María José Lapierre has just voted and has done so with fear, the same fear that the citizens of Guayaquil. The Pearl of the Pacific no longer shines as before, having become the epicenter of the wave of violence caused by drug trafficking.
The most populous city in the country will once again be key in the final result of the Ecuadorian presidential elections this Sunday. One of his sons, the centrist Daniel Noboacontinued at noon at the head of various exit polls, although his rival, Luisa Gonzalezcandidate chosen by another Guayaquileño (the former president Rafael Correa), still dreams of a last-minute comeback. In the campaign command of the National Democratic Alliance (ADN), it was considered essential to reduce the difference achieved in Guayaquil and its dormitory cities by the Citizen Revolution in August. To achieve the final bypass, Noboa needed to overcome a disadvantage of 10 percentage points.
“I was scared when I arrived at my polling station, at the Faculty of Mathematics. In the first round there were only about 10 soldiers, today I counted more than 40, all armed. How scary!”, describes to EL MUNDO Lapierre, a 25-year-old Tourism graduate, who is part of the group made up of young Ecuadorians, the most sought after in these elections.
Little remains of the Guayaquil of other times, even its name has changed. Since two years ago several media outlets invented a neologism to criticize the administration, social networks and young people have popularized the term Guayakill to pinpoint your mood. “Is that in Guayakill We are terrified, we feel the tension in the atmosphere. We have voted with fear. Fear has a thousand faces in our city,” concludes Lapierre.
We are in the south of the city, at the La Pradera 2 school, which is part of district 1, the most popular and the most dangerous. Its proximity to the ports, from where the cocaine for Europe and the United States, has triggered insecurity in this sector. An area full of young people, who repeat similar slogans after voting, trapped in a spiral of despair: we are tired of the same thing, we want new politiciansEnough of so much theft and corruption. “Chucha, until when? We’re risking our future and it doesn’t seem to matter,” complains Jonny T.