The entrepreneur beats the lawyer Luisa González, an ally of former president Rafael Correa, who admitted defeat on Sunday evening. The campaign was marked by violence
Businessman Daniel Noboa, 35, won the elections in Ecuador this Sunday (15/10) and will be the youngest president in the country’s history after a campaign marked by violence, in which one of his opponents was murdered a few days before the first round. In August.
With more than 90% of valid ballots examined by the National Electoral Council (CNE), Noboa, from the National Democratic Action coalition, won the run-off with 52.3% of the votes, ahead of lawyer Luisa González’s 47.7%. , supported by former president Rafael Correa. González, of the Citizen Revolution, recognized defeat when the entrepreneur’s tendency towards victory was already irreversible.
Daniel Noboa Azín, son of a family that owns a business empire that includes a banana exporting company, will take on an atypical mandate, which will begin in December, on a date yet to be defined, and will last only until May 2025.
Noboa will complete the term of President Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections amid an impeachment trial on corruption charges.
Below, Noboa’s entrepreneurial and political path and his main proposals.
family empire
Daniel Noboa, married to the 25-year-old model and influencer Lavinia Valbonesi, father of her second child, belongs to the third generation of a family of multimillionaire entrepreneurs from Guayaquil.
His grandfather, Luis Noboa Naranjo (1916-1994), founded Exportadora Bananera Noboa and was considered the richest man in Ecuador.
Daniel’s father, Álvaro Noboa Pontón (Guayaquil, 1950), expanded the family business beyond bananas, starting to control a multinational network of companies under the banner of Grupo Noboa.
The clan’s economic success has been repeatedly undermined by accusations of tax evasion and labor exploitation.
BBC Mundo contacted representatives of the families for comment on this report, but did not receive a response until the publication of this article.
Álvaro Noboa was the first in his family to make the leap into politics, which is common among families with economic power in Ecuador and especially in Guayaquil, the country’s commercial capital.
His aspiration to become president, however, was in vain. Álvaro Noboa is the candidate who has attempted multiple times, five in total, and without success, to reach the highest position in the country. In the 2006 elections he came close: he lost in the second round against Rafael Correa, who had led the country until 2017.
“Álvaro Noboa aroused rejection because he was a clear representation of plutocracy and the most exclusivist bureaucracy,” Ecuadorian journalist Diego Cazar Baquero, editor of the independent magazine La Barra Espaciadora, told BBC Mundo.
When his father abandoned his dream of presiding over the country, Daniel Noboa studied at prestigious universities in the United States to take up his mantle.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from New York University, a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School, and a master’s degree in governance and political communication from George Washington University.
But Noboa, who at 18 founded an event organization company called DNA Entertainment Group, only recently entered politics: he made his debut as an MP in 2021 and became chairman of Parliament’s economic development committee.
After the dissolution of Parliament, with the activation of the so-called death crusade (dissolution of the Assembly and calling for new elections) by President Lasso, in May, he presented himself as a pre-candidate with a profile different from that of his father.
“Daniel marks a certain distance from Álvaro on a symbolic, discursive and practical level,” explains Cazar Baquero.
Source: Terra
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