Ecuador’s political landscape is once again showing signs of volatility with its youngest president, Daniel Noboa, facing impeachment accusations from opposition segments claiming mental incapacity.
Daniel Noboa, aged 36, finds his presidency challenged by claims that question his mental fitness to govern.
As reported by Breitbart News, Ecuador's Vice Minister of Government, Esteban Torres, recently unveiled that certain opposition lawmakers are pushing for the impeachment of President Noboa, linking their actions to alleged concerns over his mental health. This revelation comes amidst a history of political instability and frequent attempts to impeach sitting presidents.
Previously, Guillermo Lasso encountered up to fourteen impeachment challenges and responded by temporarily dissolving the legislative branch in 2020, utilizing a rare constitutional option that allowed him to govern by decree. This decisive act led to the election of Noboa.
The political climate in Ecuador has been turbulent, marked further by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in August 2023, which dramatically intensified the electoral atmosphere. Villavicencio had been a vocal opponent of corruption, particularly implicating former president Rafael Correa, who has been in exile since 2018 following a corruption conviction.
Torres highlighted the recurrent use of claims of mental incapacity in Ecuadorian politics, drawing parallels to the past impeachment of President Abdalá Bucaram in 1996 for similar allegations. According to Torres, the opposition's current maneuvers are reminiscent of these earlier political tactics aimed at destabilizing sitting presidents.
Valentina Centeno, an Ecuadorian lawmaker, proclaimed that there is an internal push within the National Assembly to debate Noboa’s mental capacity, intending to categorize him as unstable.
Esteban Torres elaborated further on the opposition’s intentions:
President Noboa’s popularity and voting intention numbers are so frightening to the anti-government political camp in the [National] Assembly, that now they have even planned to disqualify him politically, inventing and reediting the ‘old reliable’ of mental incapacity.
In defense of President Noboa, Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld challenged allegations spread following a controversial article in the New Yorker. The article depicted Noboa making disparaging remarks about regional leaders. Sommerfeld argued that the article’s portrayal was skewed to strain Ecuador's international relationships.
The Secretary-General of the National Assembly, Alejandro Muñoz, clarified that the legislative body's recent denunciation of Noboa and the allegations in the said article do not equate to a formal move to declare him mentally incapable.
Viviana Veloz, affiliated with the Citizen Revolution party, contested the claims that there is an official move to declare Noboa mentally unfit, suggesting that these rumors are politically motivated distractions propagated by the government.
So far, the presidency of Daniel Noboa has been anything but usual, propelled into the office after an election marred by violence and assassination, and now, potentially threatened by political rivals within the assembly using claims of mental incapacity to destabilize his administration.
In summary, Ecuador’s political environment remains as unpredictable as ever, with its youngest president, Daniel Noboba, caught at the center of an impeachment controversy that reflects the recurring theme of political unrest and tactics seen in its history.
