The presidential candidate, Daniel Noboa, assured PRIMICIAS that it is urgent to “remove the mafias” entrenched in the electrical companies and that a “clean slate” must be made in the SNAI.
Presidential candidate Daniel Noboa, in an interview with PRIMICIAS on October 9, 2023 in Guayaquil.
Daniel Noboa Azín, presidential candidate for the ADN alliance, attends to the media at his home, located on the top floor of the Banco del Litoral building, in the center of Guayaquil.
He is accompanied by his wife Lavinia Valbonesi, his son Alvarito and his press team. It is 09:00 on October 9 and Guayaquil is getting ready to celebrate the 203 years of Independence. On the ground floor of the building there is police guard and private security agents.
He finishes his breakfast standing in the kitchen and says hello. He accepts that he is a little tired from the hustle and bustle of the campaign but relaxes to attend PRIMICIAS.
Noboa, 35, assures that he will be re-elected in 2025 and that he will put order in the Ecuadorian prison system, at least in the National Service for Prisoners of Liberty (SNAI) , where it will be necessary to make a “clean slate” with assistance of the United States and Israel.
The country is going through serious energy problems that threaten to cause blackouts. If you win the election, what immediate decisions will you make to resolve it?
We have Coca Codo Sinclair producing 500 megabytes, when it has the capacity of two gigabytes, there is a lot of work that is not fixed, on purpose they have not been fixed, and there are many mafias within the electrical distribution and transmission system.
Also, in the import and export of fuels, which encourages greater use of thermoelectric plants. We are going to avoid that with public investment in electrical distribution and transmission, as well as the creation of greater generation of micro hydroelectric plants.
Plants of 20, 30 or 40 megabytes in strategic areas so that these blackouts do not exist, which occur due to the poor quality of electrical distribution and transmission and the long stretch from the origin of the (electricity) generation.
What mafias are you referring to, internal or external?
In CNEL, Transelectric, CELEC and in the fuel area, because they are together, for more than 15 years.
There is a lot of corruption there, more than USD 1 billion in inefficiencies and in the electrical area, in the distribution of fuels and the supply to thermoelectric plants.
The investment bank Santander says that there is no clarity in its economic plan and that there will not be time to finalize all its proposals. What is your answer?
There have to be adequate incentives. Banco Santander may have its opinion, it is an analyst who says this within the bank itself, but we will see it in practice.
We have an ambitious plan to eliminate youth unemployment, as well as boost job creation.
For example, the differentiated VAT for construction materials, the incentive for investment in construction, the public works abandoned in this country in the last two years. All of this, together, can generate employment very quickly.
The three urgent issues are reducing violence, eliminating youth unemployment and job creation. It’s what time gives; we have 17 months.
How will you achieve it in 17 months?
Differentiated VAT, point one. Tax system that encourages greater permanent hiring, with tax deductions for the greater generation of new employment, that there are tax benefits for the hiring of young graduates of public universities.
We have a very high unemployment and underemployment rate among young people and, unless there is some incentive to hire young people instead of someone who has eight years of experience, it is going to be impossible.
Do you already have a strategy to prevent Correismo from blocking any legislative intention of the Executive?
(Smile). Taking the example of the worst Assembly in history.
Of which you were part.
Yes, and in which I was against many practices and also the lack of work together with the Executive, it can be seen that the majority – and the authorities of the Assembly – were not chosen by Correismo in the first two years.
For urgent economic laws, 71 votes are needed, so it is a bloc very similar to that of the last Assembly. We will send an urgent economic law, tourism, tax reform to encourage job creation and energy investment.
Do you maintain your proposal to call a popular consultation, despite the short time you will have to govern?
What is the complication? You are going to ask about the procedure of action of the Armed Forces, deep judicial reforms and for the generation of employment.
Today there are many obstacles to the actions of the military, through the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police, in areas in which the sovereignty of Ecuador is threatened, so there should be faster action.
And yes, a popular consultation – and Ruth Del Salto (moderator of the debate) loved asking that – costs between USD 30 million and USD 40 million. But at the same time, economic stagnation costs USD 4 billion or USD 5 billion.
The lack of reforms in the judicial system and in the actions of the military cost us thousands of human lives. If you ask me if USD 30 million in a consultation is worth it to reform this country and change things, then of course it is.
At least so that an eventual government of Daniel Noboa leaves the foundations for the next administration to follow the path.
It is part of a process, if we win this time, we will seek re-election in 2025 to deepen the changes and execute all the projects.
Is your intention to be re-elected definitive?
Yes, the problems in Ecuador are not all resolved in 17 months, but rather the urgent ones.
How are you going to finance the 2024 budget with an approximate deficit of USD 3.5 billion?
Without inefficiencies and corruption, we saved the country between USD 1.2 billion and USD 1.5 billion. We have to generate growth policies that promote employment, and, in that way, the percentage deficit does change.
That will increase the debt capacity, we will be better qualified, and an economic change will be seen.
How many houses do you offer to build in your housing plan and where?
The deficit is 680,000 homes. We are looking, in the first year, to build at least 200,000 houses. And where, well in the places where there is this deficit: Manabí, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Guayas, rural parishes of Quito.
People will be able to finance them for 25 years at 4% interest. We are going to open the country to international banking, we are going to eliminate the Foreign Exchange Outflow Tax (ISD) and in that way enter capital that can be lent to entrepreneurs, for housing loans.
And credits for development, which are not only a bank of loans for consumption.
Those involved in the crime of Fernando Villavicencio have just been murdered in prison and this generated a schism in the police leadership. In his eventual government, what will he do with the SNAI?
We must clean up the slate in the Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) and we will need international assistance from Israel and the United States.
Deep reforms must be promoted in prisons and an adequate segmentation program must be implemented, in which the 17%, which is the most violent, must be completely isolated.
There is also a lot of impact on women, because there is no correct segmentation in men’s and women’s prisons, they are next to each other. It becomes human trafficking, they use them as slaves from one place to the other. That has to stop.
We must have prisons well separated, develop minimum security ones for offenders and have international assistance from the National Intelligence Agency, which we are going to create, so that the SNAI is not an overlapping entity, but a true regulator.
He has already met with the authorities of Israel and the United States. What will be your participation in the completion of the security project? You talk about implementing barge prisons for the most dangerous prisoners.
Yes, prison barges would be a temporary measure to house the most dangerous criminals, while we restructure the entire prison system, but we cannot have them like a five-star hotel.
They have plugs, air conditioners, screens, there are suits in the prisons.
What proposal do Israel and the United States have for you?
There are things that I cannot reveal, but there is a high concern about prisons, about port control and border control, there is not enough technology to control everything that enters, not only drugs, but contraband.
And also a migration policy in which human rights are protected, but at the same time it is possible to have the entry of people into Ecuador who come to do good.
We haven’t won yet, there’s a week left.
And will the agreements with these two countries be public?
Yes of course. The Phoenix Plan has already been published and it is known what is going to be done and we are going to have the cooperation of the two nations.
The Fénix Plan talks about equipping the Police, not about a macro project on security.
No, he was wrong. That is Luisa González’s plan, I am talking about the Armed Forces. They are totally different plans. I offer a National Intelligence Agency, prison segmentation, border protection with drones, with sensors, with correct radars.
I also offer the training of personnel for the Intelligence Agency. The possible work in exchange for sentences for those who have committed non-violent crimes. All these elements go together.
Also the classification of these violent groups as narcoterrorists, which they never wanted to do in the government of (Rafael) Correa.
