On July 31, nearly 50 social organizations and political parties across the center to left spectrum met in Quito for the Unity Convention, in order to reach minimum agreements for the upcoming 2025 presidential elections, although not without significant division.
From Machala, the President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, did not delay in expressing his opinion on the aforementioned assembly. In this regard, he said, “while we [the government] are here inaugurating a construction project that generates employment, commerce, etc., there is a group of people… trying to hinder progress, trying to break our patience.”
Among the leaders who addressed the meeting were Leonidas Iza (President of Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, CONAIE, and a leader of the massive demonstrations of 2019 and 2022), Guillermo Churuchumbi (General Coordinator of Pachakutik, the political party that brings together various Indigenous organizations), Jimmy Jairala (President of the Democratic Center Movement, MCD), Luisa González and Andrés Arauz (former presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively, of the Correista party Citizen Revolution, RC), Natasha Rojas (leader of Popular Unity, UP), among many others.
The participants said that joint resistance must be carried out to face the various crises the country is going through, such as the economic crisis (according to the Central Bank of Ecuador, the country is in a stage of recession), the security crisis (Ecuador is going through the greatest stage of insecurity in its history), and the political situation, among others. It was affirmed that the groups gathered should make every effort to defend the rights of workers and social rights in the face of the neoliberal project that the right-wing parties of Ecuador are seeking to implement.
Likewise, the leaders of the parties and social movements have evaluated the current situation in Ecuador. Jimmy Jairala (MCD) stated that the economic crisis is critical and threatens the existence of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute. Leonidas Iza (CONAIE) assured that the current government is using the justice system to persecute political leaders it finds uncomfortable. Luisa González (RC) spoke about the importance of generating new jobs and the need to industrialize the country.
Like Jairala and Iza, González invited the unity of the different political groups: in addition, the former presidential candidate of Correism insisted on the reconciliation between the different political parties of the center and left. González says this is related to the controversial divisions that occurred during the era of Correism among the different parties and movements close to the left.
A complicated alliance
Natasha Rojas affirmed that, given the confrontation that her political group experienced with the government of Rafael Correa, it would be almost impossible for the Popular Unity party to present a single list with Correism, although she did not rule out an alliance with other leftist groups. “We are committed to the unity of the people, but not with Correism, which is co-responsible for the crisis that the country is experiencing,” said Rojas.
This is probably the most problematic issue of a possible political alliance. Indeed, almost all political leaders affirmed that this meeting does not imply an agreement to form a single list for the next national elections. A possible unity would have to face a history of political and electoral struggles that marked the memory of left-wing activists. In addition, the differences are not only political but also tactical.
For example, Luisa González (RC) said that the alliance against Noboa’s government should not only be between center-left and left-wing groups, but also with certain right-wing parties. Former President Rafael Correa agrees with these statements, and affirmed in his X account that some people from right-wing groups should be included in a possible political alliance, “To participate with anyone [only] because they are leftists, is a serious mistake. There are healthy people there, but also others [unethical], accomplices of the destruction of the Homeland and who see politics as a business, not as a mission. Why not make a call to all the honest and patriotic sectors, whether left or right?” said the former president.
Despite Correa’s comments against Leonidas Iza (CONAIE) and other leftist leaders, the president of CONAIE said that it is necessary to insist on the possibility of a broad unity of the leftist sectors of the country, which should abandon a dualistic vision of Ecuadorian politics (correism vs. anticorreism) and begin to think of a policy that wants to improve the condition of workers and the most vulnerable groups of the country. “We, those of us who are going to overcome [that vision that deceitfully divides politics as if there were only] correísmo and anticorreísmo, understand that there is only one path: the one that solves the problems of the popular sectors of this country… That is why we invite all sectors to take a clear position.”
Iza insisted that unity among the various political groups cannot be reduced only to an electoral alliance, but rather that it must be constituted as a way of confronting neoliberal policies. “We do not have a purely electoral pretension, but also in the face of the general political situation of the country, for example, the defense of national sovereignty, of national production, of public institutions.”
However, the tactical differences are clear and project a complicated future for the incipient alliance. While Luisa González (RC) affirmed in an interview that she does not rule out the possibility of presenting a businessman as candidate for the presidency or vice-presidency of the Citizen Revolution (she hinted at the name of multimillionaire Michel Deller), Iza (CONAIE) and Rojas (UP) insisted that the alliance should be between the popular social classes and between an ideologically defined left.
For the time being, González clarified that in the aforementioned assembly a “non-aggression pact” was agreed upon among the signatory parties and movements, as well as the creation of two commissions to evaluate a possible government plan and the evaluation of the confirmation of a unified candidacy.
