Ecuador's dueling presidential hopefuls

by Paola LOPEZ

Ecuador's closer-than-expected presidential election is likely headed for an April runoff between two very different candidates who have faced each other three times already.

Incumbent president Daniel Noboa and leftist Luisa Gonzalez both hail from the country's populous Pacific coastal belt, are sporty and telegenic, and have several tattoos.

But that's where the similarities end.

Noboa, 37, is the mega-rich scion of a billion-dollar banana empire, while Gonzalez, a single mother and lawyer 10 years his elder, recalls running around shoeless while growing up in humble surroundings.

- Young blood -

Noboa's brand of youthful cool mixed with security hawkishness has made him one of the most popular politicians in a country of 18 million people beset by narco violence.

It has also made him one of the youngest elected political leaders in the world.

One day he can be found on Instagram in a crisp white T-shirt and sneakers, strumming a song by the Goo Goo Dolls on an acoustic guitar and crooning along in English.

The next, he's striding, shirt-unbuttoned, shoulder-to-shoulder with heavily armed soldiers, or donning a bulletproof vest to lead ready-for-TV security operations.

Despite the flash public image, people describe him as reserved.

He is said to keep a very small circle of friends and advisors around him, some of whom he has known since his school days.

That circle includes his wife, nutrition influencer Lavinia Valbonesi, with whom he had two of his three children.

His speeches can be vanishingly brief -- sometimes just two or three minutes long -- and this on a continent with a long history of leaders delivering hours-long stem-winders.

In office since November 2023, he has enjoyed a short but intense first stint as president, a time marked by his war on gangs and a drought-related energy crisis.

He was elected to complete the four-year term of predecessor Guillermo Lasso, who had called a snap vote to avoid impeachment for alleged embezzlement.

Noboa now wants to continue this work and has repeatedly insisted that "nothing can be resolved in a year".

A wine connoisseur and budding musician, he was born in the United States. His father Alvaro ran for the presidency -- unsuccessfully -- five times.

At the age of 18, Noboa created his own events company before joining the family business.

He holds a degree in business administration from New York University and three master's degrees from Harvard, Northwestern, and George Washington universities.

Noboa describes his politics as center-left and is said to have once held up Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as a political role model.

But he won the election with support from the right and has embraced neo-liberal economic policies and hard-right politicians ever since.

He was one of the few Latin American leaders to travel to Washington for US President Donald Trump's second inauguration.

Before being elected president himself, Noboa's only previous political experience was two years as a lawmaker, when he served as chairman of the congressional economics committee.

- Humble origins -

An avid cyclist and marathon runner, 47-year-old Gonzalez garnered the most votes in the first round of voting in 2023 -- only to lose to Noboa in the second round.

She is the protege of socialist ex-president Rafael Correa, living in exile and sentenced in absentia by an Ecuadoran court to eight years in prison for corruption related to public contracts.

Trained as a lawyer, Gonzalez started politics on the right of the political spectrum, later switching sides and serving in the government of Correa, who continues to loom large as a divisive figure in Ecuadoran politics.

Gonzalez has vowed to pursue his socialist policies, while insisting he will be nothing more than an advisor.

From humble origins in a small town in Ecuador's southwest, Gonzalez holds master's degrees in economics and management.

Married at 15 and divorced at 22, she is a single mother of two sons -- she had the first when she was just 16.

She describes herself as coming from loving but humble beginnings and is proud of being the first generation of her family to become a professional.

Millions of Ecuadorans, she told AFP recently, "believe that they cannot achieve their dreams because they do not have sufficient resources."

"Look at my case, yes you can" she said.

Gonzalez would be Ecuador's first elected woman president.

She has sought to portray herself as a defender of women's rights.

But she has come under fire for her opposition as a lawmaker to abortion, even in cases of rape.

© Agence France-Presse