Ecuador Elections 2021: Andrés Arauz closes his campaign in Guayaquil and evokes Correa’s Citizen Revolution

Andres Arauz, progressive candidate for the presidency of Ecuador, closed his campaign in the coastal area on Wednesday with a massive concentration in the north of Guayaquil, the most populated city in the country, where he evoked the Citizen Revolution led by the former president Rafael Correa.

Without ambiguity, he highlighted the Government of Correa (2007-2017), although he remarked that now there is a “generational renewal” that will allow, as he said, to improve the previous administration, correct errors and join all social sectors in a “new progressive bloc.”

“I am part of the Citizen Revolution”, proclaimed Arauz at the political rally, in which he said he was sure of the victory in the ballot on Sunday, when he will dispute the power of the conservative Guillermo Lasso.

The young candidate, 36, insisted that “it is time for generational renewal” and that this has also been understood by Correa, who has resided in Belgium since his term ended in 2017.

Arauz He considered it imperative to “recover the homeland” from the government of Lenín Moreno, the current president who was Correa’s co-religionist and who, after succeeding him, became his most staunch political rival.

He recalled that the participation of Correísmo in the current electoral process was even about to be prevented, which, finally, could nominate him under the Union for Hope (UNES) coalition.

With that formula, the Citizen revolution it was able “to resurface after repression, persecution, banning, incessant blackmail, threats, everything they did to prevent our electoral participation,” he insisted.

Arauz He is convinced of having the support of the majority of voters, although today he called on the militants of his political formation to “take care” of each of the votes that are obtained next Sunday.

A drone with a poster with the images of former President Rafael Correa, presidential candidate Andrés Arauz and his running mate Carlos Rabascall, returns during the closing of the campaign in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 7, 2021. (Photo by RODRIGO BUENDIA / AFP). (RODRIGO BUENDIA /)

“History will speak again” and this “progressive project” will continue, at a time when the Ecuadorian people “are suffering, they are in pain, they are outraged” by “a situation as tough as the pandemic,” said the candidate.

A situation for which he blamed Moreno, who has been criticized for the slowness and problems in the vaccination process, which included the appearance of a list of characters who received the doses with privilege and chosen from the executive spheres.

Arauz also recalled that Guayaquil, in the first months of last year, was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, in the face of an alleged lack of adequate response from the Moreno government.

While people were outraged by the appearance of deaths in the streets and the proliferation of cardboard coffins, the Government “was prepaying 2,000 million dollars” to bondholders for the country’s foreign debt, Arauz lamented in his effusive speech .

In addition, he said that the increase in unemployment and the precariousness of the population’s living standards will have an impact on Sunday’s elections, since he believed that the majority of Ecuadorians will speak out to “regain their dignity.”

Convinced that he will also win in Guayaquil, considered the bastion of the Ecuadorian right, he pointed out that, as in the first round of the elections, Guayaquil residents have “the duty to defeat the oligarchy in their own stronghold.”