Revolucion Ciudadana's presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez before a televised presidential debate ahead of the Feb. 9 election, in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — A lawyer with limited political experience, Luisa González is vying for Ecuador’s presidency for a second time, but unlike the 15 other candidates on Sunday’s ballot, including incumbent Daniel Noboa, her quest has more to do with her anointer than herself.

The face and name of the leftist one-time lawmaker are on billboards, social media and television ads. Voters have no trouble distinguishing her from the only other female candidate even though they share last names. And yet, when Ecuadorians talk about “Luisa,” more often than not, her mentor former President Rafael Correa enters the conversation.

“The hard vote for Correa is safe, but the hard vote against Correa is very strong and President Noboa has figured out how to use it and capture it,” said Andrea Endara, coordinator of the political science program at Casa Grande University in the port city of Guayaquil.

Under Correa's shadow

Correa was among the leftist politicians who ruled across Latin America in the 2000s and whose populist policies were benefitted by a commodities boom as well as financial aid from China. He governed Ecuador from 2007 through 2017, grew increasingly authoritarian in the latter years of his presidency and was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2020 in a corruption scandal.

Now, the persisting divide he inspires among voters is likely to result in a repeat of the October 2023 runoff of a snap election, which González lost no Noboa. That vote triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result.

González, 47, was unknown to most voters until Correa’s party, the free-spending but socially conservative Citizen Revolution, picked her as its presidential candidate for a snap election in 2023. Up until then, her only experience in an elected position was her brief stint as a lawmaker, which she pursued after years in management positions at states agencies.

Last year, she became the president of Citizen Revolution. But much like during her first presidential race, her campaign this year has had to juggle how often and how far to distinguish her from Correa.

“Between the two great adversaries, the only candidate with the support of a political structure behind her is Luisa González,” said Franklin Ramirez, a political science research professor at the Latin American School of Social Sciences in Ecuador's capital, Quito. He explained that Citizen Revolution has several years of experience in government unlike Noboa's project, and crucially, has won elections since Correa left office.

“There is an organizational life beyond (Correa) that continues to produce cadres, and Luisa is part of that dynamic,” Ramirez said.

Promises to reduce crime

On the last day candidates were allowed to campaign, González promised thousands of cheering supporters gathered Thursday on a popular boardwalk in Guayaquil that she will put an end to the violent crime that has kept the country on edge for four years.

The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. Mexican, Colombian and Balkan cartels have set down roots in Ecuador and operate with assistance from local criminal gangs.

Under Noboa’s presidency, the homicide rate dropped from 8,237, or 46.18 per 100,000 people, in 2023 to 6,964, or 38.76 per 100,000 people, last year. Still, the rate remained far higher than the 1,188 homicides, or 6.85 per 100,000 people, in 2019.

González, guarded by military and security agents, told supporters she will “change the dark reality of the country,” where “no one feels safe.”

“We are going to exchange violence for peace,” she added, before blaming Noboa for not fulfilling his campaign promises in 2023, having increased taxes and raised the price of gasoline, and not preventing an electricity crisis that resulted in prolonged blackouts.

___

Associated Press writer Gabriela Molina contributed to this report from Quito, Ecuador.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025