Quito (EFE).- Former legislator Fernando Villavicencio, known in Ecuador for his journalistic investigations into corruption cases, is running as a presidential candidate in the next extraordinary elections with the premise of “confronting and defeating the mafias that have co-opted the State and that bring society to its knees”.
Villavicencio, who as president of the Oversight Commission of the National Assembly (Parliament) issued a report contrary to the political trial of censorship opened by the opposition against President Guillermo Lasso for an alleged misappropriation of crimes (embezzlement), applauded the decision of the head of state to dissolve the Legislative and hold new elections.
The independent former assemblyman opined in an interview with EFE that Ecuador lives “a model of democracy” and although it is going through “an economic tragedy”, “it has not gone to the precipice” because it is dollarized, a system that it offers to strengthen.
If he reaches the Presidency in this year’s elections, he assured that he will face “the political mafias that are linked to drug trafficking and criminal structures of illegal mining, and also corrupt structures in the public sector.”
With ideological beginnings in a “moderate left”, he has positioned himself as one of the most critical voices against correísmo and now defines himself as a center, but without a political party.
He came to Parliament at the invitation of “Concertación” and is nominated for the August elections by a social and political network under construction, called “Good People”, which has made a first agreement with the political movement “Construye-listas 25”, formerly led by former Minister of Government María Paula Romo, who will not run for any candidacy.
A “brave” government
A 59-year-old father of 3 children, Villavicencio believes that Ecuador needs a “brave government” and offers to dismantle the mafias “with the law and with arms.”
As an example, he advanced that judges and prosecutors must submit to a “registration of their assets”, judges, to “an evaluation process”, and that the Executive will directly denounce cases of corruption.
It intends to purify the Armed Forces and the Police, and ensures that “every citizen who rises up in arms (…) will be subdued”, for which it will buy equipment for the forces of order with money resulting -in large part- from the renegotiation of contracts of specific services to Petroecuador.
“crime economy”
“This country has reached a point where talking about investment means dismantling criminal structures. No businessman, foreign or national, comes to this country to invest a penny if he knows that tomorrow a car bomb will explode a hundred meters away,” he said.
For this reason, he insists that, in order to reactivate the economy, which implies the call for “healthy foreign capital”, it is necessary to “defeat the mafias, led mainly by the drug cartels”.
This also implies a demand on the governments of Colombia and Peru “because Ecuador is not a country where” drugs are processed, he said.
“Ecuador is moving very quickly towards widespread contamination of the economy. We have a criminal economy financed by drug trafficking, by illegal mining, and by the resources of overpricing and bribery from corruption in the public sector,” she lamented.
External relationships
Villavicencio is committed to signing free trade agreements with an “ethical clause” and considers the review of the recently signed agreement with China essential, since “it cannot be signed without making visible all the cases of corruption of Chinese companies for more than 15 years in this country,” he warned.
He favors a “great relationship” with the United States, deepening cooperation in the fight against organized crime, a field in which he also wants the participation of the European Union.
He is emphatic in pointing out Venezuela and Nicaragua as “dictatorships”, and stresses that the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “is very far from the Government of Venezuela”.
And regarding El Salvador, he pointed out: “I agree with the fight against organized crime, but I do not share the methods used by the Government of El Salvador. I am in favor of fighting the heads of organized crime, because if I fight below, they will always reproduce.”
possible alliances
The pre-candidate believes that a victory in the first round is possible if agreements are reached between former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner and former presidential candidate Yaku Pérez, possible pre-candidates.
He is willing to talk and that whoever has the best options leads the ballot for the August 20 elections, for which there are already more than five pre-candidates.