Ecuadoreans back Noboa in referendum
April 22, 2024
Ecuadoreans backed the government’s militarized crackdown on organized crime, in a referendum yesterday widely seen as a political test for President Daniel Noboa. The nine security related measures in yesterday’s referendum passed with over 60%, and include maintaining military deployment in internal security, tougher sentencing for kidnapping and drug trafficking, and permitting the military to use confiscated weapons. (Primicias, Reuters)
Posting on Instagram after the tally was announced, the president said: “We have defended the country, now we have more tools to fight against crime and return peace to Ecuadorean families.” (Al Jazeera)
The overall result is a strong mandate for Noboa, who won a truncated presidential term last year, and faces elections in February 2025. Voters backed Noboa’s crackdown on crime and the referendum suggests they would support an argument that the government’s approach against organized crime requires more time the International Crisis Group’s Glaeldys González told the New York Times.
Even as voting was taking place yesterday, a prison warden was gunned down while having lunch with his family — a sign of ongoing violence in the country. Two mayors were killed last week. (AFP)
However, two referendum measures related to economic issues — loosening of labor regulations and accepting international arbitration — were rejected by over 60%, a sign of the Noboa administration’s weakness on this front.
Leonidas Iza, president of Conaie, Ecuador’s main indigenous federation, said the “backsliding of labour rights could not be allowed” and warned labour exploitation could be normalized, reports the Guardian.
“Todo el mundo con Edmundo”
The ten parties of Venezuela’s Plataforma Unitaria Democrática opposition coalition decided to back a relatively unknown presidential candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
González was originally considered a placeholder, but the coalition determined to back him after internal negotiations — another opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales, said he would support González and withdraw his candidacy.
Government officials provisionally permitted González to register for the presidential race after banning opposition leader María Corina Machado and her handpicked replacement, last month. Friday was the deadline to substitute party candidates on the ballot — candidates can be switched until ten days before the vote, but the change will not be reflected on the ballot, hindering their appeal to voters.
There are concerns that the Maduro government could attempt to ultimately block González, ahead of the July 28 vote. Experts point to a last minute extension for candidate substitution, and electronic system complications that prevented two opposition parties from formally backing González’s candidadacy.
(Efecto Cocuyo, Efecto Cocuyo, Reuters, Associated Press, EFE)
Haiti
Armed gangs have renewed attacks on parts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, yesterday. Two voice recordings circulated on social media which users attributed to gang leader Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier apparently ordering his soldiers to burn houses down in Lower Delmas, an impoverished part of the capital where he grew up, reports Reuters.
“Life in Port-au-Prince has become a game of survival, pushing Haitians to new limits as they scramble to stay safe and alive while gangs overwhelm the police and the government remains largely absent,” reports the Associated Press. “Some are installing metal barricades. Others press hard on the gas while driving near gang-controlled areas. The few who can afford it stockpile water, food, money and medication, supplies of which have dwindled since the main international airport closed in early March. The country’s biggest seaport is largely paralyzed by marauding gangs.”
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in gang violence in Haiti from January through March, up 53% from the last three months of 2023, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said on Friday. (Voice of America)
Colombia
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters took to Colombia’s streets yesterday — most in Medellín, but about 80,000 in Bogotá, reports El País. Protests have been a constant since President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, but have gained momentum lately in light of a government proposal to rewrite the constitution in response to a stalemated social reform agenda, reports the Associated Press.
The march comes after a Senate committee earlier this month rejected a proposed health reform aimed at stripping power from insurers and expanding access to healthcare, reports Reuters.
Brazil
Thousands of Brazilians protested yesterday in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday in Rio de Janeiro — they also hailed the new hero of the far-right, Elon Musk, who has resisted a Supreme Court investigation into the online dissemination of fake news, reports the Guardian. Musk "is a man who really preserves freedom for all of us," Bolsonaro told supporters. (AFP)
Regional
A historic hearing on climate change by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is part of a growing international trend by courts around the world that are increasingly making the link between climate justice and human rights, reports the Guardian. The inquiry was instigated by Colombia and Chile, which together asked the court to set out what legal responsibilities states have to tackle climate change and to stop it breaching people’s human rights.
Carbon credits for avoided deforestation “might actually be accelerating the climate crisis, as consumers, instead of curbing their emissions, buy credits that do not deliver on their green promises,” reports the Washington Post.
Costa Rica
Environmental defenders are concerned that Costa Rica’s Chaves administration is shifting the country’s focus from sustainability to economic growth, including going back to producing fossil fuels, reports the Guardian.
Mexico
Mexico’s next government should “pursue more comprehensive strategies to promote development in its southern neighbors, while improving the management of migration from the Northern Triangle,” argues Brenda Estefan in Americas Quarterly.
Masked men stopped a vehicle carrying Mexican presidential frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum while she was traveling between campaign stops yesterday to ask that she address the violence in the southern state of Chiapas if she wins the June election. Sheinbaum remained in the front passenger seat of the vehicle listening calmly with her window down and shook hands with one of the masked interlocutors before moving on, reports the Associated Press.
Sheinbaum is on track to become Mexico’s first female president. She would also be its first leader with a Jewish background in a country that’s home to nearly 100 million Catholics, reports the Associated Press.
Abortion in case of rape has long been legal in Mexico — but the case of a 13-year-old forced to wait for an abortion following repeated violations evinces the chasm between theory and practise, reports the Associated Press.
Mexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season — Guardian
Argentina
Argentine President Javier Milei praised people who engage in capital flight as heroes, speaking at a forum for business leaders on Friday. (Corta)
More Ecuador
To stop plastic reaching the ocean, a start-up in Ecuador is using a conveyor belt to skim off and remove plastic from rivers – and working to stop polluters adding plastic to rivers in the first place — BBC