Provided by
Dow Jones
By Ryan Dube
The election of a market-friendly banker to Ecuador's presidency will provide a new ally for the U.S. in Latin America, a region awash with populist leaders whose priorities often don't align with Washington's.
But Guillermo Lasso, who on Sunday handily beat his leftist rival, will also need to court the Biden administration's biggest rival, China. Mr. Lasso, who is 65, has the challenge of digging his country out of its worst economic crisis in a generation, product of a Covid-19 pandemic that has killed more than 17,000 people.
"Lasso, if nothing else, is very pragmatic, and in Ecuador today that demands close relationships with the United States and also China," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy group. "The country is in dire straits, and taking sides or excluding one of the countries is not realistic."