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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn Ecuador, the scenario prior to the referendum gave the impression that the table was set for the executive branch: as of October, the president had a 53% approval rating (in the midst of a national strike); sales of goods and services increased by 8.4%; and the construction sector saw a 21.6% recovery compared to the previous year. On the political front, the executive controls parliament with 66 legislators from its own caucus plus 11 allies, which has allowed it to pass the constitutional reforms submitted to referendum and approve three laws in record time (18 days). And as if that were not enough, the government has taken credit for the recapture of two leaders of the criminal gangs \u201cLos Choneros\u201d and \u201cLos Lobos\u201d: Adolfo Mac\u00edas and Wilmer Chavarr\u00eda, in the context of the insecurity the country is experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polls showed a completely favorable scenario for all the questions posed by the government: eliminating the prohibition on establishing foreign military bases in the country; eliminating the fund that finances political parties; reducing the number of legislators from 151 to 73; and convening a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution. Pre-election surveys announced that affirmative votes for the government\u2019s reforms would range from 53% to 62%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the national government and polling firms neither observed nor understood is that beyond this narrative\u2014beyond the photographs, the announcements, and the meetings between President Noboa and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem\u2014what people expect from the State and from those who administer it is effective management to solve their everyday problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of October, 7,349 violent deaths have been recorded nationwide, the highest figure for that period to date. Public health has been facing a deep crisis since early 2025: not only is there a shortage of essential medicines, but there have also been reports of the absence of cleaning services in healthcare facilities, a lack of security services, and even a lack of food for patients in public hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Budget execution data for 2025 to date reflect serious problems in government management. Economist Jairon Merchan published, through his account on the social network X, details of how the government has managed its finances, showing that only 58.42% of the budget allocated for this year had been executed by the time the referendum was held. By spending category, public debt payments, bonds and direct transfers, and other liabilities are what have driven the national government\u2019s management. By contrast, only 4% has been executed in infrastructure and long-term assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there may be other variables that contribute to the analysis, the equation is simple: it is the responsiveness to demands that sustains specific support for the political system, as David Easton theorized more than 60 years ago. Unfortunately, the Ecuadorian government has relegated its management to a secondary or tertiary role and has fallen into the current whirlwind of political communication, in which politics has become a mere contest of marketing and narrative imposition\u2014where those called upon to administer public affairs as an expression of the general will have become actors more concerned with the angle of the photo, whether the camera light falls on the leader giving a close-up, or whether every word spoken adheres to a prefabricated and brief script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As one of the government\u2019s unofficial spokespersons, the politician Antonio Ricaurte, put it: \u201ceverything is image, all the time, and President Noboa has a brilliant strategy, since he does not present himself, dress, or speak like a traditional politician\u2026 and I\u2019m not talking about whether that\u2019s good or bad\u2014that\u2019s for the very intelligent\u2014I only talk about images and political communication, about what needs to be done, because in life and in politics what works solely and exclusively is strategy and political communication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems that Ricaurte does not understand what the average citizen clearly does: you cannot communicate what does not exist. And if there is no public management to sustain a narrative, it becomes a house of cards that collapses at the first shake, as has happened to the Ecuadorian government. It seems the famous phrase by Carville has still not been understood, nor has the second part of the same strategy that brought Clinton to the presidency been revisited: \u201cdon\u2019t forget the health care system.\u201d This shows that beyond ideologies, debates over the size of the State, discussions of democracy versus authoritarianism, or even \u201cdazzling communication strategies,\u201d what matters to citizens is how the State solves their everyday problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the Ecuadorian government does not understand this, it is worth reminding it of the popular adage: \u201cwhen you see your neighbor\u2019s beard being trimmed, soak your own.\u201d In other words, when you see that your people have stopped supporting you, government, it is time to govern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The citizens\u2019 rejection of Noboa\u2019s consultation laid bare an uncomfortable truth: without concrete results in security, health, and the economy, no political narrative can be sustained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":54114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16820,17157],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-54130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ecuador-en","8":"category-politia-en","9":"tag-debates"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54130"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=54130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}