Nubua pledges to “save” Ecuador from gangs and drug dealers

Daniel Nubua was sworn in for a second presidential term in Ecuador, pledging to “save” his country from drug dealers allied with foreign criminal gangs.

The leader, 37, pledged during his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in the capital, Kito, the day before yesterday, a “direct confrontation with organized crime gangs”, saying: “There will be no truce against the crime.”

And Nuboa, who took over the presidency in late 2023, defeated his left -wing competitor, Louisa Gonzalez, with great easily with the presidential elections that took place last April, to obtain a second term of four years, at the time of the opposition, led by former exile president Rafael Correa, what she described as forging the elections, boycotting the inauguration ceremony, but international observers of the Ecuador elections denied these allegations.

The rich businessman became the head of the state with a population of 18 million, after early elections that took place in 2023 in light of a wave of violence linked to drug gangs.

The criminal groups specialized in the smuggling of cocaine constitute a challenge to the government, as Ecuador recorded the highest murder rate in South America, according to the Insight Craem Research Center.

But during the first year of his mandate, the rate of murder decreased, which Nuboa attributed his campaign to the crime.

Nubua announced that Ecuador was in the event of an internal armed conflict, which enabled it to deploy the armed forces in the streets and prisons.

Although he made drug control a slogan for his election campaign, analysts say that his young age and lack of popularity of the opposition helped him to win a new state.

Between January and April 2025, Ecuador counted 3084 murders, at the beginning of a year that is the bloodiest.