Normally the trend for the elections held in Ecuador is defined by a very low participation of the diaspora of that country qualified to vote in New York. But now, on the eve of a trial impacted by a devastating crisis caused by drug-criminal violence, A bigger question arises: Will more Ecuadorian immigrants be encouraged to vote or, on the contrary, will they Will abstention go deeper, which on average surrounds more than 85%, in the last three consultations?
In the last few hours, in the streets of Corona and Jackson Heights, two of the leading neighborhoods for Ecuadorian immigration in the country, hardly the tragedy that the murder of Fernando Villavicencio meant, one of the eight candidates who aspire to the presidency of the South American country, it is not in the mouth and in the heart, of one of the Hispanic communities with the greatest presence in the Big Apple.
“I honestly did not intend to vote for him, or for anyone. I don’t like any of them! Now, I don’t know! This came to make it clear to us that our country is painfully dominated by the mafias. Can nobody denounce the bandits, because they kill them?expressed the immigrant José Luis Durazno, 65 years old, who warns that he is not interested in the politics of his country.
“I will die in this country waiting for a change. You can’t even go visiting anymore. It’s sad. Very sad, ”she sentenced.
He murder of Villavicencio, on Wednesdaywas the latest bloody news on how criminal gangs and hit men act in the South American nation, in a subplot that most are convinced is the product of infiltration by the international drug trafficking in institutional political establishments.
This wave of bloody violence began in 2020 with the murder of Patricio Mendoza, a candidate for the legislative elections. But everything worsened in the last months of this year: In May they attacked Luis Chonillo, the mayor of Durán, and a couple of weeks ago hitmen killed Agustín Intriago, the mayor of Manta.
None of these bloody incidents is foreign to an immigrant community that perceives that their country is being consumed by the cliff of violence. That in many cases they even fear returning on vacation. They are afraid for their relatives who live there. They do not see a way out in an electoral process.
Fear, hopelessness…
The interpretation of many, from a distance, is that the country has already entered a spiral of fear and hopelessness, because it is already clear that the political leader who is looming who is going to face the mafias or is going to try a change, you risk being physically removed. Thus, the recurring comment is summarized, which can be heard in a high tone, in any corner of the New York neighborhoods where the Ecuadorian feeling has a presence.
In this scenario, the Ecuadorian immigrants María Teresa Mayté and Dayana González They were looking for information this Friday on how to participate in the early presidential and legislative elections, scheduled in the Andean nation, for next August 20.
New for foreign voters is the telematic voting. That is, there will be no electoral precincts, rather, each registered voter will exercise their vote online.
“I don’t have the slightest hope that voting will change things. And I know that sadly, most of my countrymen, who had to leave the country to seek safety and better opportunities, think like me. But even so I approached to see how it is voted”, commented Maria Teresa.
For her part, Dayana González says that in recent days, she has not stopped remembering the “man they killed”, alluding to Villavicenciobecause in his opinion it is a new sign so that the world knows and his countrymen from the “middle of the world” remember the terrible situation that their country is experiencing.
“Thousands of people every day continue to risk their lives, coming here to this country, to seek a better life. And the politicians there don’t care. One vote is not going to change things. All of them are finally thinking about getting rich. But I still want to know what the process is like. And see, even at the last minute, if there is any worthwhile option in that disaster. I would have liked to vote for Villavicencio ”, she explained.
The telematic vote
Telematic voting is one of the challenges of this new electoral appointment, where to date there are 40,894 Ecuadorians registered to vote in New York.
What in theory is a technological novelty, which brings more people closer to voting quickly. For others, it raises many doubts.
In this sense, community leader Walter Sinche, founder of the International Ecuadorian Alliance, points out that it is an enigma to know how the voters’ response will be, given all the violent incidents that precede this process. Although personally he interprets, without having access to any formal survey, that “how things are going”, apathy could ultimately be the “big winner” for your eligible voters.
“Digital voting arouses a lot of confusion. Unfortunately, many Ecuadorians are convinced that they vote, although in reality they do not choose.Who counts those digital votes? If before with electoral witnesses and manual votes, the people did not have confidence, imagine now?”, reacted the activist, who still bets that the democratic system can have a breath.
Similarly, the Ecuadorian journalist Virginia Burgos, based in Queens, projects that the voters of his country will go to the polls with “anger and fear” However, he considers that it is not at all clear how this latest tragedy will be processed.where a group of hitmen ended up shooting one of the electoral options.
On the contrary, Burgos doubts that immigrants who are registered to vote in several countries have the same intention with the confusion generated by telematic voting.
“We are a week away from the elections. And I think we’ve had very little information. It seems to me that our community is so outraged, that they still don’t know How to react to the fact that in our country people are murdered in this way”he commented.
Burgos believes that with a little more “maturity”, Fernando Villavicencio’s funeral would have become in an impulse for a change of political course that leads the country to peace.
At this crossroads, New York will be one of the most important electoral blocs of the Ecuadorian diaspora abroad, which will have the option of participating in these early elections. A consultation that is also surrounded by a great political crisis.
In the last general elections in Ecuador, whose first round was in February 2021, the 80.47% of those registered to go to the polls in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticutrefrained from going to the polls.
The constitutional mandate of the current president Guillermo Lasso, elected in that process, should have ended in 2025, but last May the president decreed the dissolution of the National Assembly and requested the calling of new elections, a mechanism known as “cross-death”. In the middle of a trial that he faces for embezzlement of public funds.
No pre-election environment
In neighborhoods of Corona–Jackson Heights–Elmursht, an important axis for the Ecuadorian community in New York, on previous election days, political propaganda, pamphlets on the corners and some pre-election merriment was a constant. On this occasion, one week before the electoral appointment, beyond the comments and voices of concern about the political direction take the country the electoral campaign is almost non-existent.
“We are in mourning. We lost faith in the whole world. They all let us down. That’s why they don’t even show up here. Those of yesterday and today what they have done is steal,” indicated a fruit vendor at the corner of 95th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
Just the faces of the formula Otto Sonnenholzner and Ericka Paredes, one of the many options on the ballot, is imposed in a huge banner if you walk blocks and blocks of the ‘Roosevelt’.
There is time for telematic registration
The delegate of National Electoral Council of Ecuador of the circuit United States and Canada, javier david flores told El Diario that one week after the consultation in which 15 National Assembly Members and 2 Foreign Assembly Members by constituency will be chosen, who are already duly registered and registered, they have time to verify their data to participate in this process digitally.
“We are mobilizing in various parts of the city to support our citizens in registering the telematic vote. Only the identity card, passport or consular identification. It does not matter that these documents are expired, to verify their data,” Flores said at an information point installed in the Ecuadorian Civic Center located at 96-09 Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.
This week this information point will be working Monday Wednesday and Friday This week.
In addition, José Sandoval, consul of Ecuador in New Yorkreported that his compatriots continue to have several ways to clarify all their doubts, during the days that are to come, about their participation in this process: “In recent weeks we have opened new expanded information points, even out of town.
The data:
Ecuadorians residing in the tri-state zone have the option to consult: www.voto-telematico.cne.gob.ec to check the ways to participate in this process.
Abstention as a trend:
- 8,000 voters approximately, of the more than 40 thousand citizens of the Andean country qualified to vote in NY, they went to the polls in the first round of the 2021 general election.
- 410,000 Ecuadorians they are authorized to vote in 43 countries.
- 9.75% of the total number of Ecuadorians registered to vote abroad live in New York.
