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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.
Regina Garcia Cano And Gonzalo Solano
Wearing a mask and face shield, an electoral official waits for voters at a school being used as a polling station during general elections in Cuzco, Peru, Sunday, April 11, 2021. Peruvians went to the polls amid a surge in new COVID-19 infections. (AP Photo/Sharon Castellanos) April 12, 2021 - 7:23 PM
QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador will be led for the next four years by a conservative businessman after voters rebuffed a left-leaning movement that yielded an economic boom and then a recession since taking hold of the presidency last decade. That election certainty, however, did not extend to neighbouring Peru, where the presidential contest is headed to a runoff after none of the 18 candidates obtained more than 50% of the votes.
Ecuador s National Electoral Council (CNE) will take a few days to officially announce the winner of the presidential runoff due to procedural requirements, a top official said hereIn a statement on Monday, President of the election body, Diana .
Guillermo Lasso, who unexpectedly won Ecuador's presidency on promises to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus, pledged on Monday to eliminate the fiscal deficit and to revamp oil deals.
Voters in Ecuador appeared to turn to a conservative businessman in Sunday's presidential runoff election, rebuffing a leftist movement that has held the presidency for over a decade marked by an economic boom and then a yearslong recession,.