Ecuador presidential election will show if continent's pink tide has truly turned

[Judi Lynn]

The country faces its first election in a decade without Rafael Correa but although the favourite, Lenín Moreno, is from the same party they are different characters

Jonathan Watts in Quito
Wednesday 15 February 2017 05.00 EST


Ten years ago, as Latin America’s “pink tide” reached its high-water mark, leftwing leaders such as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa were in power across the continent.

But death and election defeat have since culled their numbers and trimmed their power. Cuba is on a path of moderate reform after the death of Castro. Venezuela was lurching from one crisis to another even before Chávez succumbed to cancer in 2013. Morales’s days as president of Bolivia are also numbered after he failed in an attempt last year to change the constitution to allow him to run for re-election.

This Sunday, Ecuador will also make a change, with the first presidential election in more than a decade not to be contested by Correa, who is stepping aside after winning three consecutive terms. Whether the country now follows the continental trend towards centre-right government or remains a bastion for the left is being contested in an unusually dirty campaign.

The favourite is Lenín Moreno, a former vice-president under Correa who is standing for the ruling Alianza País coalition, but very different in style and politics from the outgoing president. As his first name suggests, Moreno is from a leftwing family, but he has a reputation for inclusiveness openness and humour that earned him approval ratings above 90% when he quit the vice-presidency in 2013 to take up a United Nations post as special envoy on disability. If he wins, he would be the first paraplegic head of state, having used a wheelchair since he was shot in a robbery.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/15/ecuador-presidential-election-lenin-moreno-pink-tide

[tenorly]

1. Note the little indigenous girl selling oranges for right-wing candidate Guillermo Lasso.

Ah, where to begin.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I noticed when I saw her, too, she doesn't seem to be having the best day of her life.

I guess it saves so much campaign money when they can get children to "volunteer" for them.

I had to wonder how noble it can be to send a child like her out alone to deal with perfect strangers, anyway. What a miserable shame. Sure hope dirtball Lasso loses.

[Zorro]

3. Caption: "A child sells fruits near an election poster for opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso"

is not the same as "A child sells fruits for opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso near an election poster".

You misinterpreted the photo caption. Of course.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. She's not volunteering for a campaign, but trying to make a living selling fruit at an intersection

like you see throughout latin America and happened to have her picture taken near a campaign poster which are plastered everywhere. You probably figured that out by now though.