The left returns to Ecuador

The results of the municipal elections held last Sunday in Ecuador confirm a new push for the movement promoted by former President Rafael Correa.

He is still a key player in Ecuadorian politics today, and never really stopped being one.

The Revolución Ciudadana party prevailed in Quito and Guayaquil, in addition to retaking control of other municipalities and provinces.

Correa resides in Belgium, where he was granted asylum, but oversaw the final stretch of the campaign from Mexico.

The former president left his country at the beginning of 2018 amid a barrage of accusations and legal proceedings and was sentenced to eight years in prison for bribery, a decision he considers a sign of persecution.

Regardless of the political aspirations of one of the leaders of the so-called pink tide that flooded Latin America two decades ago, the local elections have shown that the left can regain power in the Andean country in the face of growing discontent among the population and the perception of abandonment.

When Correa passed the baton to Lenín Moreno, he did so with the conviction that he would continue his legacy.

The opposite happened, and a rupture was consummated.

In the 2021 presidential elections, he won the right, although the Government of Guillermo Lasso has emerged weakened from this last appointment with the polls.

And this is where a window of opportunity opens for the opposition.

Ecuador is going through the most serious security crisis in memory in the country, the result of the incursion of the Mexican cartels.

Important cities like Guayaquil, the hardest hit by organized crime and common violence, have abandoned political and electoral confidence in the conservative forces and have turned to Correa's party.

President Lasso had tried to gain some air with a referendum on key issues in the country, although he ultimately suffered a severe setback.

Aware of his defeat, and with the thrust of renewed correísmo, the president called on political leaders to build a great national agreement.

Two years after the presidential elections,