It was not the debate of those present, the absences weighed too heavily. The first, that of Fernando Villavicencio, the anti-corruption journalist murdered last week by hitmen, whose dialectical expertise gave away the best moments in two years of the last National Assembly, reviled by the country. And the second, that of Christian Zurita, his friend, also an investigative journalist, pushed by circumstances to assume the candidacy of the Construye Movement, in tandem with the environmentalist Andrea González.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) has not yet accepted the new electoral ticket, so Zurita could not participate in the televised duel, although he made an appearance, with the same style as his “brother”, as he defined Villavicencio. “After watching the presidential debate, I came to the conclusion that the CNE is continuing the task of the hit men: silencing Fernando Villavicencio,” shot Zurita, who is starting the final sprint strong that will lead to the opening of the polls next Sunday. The organizers left an empty place on the stage.
“It is unfair that Villavicencio has not been represented in the debate. This crime is not going to go unpunished. We have to know every last detail of what happened with him, with Agustín Intriago (popular mayor of Manta, assassinated in July) , Rider Sánchez (candidates for assembly member also assassinated) and the more than 4,000 victims of violent deaths so far this year,” said Otto Sonnenholzner, former vice president of Lenín Moreno and who disputed the same ideological space as the anti-corruption journalist.
“Here we are missing the candidate who was assassinated because he bravely faced corruption. That being brave is not so expensive, that being a coward is not worth it,” said Xavier Hervás, one of the great surprises of the 2021 elections. which still does not seem to have started in the current ones, which will elect the president and the parliamentarians who will finish the current legislature within two years.
Before the attack on Thursday, Sonnenholzner ranked second in the polls, in a tough fight with the indigenous candidate, Yaku Pérez, and Villavicencio himself. Behind, the main defender of the heavy hand, the populist Jan Topic. And below the rest, headed by Hervás.
And that is precisely one of the main conclusions of a bland debate, only encouraged by direct confrontations between the standard-bearers, without much depth, on which the assassination of Villavicencio weighed so heavily. The impact is of such magnitude that the range of possibilities to accompany Luisa González, the Citizen Revolution candidate who leads all the polls, has been opened up to the maximum, but she does not seem to have enough support to win in the first round. “We are the only capable and experienced ones,” González summed up after the debate, hooked on the motto the resurgence of the homeland.
The candidate, ultra correísta and fervent anti-abortion militant, served as a transmission chain for her political boss, Rafael Correa, who harangued her chosen one through social networks, her usual pulpit. In the pro-government candidacy, everything goes through the former president, whose plan is to win the elections, return to his country through the front door despite being sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption (Villavicencio was one of the journalists who unraveled the corruption of the citizen revolution) to present himself as a candidate in the 2025 presidential elections.
González contributed little more to a debate where security and the advance of drug trafficking once again marked the political agenda, the seven participants knowing that their fate depends on their responses to the unprecedented wave of violence that frightens Ecuadorians. Daniel Noboa symbolized the situation by wearing a bulletproof vest during the debate, the same one that the murdered Villavicencio refused to wear.
“Police, take care of the citizens, I’ll take care of you,” insisted Sonnenholzner. “The candidacies of the past, responsible for poverty, insecurity and organized crime, once again sell false promises. Money is enough when it is not stolen,” warned Pérez.
“We are going to retake control of the 36 prisons in the country, to control our borders, we will equip our forces of Order and we will apply technology and intelligence,” summarized Topic, a former legionnaire and mercenary in the wars in Syria and Ukraine. “Sniper,” González called him.
