Some 13.45 million Ecuadorians are called to the polls to choose among eight presidential candidates to replace President Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved the Assembly and shortened his own term in office in mid-May amid a serious political crisis.
Sonnenholzner’s name flew over the electoral ballots in the 2021 elections that Lasso won, although he finally decided not to participate citing personal reasons. It was expected that he would take a step forward for the 2025 presidential election to benefit from the sympathies he was already reaping, but in an unexpected twist he decided to launch himself for the imminent electoral call that will only have 16 months of government. It is the term that remains to conclude the current mandate.
“These 16 months are just going to be sowing… We hope in the future, as a country project, to plant the seed so that it can be harvested,” Sonnenholzner said in dialogue with The Associated Press.
Ecuadorians have “terrible emergencies in terms of insecurity, economy, unemployment,” justified his decision by the candidate who was vice president with the government of Lenín Moreno -successor to leftist Rafael Correa but who immediately took an ideological turn- and whose political tendency is more marked by the needs of the country than by theoretical definitions.
Although indecision remains high among Ecuadorian voters, Sonnenholzner is in second place according to the main polls, behind Luisa González, candidate for president of the Revolución Ciudadana party, of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
He assures that the fight against insecurity and the action of organized crime that threatens the tranquility of Ecuadorians will be a transversal axis of his government, a proposal mentioned as a priority by all those aspiring to take the reins of a country whose rate of violent deaths is doubled last year and continues on an upward curve.
Aware that the crime wave has paralyzed economic activities of all kinds and has even forced the closure of small and medium-sized businesses due to extortion by criminal gangs, Sonnenholzner defends that a “viable proposal” and strong leadership are needed. “There is no time to lose, there is no way to improvise, there is no time for learning curves,” he declared in an interview.
To neutralize the onslaught of violence, it assumes that control of prisons is key. According to the presidential candidate who runs under the acronym of the Actuemos alliance and in partnership with a woman with an academic profile like Erika Paredes, the prisoners must be separated by their degree of danger and the police armed.
In line with the arguments of the outgoing government, the uniformed corps needs adequate equipment and guarantees that it will not suffer legal consequences for carrying out its function. Actions must also be carried out -and not just raised- to disarm organized crime.
Sonnenholzner assured that the prisons have become command centers for drug trafficking, extortion, crime and hit men mafias and criticized that the prisoners are now divided by gangs that, since their imprisonment, they have been directing and “generating chaos in the streets”. He concludes that “without control in the prisons, there will be no peace in the streets.”
The main concern of Ecuadorians is precisely insecurity, which skyrocketed as the number and visibility of murders increased daily, especially in the cities of Guayaquil and Durán. So far this year, around 3,400 people have been murdered, while in all of last year the figure reached 2,128 violent deaths, a figure that was already double that of 2021.
Violent deaths, kidnappings and extortion were marginal crimes, today “they are daily bread, so we must resume security with the strength of the State”, promotes the candidate.
Despite having a little less than a year and a half in office if he wins the presidency of Ecuador, Sonnenholzner is committed to strengthening the institutions so that the State has “the capacity to be sustainable, the capacity to solve the emergencies of the people and to attend to the problems “.
That includes exhaustive controls to avoid corruption and decisions such as reactivating the economy and encouraging economic growth through public investment in issues such as the reconstruction of state infrastructure, such as roads, schools and other works. The resources, he assures, will be managed before multilateral credit organizations.
Sonnenholzner is a 40-year-old businessman of German descent, linked to the productive sector and the media, who is running for the first time in presidential elections, although in 2018 he became the third vice president of Lenin Moreno (2017-2021). upon being appointed by the Legislature from a shortlist sent by the executive.
He defends as an example of what he can achieve during his administration, his participation to face the health crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when in Ecuador there was a lack of vaccines, medical supplies and professionals to meet the overwhelming hospital demand.
FUENTE: Associated Press
