New Ecuador president Noboa pledges reforms to reduce violence, create jobs

By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) -Business heir and former legislator Daniel Noboa was sworn in as Ecuador’s new president on Thursday, pledging to reduce violence and create jobs via urgent legislative reforms.

Noboa, 35, won an October run-off in the South American country, which is facing deep economic challenges that have pushed thousands to migrate and spiking violence that reached an unprecedented crescendo with the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

“To fight violence we must fight unemployment, the country needs jobs and to create them I will send urgent reforms to the assembly, which should be treated responsibility and by putting the country first,” Noboa said during his maiden speech in front of National Assembly lawmakers in Quito.

Noboa will serve as president for just 17 months, finishing predecessor Guillermo Lasso’s term after the latter brought forward elections to avoid likely impeachment.

It will be hard for Noboa to effectively tackle Ecuador’s significant challenges during his truncated term, analysts have said, though he can run for re-election in 2025.

“We cannot keep repeating the same policies of the past expecting to have a different result,” Noboa said.

“I invite everyone to work together against the common enemies of violence and misery” he added. “The job is hard and difficult and the days are few.”

Noboa is expected to declare a state of emergency which will allow him to propose laws to the assembly with 30-day approval timelines.

States of emergency were frequently used by Lasso to try and tackle violence, to little effect.

Besides the job creation reform, which could include provisions to incentivize hiring, especially of young people, and lower value added tax on construction materials, a second reform focused on the electricity sector is also expected.

Ecuador is holding planned power cuts because the El Nino weather phenomena has caused drought, sapping hydro-electric plants of water and forcing the country to import energy.

DEBT AND SECURITY

Noboa’s cabinet will be sworn in later in the afternoon.

Several key posts remain vacant – he originally named Sariha Moya as his incoming finance minister, but said on Wednesday she will instead direct the planning secretariat.

Noboa has already toured the U.S. and Europe to sound out investors and lenders, but has warned he will balance meeting foreign debt obligations – totaling some $47.4 billion – with Ecuadoreans’ needs.

He has also said promised a new intelligence unit, to supply tactical weapons to security forces and to house the most dangerous criminals on prison boats.

Violent deaths in Ecuador could exceed 7,000 this year, a homicide rate of 35 per 100,000 people, according to a recent report from the Ecuadorean Organized Crime Observatory. Last week, Noboa agreed a legislative coalition with the conservative Social Christian Party and Citizens’ Revolution, the party of leftist ex-President Rafael Correa, which is likely to help push his reforms through.

Ecuador expects economic growth of 1.5% this year and 0.8% in 2024. Informal work accounts for more than 50% of the economy, according to official data.

Noboa is the son of Alvaro Noboa, a powerful banana baron billionaire who repeatedly failed to win Ecuador’s presidency.

The younger Noboa is the father of two small children, a daughter from his first marriage and a son with his current wife.

First lady Lavinia Valbonesi, 25, a social media influencer and nutritionist, is currently pregnant with a second son.

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