Ecuador’s Indigenous Movement Supports Presidential Candidate Luisa Gonzalez
Presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez. X/ @CristianXMS
March 28, 2025 Hour: 7:50 am
The votes of the Indigenous population could be decisive in tipping the balance in the runoff.
On Sunday, the Citizen Revolution party and the Ecuadorian Indigenous movement will sign an agreement to formalize Indigenous organizations’ support for presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez.
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The signing of this pact will take place in the Andean town of Alausi, in the province of Chimborazo, according to leaders of the Pachakutik party, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).
“In times of crisis, unity is our greatest strength. Faced with the rise of a violent and anti-democratic right wing, it is time to set aside differences and act together for a fairer country,” Pachakutik announced.
In mid-March, CONAIE and environmental organizations had already declared their support for Gonzalez under a series of conditions, including opposition to large-scale mining and the expansion of oil extraction in the Amazon.
Some of these demands were also mentioned on Thursday by Gonzalez at a rally in the Andean town of Pujili, in the province of Cotopaxi, the hometown of Indigenous leader and CONAIE president Leonidas Iza, who was the third most-voted presidential candidate in the first round, receiving more than half a million votes.
The presidential candidate of Citizen Revolution, the party led by former President Rafael Correa (2007–2017), expressed support for bilingual intercultural education in native languages and amnesty for environmental activists prosecuted for protesting against extractive industry projects.
The votes of the Indigenous population, concentrated mainly in the Andean highlands and the Amazon rainforest, could be decisive in tipping the balance in the runoff. In the first round, Noboa secured 44.17% of the votes, while Gonzalez received 44%, with a difference of fewer than 17,000 votes.
Over 13.7 million Ecuadorians are set to go to the polls on April 13 to decide whether to re-elect Noboa for a full term (2025–2029) or elect Gonzalez, a progressive lawyer who would become Ecuador’s first female president.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
