Praise for Luisa Gonzalez
Citizen Revolution leader Luisa Gonzalez. X/ @RutaKritica
By: Juan Grabois
April 17, 2025 Hour: 12:11 pm
We need many Luisas in a continent where a plutocratic oligarchy exacerbates the dehumanization of the poorest.
I don’t have the elements to say how many votes each candidate received in the Ecuadorian runoff election, but the presidential election is tainted by a series of irregularities that, had they occurred elsewhere, would have provoked an outcry from all the international organizations subordinate to the political line of the U.S. State Department—as if it were a blatant, outright fraud.
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Here, they speak in hushed tones, but even in whispers, they acknowledge the irregularities and the deterioration of democratic life in Ecuador. It’s bizarre. I therefore join the position of Gustavo Petro and Claudia Sheinbaum. This victory by Daniel Noboa lacks legitimacy.
Among other irregularities, we can mention that the National Electoral Council allowed his candidacy without fulfilling the constitutional requirement of a prior leave of absence; that Noboa changed voting locations at the last minute; that he suspended voting for Ecuadorians in Venezuela; and that he abused national broadcast chains from the ruling party day after day.
The Friday before the runoff, he even declared a ‘State of Emergency’ in seven provinces. That’s a lot. Voting under a State of Emergency? That’s not very democratic.
Beyond these immediate maneuvers, there’s been a long-standing campaign waged over the years by major media outlets, a co-opted judiciary, and local and international economic powers. A lawfare strategy that banned comrade Rafael Correa and many Ecuadorian political leaders, going so far as to invade the Mexican embassy to abduct comrade Jorge Glas.
With the power of post-truth, they placed the blame for organized crime on the Citizens’ Revolution when drug trafficking actually took hold of Ecuador after eight years of anti-Correa governments.
Noboa’s political identity is anti-Correismo. They’ve turned a political antithesis into a political identity—a sort of negative religion that weaves together the use of state and para-state apparatuses, manufactured fear, conformism, racism, and blind obedience. It’s the Ecuadorian version of anti-Peronism.
Beyond these criticisms, the main purpose of this article is to recognize the political and electoral struggle waged by the Citizens’ Revolution in general and by comrade Luisa Gonzalez in particular. To give her strength so she doesn’t give up. What happened is just a moment in time. Our task is to keep pushing forward… and we need Luisa. There’s a lot to highlight.
First of all, reaching the runoff under such disadvantageous conditions, putting heart and courage into the campaign even at the risk of her life—her security detail was abruptly removed—obtaining a result that debunks the right-wing narrative that the Revolution is dead… all of that has enormous merit, which shouldn’t be overshadowed by the frustration over the final “result”—a result that is disputed, disputable, and still in need of serious review.
In a continent where a plutocratic oligarchy exacerbates the material and cultural dehumanization of Indigenous peoples and the poorest sectors of our nations, we need many Luisas.
Luisa Gonzalez embodies a political path that integrates social justice, commitment to popular sectors, and a firm defense of national sovereignty. Her figure synthesizes elements of the new Latin American leadership emerging from below—gaining experience in state governance and maintaining a strong connection to popular demands. She doesn’t get dizzy. She’s not for sale.
Tired of a conservatism that conserves nothing but the status quo, Luisa found her place in Ecuador’s national-popular left. During Rafael Correa’s administrations, she held key positions in public administration, planning, and institutional management.
She was Secretary General of Public Administration, and then a national assembly member for Manabi from 2021 to 2023. She has life experience, governance experience, and political struggle. She’s a complete political figure.
In 2023, she became the first female presidential candidate of the Citizens’ Revolution movement. Just days ago, she nearly overturned nearly a decade of persecution, political bans, harassment, racism, rising debt, escalating violence, and social decay.
Luisa ran on a platform of social justice and a mixed economy. She advocated for the creation of a universal basic income and a mixed economy model centered on national production, strengthening cooperatives, autonomous work, and community-based enterprises. She proposed a clear and concrete agenda in favor of decent work, formal employment, and strengthening labor unions.
In terms of political sovereignty and economic independence, she has a firm stance on foreign debt, proposing a renegotiation based on the recognition of the harm caused by multilateral organizations like the International Monetary Fund.
She champions Latin American integration and unity—the kind that reached its peak in the “No to ALCA” moment, where Evo, Correa, Nestor, Chavez, Lugo, Fidel, Mujica, and Lula formed a bloc that shut the door on George Bush’s imperialist projects in an act of regional dignity that—regardless of how you feel about its protagonists—we must remember, study, prepare for, and replicate.
Regarding the serious issue of security and violence, Luisa dared to address the structural nature of the problem without promoting torture or concentration camps. These are false solutions that may seem effective in the short term but ultimately jeopardize fundamental democratic principles and open the gates of hell. History tells us so.
First they do it to some, then to others. Luisa also didn’t repeat the academic-legalist cliche that dismisses violence affecting the poor, which must also be addressed with urgency and resolve to stop organized crime and free its victims from that oppression.
Noboa, on the other hand, followed the standard playbook: attack, attack, attack. As for his project—he kept quiet. He didn’t present a platform. He smiled. He hugged Trump, cried on television with his wife, dressed up as the future… and also cheated. He’s not worth two cents. He’s a merchant.
These are times of immorality and dehumanization; times of regression or resistance in many countries of the Great Homeland. So even if we must give pieces of our lives, as Evita once said—as Luisa did—our task is to preserve a moral, organizational, ideological, and political rearguard of Latin American humanism for when the time comes to fight back.
Don’t give up, Luisa. We’re not going to lose, because only those who surrender are truly defeated—and we never surrender. What they steal from us at the ballot box, we’ll defend in the streets and territories until we recover it and move forward. No one surrenders here.
Author: Juan Grabois
Source: Diario Red
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