2024-08-28 18:29:35
On Monday, July 22, 2024, President Daniel Noboa delivered a sovereign guarantee to Marcela Aguiñaga, prefect of Guayas, thus allowing the provincial government to access a $50 million loan from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF).
The loan will be used to implement irrigation, road connectivity and productivity projects in rural areas of the province.
In addition, Aguiñaga has requested a new guarantee for $100 million for future connectivity projects with the neighboring provinces of Manabí, Santa Elena and Los Ríos.
During the event, Noboa showed his closeness to Aguiñaga, whom he affectionately referred to as “our dear prefect” and criticized his predecessors, without naming them, for their lack of commitment to the province. The president took advantage of the event to highlight that his government has granted similar guarantees to the prefectures of Manabí and Pichincha, as well as to the municipalities of Portoviejo and Guayaquil.
At the end of the ceremony, he gave Marcela Aguiñaga an orchid as a sign of appreciation. This is not the first affectionate meeting between the two; in November 2023, Noboa also accompanied her to the Solemn Session for the anniversary of the provincialization of Guayas.
In a post on X, the president published: “For years, old Ecuador was in charge of dividing Guayas and denied it opportunities for progress.”
That phrase provoked an immediate reaction from former President Rafael Correa, who, on the same social network, responded that he did the same when he gave the sovereign guarantee to the Municipal Water Company of Guayaquil, to finance a wastewater project and attached a newspaper article from that year.
Noboa’s response was not long in coming: “Nero, I didn’t know that, apart from being bitter, you were jealous,” he replied in his X account, alluding to the Roman emperor, who was described as self-indulgent, cruel and violent.