14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 27 April 2025 — It is more than obvious that the Ecuadorian people have given thought to what it would have meant for their country to reelect president Rafael Correa, a criminal convicted for corruption who will lament until his last day having supported Lenin Mareno in his quest toward the nation’s highest office.
This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that would irrevocably rob them of the future, and what happens in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela, where the Castro-Chavistas proposals have plunged those peoples into a state of moral and material prostration that is very difficult to overcome.
The populism sponsored by this autocrat is extremely dangerous because it personifies the enlightened despot who, armed with academic knowledge, uses that insight to more efficiently exploit the prerogatives of the citizenry. Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt.
This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that irredeemably shaped the future, as has happened in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia y Venezuela
Subjects like Correa exercise a kind of fatal attraction over a sector of the population. They are capable of interpreting the anxieties of an important nucleus of people, who regardless the abuses and mistakes they commit, things always go in their favor. They count on a following that responds to the rhythm of their piper and revels in the vicissitudes of the abyss.
Correa, like Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Evo Morales y Daniel Ortega, to mention just a few of the caudillos of Castro-Chavista who possess a magical charm that, for their supporters, places them beyond good and evil, a reason that makes them a real danger in any democratic society.
An individual with firm democratic convictions can never agree to have their rights violated by a ruler who assumes the power to interpret the nation’s desires by creating committees of whistleblowers who scrutinize the lives of others or permits economic changes that would deepen the misery of all.
To claim that Nicolas Maduro represents a legitimate regime is an absurdity from the early days of 21st-century socialism, as when Hugo Chávez proclaimed he would lead Venezuela to the sea of Cuban happiness. Both Cuba and Venezuela are far from being a paradigm for any society, and anyone who proclaims this commits political suicide, as did candidate Luisa González.
Furthermore, the survival capacity of these individuals is unprecedented. They are capable of allying themselves with their bitter enemies in order to remain in power, as Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua when he reached an electoral agreement that allowed him to win the presidency in 2007, or as Fidel and Raúl Castro did in Cuba, having managed to blame the US embargo for all their faults, even though they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in that market, while imposing a blockade on the people they misgovern that has been in place for 66 years
Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt
It would seem that Ecuadorians have become acutely aware of reality when they realize that the election of a Correa front man would imply his return, since he would have carried out the necessary maneuvers to allow the fugitive from justice to return, just as Argentine Justicialist* leader Héctor Cámpora did in the 1970s, when upon becoming president, he eliminated all existing restrictions against Juan Domingo Perón, making it possible for him to become president.
The fugitive who lost in the polls was not candidate González. However, I do not doubt the survival capacity of these demiurges, as Anatole France would say, and as my friend Alberto Paz, a profound connoisseur of Ecuadorian and Cuban reality, has told me. He believes that Correa’s failure was a consequence of the many campaign errors of his front men, a claim echoed by some media outlets in the South American.
The thing is, these guys never lose. They accuse the winner of fraud, yet they haven’t filed a complaint backed up with sufficient evidence.
The former president has proven himself as among those who believe themselves chosen. His vision of reality only allows him to appreciate the existence of two colors, black and white, a character he manages to instill in his supporters, just as it enables his followers to seek only confrontation, the all-or-nothing attitude we experienced in Cuba when the masses demanded the firing squad without knowing why or for whom.
*Translator’s note: The Justicialist Party is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.