which put her directly on the Olympic podium.
POLETH MÉNDES
In August, Ecuador won medals for the first time in the Paralympic Games, including the gold medal won by Poleth Méndes in the shot put, class F20.
Her sister Anaís Méndez won the bronze medal in the shot put, while another Ecuadorian Paralympic athlete, Kiara Rodríguez, won another bronze in the long jump.
With information from EFE
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