Ecuador faces in 2025 the crucial challenge of dismantling an entrenched system of institutionalized corruption that has captured the state for decades.

Buoyed by broad electoral support, Noboa is using the supposed fight against insecurity as the fastest way to legalize an authoritarian regime.

The militarization of internal security was justified as a response to the severe wave of violence that made 2023 the most violent year in the country's history.

As in any process of “democratic autocratization”, Noboa needs to mold the institutional context to his image and likeness as Chavez did in Venezuela, Correa in Ecuador, Bukele in El Salvador and Donald Trump in the United States.

In a context of normalized corruption and violence, Ecuador preferred stability, albeit mediocre, rather than risk the unknown.

In the same way that debates on international trade are being reopened today, the fragility of certain consensuses that were taken for granted is becoming evident.