The presidential elections that unfolded in Guatemala and Ecuador yesterday each had its own brand of intimidation – political interference in one, violence in the other. Yet in both countries, voters were undeterred. The surprising results they set in motion underscore the effect of individual integrity in neutralizing fear.
“Honesty will win,” said Yaku Pérez, the candidate from the Alianza Claro Que Se Puede (Of Course We Can Alliance), a minor party in Ecuador. He described the vote as laying “the foundations of the new Ecuador.”
As in many countries in Latin America in recent years, people in Ecuador and Guatemala are looking for solutions to entrenched corruption and the criminal activities of gangs and drug cartels. According to the opinion survey AmericasBarometer, 65% of people across the region say that more than half of all politicians are corrupt.
That frustration helps to explain what voters in Guatemala saw in Bernardo Arévalo, the son of a beloved former president who led an upstart campaign to victory in yesterday’s runoff ballot. Mr. Arévalo is the leader of a young reformist party. He pledged to reverse what one political analyst described as the systematic dismantling of public institutions under outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei.
“I want a new Guatemala,” Victorina Hernández, a teacher, told The Wall Street Journal after voting. “I want a lot of changes. No corruption, better education, health and society. No more hungry children.” During a campaign in which state prosecutors disqualified more prominent anti-corruption candidates, Mr. Arévalo has said his first priority would be to restore judicial independence.
Corruption also overshadows Ecuador, where President Guillermo Lasso called an early election to avoid a potential impeachment trial over graft allegations and has vowed to resign. But the election there was marred by violence, including the assassination of a mayor and an anti-corruption presidential candidate who promised to take on drug cartels. At least two candidates wore bulletproof vests to cast their ballots.
Despite that atmosphere of fear, however, the election showed the power of public appeals for honest government. Like their counterparts in Guatemala, enough voters in Ecuador backed a young reformist candidate, Daniel Noboa, to force a runoff in October.
For Latin Americans to break from the “vicious cycle” of corruption, wrote former Costa Rican Vice President Kevin Casas-Zamora in The New York Times, they “need to build institutions such as robust political parties, independent judiciaries, impartial electoral authorities and strong legal protections for press freedom and civic activism.”
In Ecuador and Guatemala, voters may be charting a way forward. As Mr. Arévalo said last night, the participation in the election “is an act of defense of democracy and at this moment it meant an act of courage.” Backing integrity over fear marks a first step in recovering the civic spaces of self-government.