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A vote for safety in Latin America

By forcing a run-off presidential election, citizens in Ecuador urge their leaders to quell violence by strengthening democratic principles and individual rights.

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A voter in Quito, Ecuador, stamps her fingerprint on the voter list during presidential elections, Feb. 9
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

Faced with the highest rates of violent crime in the world, leaders in Latin America have turned to increasingly harsh tactics in recent years to rein in drug cartels and gangs. For a while, their people went along. Declining homicide rates have meant children can play in public parks again.

But on Sunday, when voters in Ecuador forced a runoff between the two top presidential contenders, they effectively hit pause on the region’s embrace of hard-line approaches to law and order. Polls show that most support emergency measures to make streets safer, but many reject what they see as attempts by politicians to manipulate them through fear.

As the main opposition candidate, Luisa González, said Sunday night, “We do not want a state of war, but a state of peace that is built with social justice.”

Latin America has gone through periods of mano dura (iron fist) rule before. The current wave caught on with the rise of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Under a nearly three-year-long state of emergency, he has suspended rights and deployed a military dragnet to incarcerate tens of thousands of young men without due process. The homicide rate plunged, and regional leaders took note. Honduras soon followed suit.

So has Ecuador. Upended by 22 criminal groups, the once-idyllic country on the Pacific coast of South America has had one of the world’s highest increases in its homicide rate. Since being elected in November 2023 to finish a vacated term, President Daniel Noboa has deployed the military in the streets, curbed freedoms to enable mass incarceration, and imposed curfews.

Ecuadorians applauded. In a referendum last April, 80% of voters backed Mr. Noboa’s strategy. But their enthusiasm has since waned. The country was under a state of emergency for more than 250 days last year – and has been again since January. On Sunday, Mr. Noboa and Ms. González finished less than a percentage point apart, each winning 44% of the ballot. A runoff is set for April.

The turn in public opinion in Ecuador reflects an understanding among ordinary citizens in Latin America that security ultimately requires strengthening the rule of law rather than suspending it. The country’s outgoing attorney general, Diana Salazar, has made uprooting corruption between officials and drug cartels the cornerstone of ending violence.

President Bernardo Arévalo is waging a similar effort in Guatemala. Security, he said, requires building “more dignified societies and with greater opportunities for development.” In the run-up to the runoff, voters in Ecuador may hope their leaders agree.

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