The suitable-wing Noboa had defeated left-wing candidate Luisa Gonzalez amid allegations of electoral fraud.
Daniel Noboa, Ecuador’s youngest-ever president and inheritor to a distinguished banana-exporting fortune, has been sworn in for his first full time period in workplace, pledging to accentuate his authorities’s battle towards highly effective drug gangs whereas reviving the struggling economic system.
In a ceremony on the Nationwide Meeting in Quito on Saturday, the right-wing president was sworn in by Meeting President Niels Olsen Peet, who draped the presidential sash throughout his shoulders earlier than the 2 raised clasped arms in a symbolic gesture of unity.
Noboa, 37, gained the election in April’s, securing a brand new time period after finishing the ultimate 18 months of his predecessor’s tenure, defeating left-wing candidate, Luisa Gonzalez, regardless of her allegations of electoral fraud.
Chatting with lawmakers, Noboa pledged to make a pointy discount in violent crime a cornerstone of his administration.
“The progressive discount of homicides might be a non-negotiable objective,” Noboa declared. “We’ll preserve our combat towards drug trafficking, seize unlawful weapons, ammunition, and explosives, and train larger management on the nation’s ports.”
Ecuador, as soon as thought-about one of many extra steady nations within the area, has lately confronted a pointy rise in violence, with drug cartels, together with the highly effective from Mexico, exploiting porous borders and weak establishments to develop their affect.
Noboa has responded with militarised crackdowns, deploying the armed forces onto the streets and tightening safety at key infrastructure hubs.
The president’s safety technique has drawn comparisons to El Salvador’s controversial anti-gang measures, which have been praised by some for decreasing crime however condemned by rights teams over mass detentions and alleged abuses.
Noboa has cited El Salvador, in addition to america and Israel, as strategic companions in Ecuador’s safety overhaul.
His administration has additionally employed Erik Prince, founder of personal army contractor Blackwater, to advise Ecuadorian safety forces, a transfer that has raised alarm amongst opposition politicians and human rights advocates, who warn of creeping militarisation and lack of oversight.
Whereas Noboa has claimed a 15 p.c drop in violent deaths throughout 2024, authorities figures present a 58 p.c enhance in killings in the course of the first 4 months of 2025 in contrast with the identical interval final 12 months, with 3,094 recorded deaths.
