At the age of 35, Ecuador’s president-elect Daniel Noboa is fulfilling the political dreams of his banana tycoon father, who failed five times to win the presidency.
With about 52 percent of the vote, based on a near-complete count, little-known businessman Noboa was on Sunday elected the youngest president-elect in modern Ecuadoran history, edging out socialist rival Luisa Gonzalez. With strong Creed, Noboa focused his wooing on younger voters, using social media to campaign.
He became a minor internet celebrity in the run-up to Sunday’s election as videos went viral of citizens posing with human-sized cardboard signs “Noboas” — printed for the campaign — showing up at house parties, riding the bus or lazing on the beach.
Noboa was born in the port city of Guayaquil into his billionaire father Alvaro’s banana empire. He holds a degree in business administration from New York University and three master’s degrees from Harvard, Northwestern and George Washington universities.
At the age of 18 he created his own events company before joining the Noboa family business. Noboa calls himself “center-left” but embraces neoliberal economic thinking. He ran on the ticket of the brand-new National Democratic Action Alliance,
“It is a critical election,” added Freddy Escobar, a popular 49-year-old singer, citing crime as his main worry. “I am voting in fear, not knowing what will happen.”
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National Democratic Action Alliance incorporates parties from the center and left of the political spectrum. “He has made such general statements, so vague, that it is very difficult to identify” his political alignment, “FLACSO university political analyst Simon Pachano said”.
Noboa has vowed against “drug gangs” that have turned Ecuador from one of the region’s most peaceful countries into one of its most violent as they have fought an increasingly bloody war for supremacy.
He has promised the “militarization of ports and borders” and to build a society “without impunity, without injustice and without insecurity.” Noboa intends to build offshore prisons to isolate the most dangerous inmates.
The president-elect has also said he would prioritize job creation through tax incentives and credit facilities to help small businesses, as well as improve public healthcare and education.
Noboa’s only political experience is two years as a lawmaker, serving as chairman of parliament’s economics committee. During this time, he was accused of a conflict of interest for having financed, from his own pocket, a trip for seven MPs to Russia
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