A few months before the local elections, the electoral authority decided to ban two opposition parties, adding to the suspension of Ecuador’s largest opposition party. Several critics claim that this is part of a series of decisions aimed at benefiting Daniel Noboa’s right-wing government.

The decision comes amid one of the most significant diplomatic and tariff disputes the two countries have ever had.

The Noboa regime embodies the logic of elites whose survival depends not on the country’s development but on sustaining imperial domination

The Ecuadorian president accused Petro’s government of failing to fight against drug trafficking and decided to double tariffs on Colombian products. Both governments have decided to recall their ambassadors as a protest measure.

A recent report in The New York Times (NYT) questions a US-backed military operation in Ecuador, through which the US deployed the USS Nimitz in Ecuadorian waters. Noboa, for his part, has signed a controversial trade agreement with Washington, and this appears to have cost him the support of several business leaders.

The Colombian president reported that bombings have taken place from Ecuadorian territory. Ecuadorian authorities deny that any shots were fired toward Colombia. The conflict has developed in a relationship between the two countries that, while generally friendly, has seen its share of critical episodes.

The Noboa administration advanced a decree which mandated an increase of hours in the workday. It was resoundingly rejected on the streets, with many committing to further action.

En un país ya golpeado por la violencia y la pobreza, Noboa gobierna para el capital, buscando destruir el sector público y reducir el Estado a su mínima expresión, sometiéndose a los dictados estadounidenses a través de la militarización y la represión política.

In a country already battered by violent crime, poverty, Noboa governs for capital, seeking to destroy the public sector and reduce the state to its bare minimum, submitting to US dictates through militarization and political repression.

The Noboa administration claims that these are joint military operations against “drug trafficking and illegal mining.”

The attackers, shouting xenophobic insults, beat the occupants of the center, who were praying during Ramadan, with sticks, stones, and tear gas.

Aquiles Álvarez, mayor of Ecuador’s largest city, was arrested by the police. The prosecutor’s office requested preventive detention. Álvarez’s supporters denounce political persecution amid a scandal in the judiciary.