Ecuador Suspends The Country’s Largest Opposition Party – OpEd

Acting on the request of the government-aligned Prosecutor General, an electoral judge in Ecuador on Friday ordered the nine-month suspension of the country’s largest opposition party, the Citizens’ Revolution (RC ). The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) condemns the ban, which coincides exactly with the registration timeline for candidates in the 2027 local elections — effectively preventing the party from participating in the electoral process.

“The government of President Daniel Noboa, who is strongly backed by President Trump, is trying to accelerate the destruction of what is left of democracy in Ecuador,” said CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot.

In recent weeks, a series of judicial and administrative measures have been launched against the RC. Led by former president Rafael Correa, the RC is widely considered the principal opposition force in Ecuador, with the country’s largest member base and territorial presence.

“Democracy has been under attack since the presidency of Lenín Moreno (2017–2021), with not only the exclusion of political parties, but with persecution by lawfare, the imprisonment or forced exile of political opponents, and Noboa’s repeated assumption of ‘emergency’ powers and other abuses that have gutted civil liberties,” CEPR Director of International Policy Alex Main said.

Noboa has expanded the use of extraordinary measures in response to the country’s escalating security crisis. Nevertheless, the homicide rate has continued to rise, from 5.8 per 100,000 at the end of Correa’s presidency in May 2017, to 50.6. Prolonged states of emergency, curfews, and increased military deployment have been implemented nationwide.

On the same day as the ban on the RC, the Ecuadorian and US militaries conducted joint airstrikes near the Colombian border targeting an alleged FARC dissident site. These “lethal kinetic operations,” as SOUTHCOM called them, represent the culmination of Noboa’s efforts since his 2023 election to deepen ties with Washington — including attempts to reestablish a US military base in the country.

The Noboa government’s current attack on electoral democracy and its violations of human rights coincides with the Trump administration’s launching of an alliance of right-wing Latin American presidents who are seen as sharing his “MAGA” ideology and values. Joining Trump at this “Shield of the Americas” summit in Doral, Florida were Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina, Rodrigo Paz of Bolivia, Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica, Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic, Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, Irfaan Ali of Guyana, Nasry Asfura of Honduras, José Raúl Mulino of Panama, and Santiago Peña of Paraguay. Also attending were President-Elect of Chile José Antonio Kast and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Although Trump has now recruited, and in some cases helped bring to power, some 13 governments in the region, 60 percent of the population of Latin America — a solid majority — still lives in countries governed by people who seek to preserve and expand democracy and raise the living standards of the majority and the poor,” Weisbrot said. “These are Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, who combined also have 64 percent of the region’s GDP. 

“Trump’s right-wing coalition has just 22 percent of the region’s population and 25 percent of its GDP.”

A note on the current lawfare in Ecuador

Friday’s decision to ban the RC stems from a case initiated by Prosecutor General Carlos Alarcón, whose appointment has been challenged as illegal. In late January, Alarcón launched a money laundering investigation alleging that the RC received campaign funds “from Venezuela” during the 2023 snap elections, but the case hinges largely on testimony from a key witness who is himself about to stand trialon child sexual abuse charges and who has reportedly received preferential treatment within the penitentiary system. 

On March 4, Alarcón filed a complaint against the RC with Ecuador’s Electoral Dispute Tribunal (TCE) based on the investigation. Just two days later, an electoral judge ordered the party’s suspension for nine months, without giving the RC an opportunity to present a defense. In issuing the suspension, the judge did not rule on the merits of Alarcón’s complaint, stating instead that the move constituted a set of “provisional” measures against the party while the money laundering case proceeds in criminal courts.

In addition, the RC mayor of Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, was arrested in February in a separate case initiated by Alarcón. The mayor, an outspoken critic of President Noboa, was recently transferred to a high-security prison under brutal conditions, a move that underscores the redoubled campaign of political persecution underway in Ecuador.