2023-10-16 02:38:23
Daniel Noboa, a 35-year-old millionaire outsider, became the youngest president in the country’s history this Sunday, by obtaining 52.26 of the votes in the second round of the presidential elections.
Heir to a fortune amassed by his father, a banana businessman who failed in several attempts to become president, Noboa went to the second round with 23% of the votes supported by right-wing forces, although he defines himself as center-left.
Almost unknown in politics, except for the position of deputy in the dissolved Assembly, he rose silently until he entered the runoff with a tough-on-crime speech.
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The presidential debate in the first round, to which he appeared wearing a bulletproof vest alleging death threats, catapulted his candidacy. Days before, then-candidate Fernando Villavicencio had been shot dead.
This is the profile of the young businessman and now elected president of Ecuador.
Who is Daniel Noboa?
In a few words, serene and far from any type of confrontation, the businessman Daniel Noboa became the youngest president in the history of Ecuador this Sunday and achieved the dream that his father, Álvaro Noboa, resisted on several occasions, a of the richest people in the country thanks to his banana emporium.
His father unsuccessfully sought the presidency five times and in 2006 lost to Rafael Correa, his staunch rival. He made it to the runoff three times.
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At 35 years old, Daniel Roy-Gilchrist Noboa Azín (Guayaquil, 1987) is not new to politics, as he was an assembly member between 2021 and 2023, but in these elections he has played the role of “outsider”.
He was not among the favorites but he was seen as a new face and his participation in the electoral debate of the first round catapulted him to the second round this Sunday against Correísta Luisa González.
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Daniel Noboa at his campaign close.
He is the eldest of four brothers in a family of great businessmen and politicians, because in addition to his father’s presidential aspirations, his mother Annabella Azín, a medical doctor, was an assemblyman and candidate for the Vice Presidency.
He is also the grandson of Luis Noboa Naranjo, one of the most important businessmen in the country in the 20th century and one of the richest men in Ecuador in his time, who introduced the Quaker oatmeal brand in the 60s, with which he was He has begun to give his grandson nicknames in a humorous way.
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The candidate of the National Democratic Action alliance (ADN), which defines itself as center-left but presents more liberal economic approaches, is currently awaiting the birth of his second child from his marriage to his second wife, the nutritionist and “influencer” Lavinia Valbonesi.
He had his first-born daughter with his first wife, Gabriela Goldbaum, with whom Noboa has faced problems in the divorce, to the point that he maintains a dispute with the Spanish insurance company Mapfre, since the woman allegedly had access to his bank details through an employee of this company.
Supporters of presidential candidate Daniel Noboa.
Noboa studied Business Administration at the Stern School of Business at New York University and continued his career specializing in three master’s degrees: in 2019 in Business Administration and Public Administration at the Kellogg School of Management; in 2020 at Harvard University and in 2022 he completed his master’s degree in Political Communication and Governance at George Washington University.
In a recent meeting with young people, he confessed that since he was little he wanted to be a musician, and although his father did not finance his studies, he did it on his own.
Based on his love for music and business knowledge, Noboa founded his first company “DNA Entertainment Group” at the age of 18, dedicated to the organization of events.
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The Ecuadorian presidential candidate of the National Democratic Action Party, Daniel Noboa.
There, he gained experience to, a few years later, work at his family’s Noboa Corporation; where he was the youngest shipping director in the company’s history. He was commercial director until June 2018 and his main task was to oversee the global sales strategy for all food products.
The young businessman, who claims to have always sought independence from family businesses, does not believe “hyperspecialization” is viable in current times, which is why he also studied physics and marketing.
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In 2021 he entered politics and in the general elections he managed to be elected as an assemblyman for the coastal province of Santa Elena.
As an assembly member, he was president of the Economic Development Commission and was criticized for having led the organization, in the middle of the war between Russia and Ukraine, of the trip, paid according to him by the private company, of six assembly members to Russia, one of the main importers. of Ecuadorian bananas, together with the European Union (EU).
The Ecuadorian presidential candidate of the National Democratic Action Party, Daniel Noboa.
What the candidate Daniel Noboa proposes
Noboa presents himself as a candidate with new airs for the country, although Correismo accuses him that parts of his campaign were based on “old practices.”
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The candidate maintains that his “is a project designed to give freedom, peace and progress to Ecuador,” a country in economic crisis and marked by the increase in violence. “It is a project for the future, not going back to the past,” in reference to Correismo.
He points out that in his “young project”, where “hope over hate” prevails, the priority is human development, productivity and competitiveness, among others.
Faced with a mandate of just 15 months, Noboa aims to “address what is urgent: reduce violence, youth unemployment, and generate employment.”
Supporters of presidential candidate Daniel Noboa.
If elected, he plans to promote a popular consultation to implement a jury system for corruption cases, which, along with drug trafficking, is one of the nation’s main problems.
He also proposes the militarization of borders and transferring the most violent inmates to prison ships.
Noboa concentrated on the young vote
Since moving on to the second round, Noboa focused on winning votes on social media. A few days before the elections, he was a trend on networks like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok thanks to videos made with dozens of cardboard dolls with his life-size image.
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Since he launched his candidacy, he has also focused on young people, since in Ecuador there are more than 600,000 adolescents aged 16 and 17 eligible to vote, while there are 3.4 million voters between 18 and 29 years old, who constitute the 25% of the electoral roll.
Serious and not very expressive, the young man left behind the histrionics of his father in the campaign, who used to clamor for votes on his knees and with a Bible in his hand. “People are excited, people are motivated, people want something new,” he declared.
The presidential candidate, Daniel Noboa.
In his closing campaign, the businessman encouraged Ecuadorian youth to vote for him to change the country. Noboa pointed out that “youth today has a voice and has a vote, and neglected groups also matter and should be taken into account by the central government, which has abandoned its people in recent years.”
(Continue reading: Family of Fernando Villavicencio denounces President Lasso for murder by omission)
The winner will have a short term of about 15 months, until completing the 2021-2025 presidential term, interrupted by the current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso last May by invoking “crossed death.”
With this constitutional mechanism, he shortened his mandate and forced this exceptional electoral process, in exchange for dissolving the National Assembly (Parliament), which under the control of an opposition led by Correism was preparing to vote for his dismissal as the last step of a political trial in the one who was accused of alleged embezzlement (embezzlement).
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
*With agencies
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