Millionaire Banker and Former Coca Cola Director With Ties to Far-Right Wing
Opus Dei Catholic Sect Defeats Socialist Candidate in Ecuador
By Ron Ridenour - April 12, 2021 0 Covert Magazine
Guillermo Lasso in front of the podium (C) in Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 11,
2021.
Dirty Tricks in Race Pay Off
Millionaire conservative Guillermo Lasso, former banker and Coca Cola director,
won the run-off election over socialist candidate Andrés Arauz, 52.5% to 47.5%.
Arauz had led the pack of 16 presidential candidates during the first round, on
February 7th, with 32.7% of the vote over Lasso’s 19.74%. Arauz was Union of
Hope (UNES) candidate, a new party that former President Rafael Correa
(2007-17) and Arauz had started.
This was Lasso’s third time running on the Creating Opportunities (CREO)
presidential ticket. He came in second place against Correa in 2013 and again
against Lenin Moreno in 2017. During this election CREO combined with the
traditional conservative Social Christian Party (PSC).
“This is a historic day, a day in which all Ecuadorians have decided their
future and expressed with their vote the need for change…Democracy has
triumphed,” Lasso told supporters as the results came in. “Ecuadoreans, all of
you . . . have chosen a new path…a very different path from the one Ecuador has
followed for the past 14 years.”
Lasso will take the presidential reins on May 24th. The National Electoral
Council presented the results last night after 98 percent of the votes had been
officially counted. A few minutes earlier, Arauz publicly congratulated the
president-elect. He made no mention of any fraud in the voting process even
though polls had indicated he would win the race with a small margin.
Image
Arauz addresses supporters after conceding the election. [Source: twitter.com]
Lasso gained a majority, in part, because of promises he made to improve the
failed economy under Moreno’s administration by increasing foreign investments,
cutting taxes for businesses while raising the minimum wage, and a vow to
vaccinate nine million citizens during his first 100 days in office.
He also attracted some young people by wearing colorful clothing, red shoes,
and appealing to gays and lesbians by promising an enlightened policy towards
them. Among his supporters are self-declared anarcho-ecologists, including
supporters of an indigenous leader, Yaku Pérez, who is backed by the U.S.
government financially and politically. When Pérez did not get into the
run-off, coming in third place, he called upon his supporters to vote blank,
which 1.6 million did.
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Yaku Perez [Source: covertactionmagazine.com]
Investigative reporter and a follower of Latin American politics Ben Norton
tweeted: “I’m sure the anarcho-liberals who voted null in Ecuador’s election
(including CONAIE) as a protest against the socialist Correista movement are
proud now that their new president is going to be a far-right multimillionaire
neoliberal banker, Opus Dei member and U.S. puppet.”
For this writer, Lasso’s victory came as a surprise, a most disappointing one
for the peoples of Latin America, and for all who struggle for a world without
the greed, war violence, and pollution that capitalism breeds.
