The first quarter of Lasso’s presidential administration has been colored by the success of the vaccination plan and the worst security crisis of the decade.
The government of President Guillermo Lasso celebrates one year in office, in May 2022.
The Government of Guillermo Lasso celebrates its first year. The evaluation of this administration can be done from several axes and in each one the result is different.
EARNINGS brings you a synthesis of the good, the bad and the promised of the Lasso administration.
The good
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Vaccination plan
The vaccination plan against Covid-19 is, perhaps, the most important work of the Government of President Guillermo Lasso in his first year in office.
In the first 100 days of administration, it fulfilled its promise to vaccinate nine million people. It was not an easy task, since the shortage of vaccines with which he took power and the scandal of VIP vaccination suggested that the objective would not be met.
Lasso maintains that the vaccination plan was the main tool to defeat the pandemic and promote the reactivation of Ecuador.
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orderly economy
One of the goals that the Government of President Lasso has set is a greater attraction of capital , which has been channeled through the signing of more than 220 investment contracts.
Through this tool, the Regime has managed to get local and foreign companies to commit close to USD 5,000 million . In addition, the Government maintains the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for USD 6,500 million.
Also, certain adjustments have been made. Ecuador has committed to transparent management of public finances, as well as to promptly carry out financial audits of the state oil companies Petroecuador and Petroamazonas.
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Evacuation from Ukraine
The Ecuadorian Foreign Service and the crisis committee, established by the Foreign Ministry in Quito, achieved the massive return of Ecuadorians living in Ukraine , once the Russian invasion began, on February 24, 2022.
The refugees obtained emergency passports to flee the war and later accommodation, transportation, food and care when they arrived in Ecuadorian territory.
The diplomatic work, deployed in Europe, up to the borders with Ukraine, even achieved the evacuation of those who were in conflict zones .
The bad
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insecurity crisis
During the first year of the Lasso administration, Ecuador has experienced what is projected to be the worst security crisis in its history . Violent deaths, which are the main indicator of violence and insecurity in a territory , have skyrocketed.
In the first quarter of 2022, the number of crimes of this type is already equivalent to 90% of the total registered in 2020 and 49% of those registered in 2021. Even projecting the daily average, by the end of 2022 the number of homicides could bordering on 4,000 cases and a rate of 22 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants .
That rate would be one of the highest in Latin America, which in turn is the most dangerous region in the world. According to the official government hypothesis, this crisis is directly related to the growth of drug trafficking in the country, and to the war waged by criminal gangs for appropriating this business and its related activities.
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Hospitals without drugs
The lack of medicines in public system hospitals has become an ordeal for patients who demand their medicines.
The Ministry of Health assures that it is working to solve this problem. There are no major results, since patients report that some hospitals lack medicines and basic supplies such as gauzes or alcohol .
Despite the complaints, the minister of the branch, Ximena Garzón, maintains that the current situation of the hospitals is better than that of the previous government.
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governance crisis
The first year of the government of Guillermo Lasso has faced conflicts with other powers of the State. The main fight was with the Assembly, which has not been open to the legal proposals of the Executive .
The dispute with the Legislature showed the little capacity of the Presidency to negotiate with the assembly members, and the weakness of its block: a bench of 27 legislators where only 12 are from Creo and vote in an organic line.
But, the President also opened a front with the Justice : he questioned the president of the National Court of Justice for having acted “politically” on the issue of the extradition of former President Rafael Correa. Added to this is the institutional crisis behind closed doors, with constant changes in the Cabinet in this first year, especially in the area of security.
The promised
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Employment and poverty
The lack of adequate employment is one of the main problems of the Government, which was deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The current administration inherited a country in which barely 32% of people of working age were employed .
A year later, the adequate employment rate reaches 32.9% , an increase of 0.9 percentage points. This increase is caused by the economic reactivation, by the progress of the vaccination process and the relaxation of restrictions to avoid contagion.
The lack of adequate jobs in the country affects poverty, in which 27.7% of the population was found at the end of 2021. This figure reflects a reduction in poverty compared to the same month in 2020, when this indicator rose to 33%.
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country risk
One of the main debts of the Government is security. Lasso and his team have not been able to contain the onslaught of criminal gangs from their origin, that is, from prisons .
The criminal violence began in the detention centers months before Lasso came to power, but the figures show that he has not been able to control it. In the first year of his administration there were five massacres that left nearly 300 murders in prisons .
The President has had five directors of the Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), appointed a pacification commission with national and international experts, issued the first public policy of social rehabilitation. None of those efforts has been enough .
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Corruption
The fight against corruption was one of the priorities of President Guillermo Lasso in the campaign, and the actions came recently.
In early May 2022, the President revived the Anticorruption Secretariat . And he named Luis Verdesoto as his head.
But, the details of the implementation of the national anti-corruption policy are unknown. While the offered international anti-corruption commission was never consolidated and projects such as the outsourcing of pharmacies have not materialized either.
