Daniel Noboa takes office on May 24. Photo: X.
By Pablo Meriguet – May 28, 2025
In his presidential inauguration speech, Noboa promised a positive and radical transformation of the country but did not provide details on how that would be accomplished.
On May 24, 1822, the pro-independence troops of Antonio José de Sucre arrived in the city of Quito, the principal city of the Royal Audience that shared the same name under Spanish colonial rule. On the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, independence fighters and royalists faced each other in an important battle before the expectant eyes of the entire city, which in 1809 had rebelled against the colonial administration and almost a year later suffered the terrible revenge of the royalist troops.
The Battle of Pichincha sealed the independence of what would later be known as Ecuador.
A new May 24?
On May 24, in honor of the nation’s independence, the president of the republic took office, redefining the anniversary. It is the second time that Noboa, born in Miami and son of the richest man in Ecuador, assumes the presidency of the state. However, it is the first time he does so on May 24, the symbolic date in Ecuadorian history.
The previous inauguration was on November 23, 2023, after the resignation of Guillermo Lasso and the early elections. On both occasions, Noboa defeated Luisa González, from the pro-Correa Citizen Revolution (RC), whose leader is former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
While Gonzalez accepted the first defeat, in the 2025 election, she and most of her party denounced alleged electoral fraud by the incumbent president, Daniel Noboa. Today, RC still does not recognize Noboa as the leader of the state.
However, due to the enormous influence that Noboa has gained across state institutions (such as the National Electoral Council, the Electoral Contentious Tribunal, the Attorney General’s Office, etc.), all the accusations against him have been dismissed. They range from not having requested a license to conduct an electoral campaign (as required by the Constitution) to allegedly having used public funds for political proselytism (through the delivery of bonds by the state to poor families during the electoral campaign).
Notably, the RC did not call for mobilizations to contest the election result; instead, it chose to denounce the outcome through the media and on social media.
Regional isolation
Without the counterweight of opposing institutions or an active popular mobilization, Noboa faced no resistance to taking office as the re-elected president of the country.
Nevertheless, Noboa’s popularity has faltered on the international level. After the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, Noboa lost the support of most of the region’s presidents, the majority of whom did not attend his inauguration – with the exception of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The fact that only two regional leaders attended the presidential inauguration in Ecuador (one of the lowest numbers in the last 20 years) is undoubtedly a symptom of something more profound.
Although Petro attended the inauguration, he made controversial statements before Noboa’s inauguration: “The population of great Colombia is crossed by denunciations of electoral frauds, both in Venezuela and Ecuador, of economic blockades that impoverish the population, of threats to sovereignty in the case of Panama, where foreign troops are already marauding through the Panama Canal, ignoring the treaty of Omar Torrijos, which Colombia helped to promote.”
However, in a world increasingly marked by the fragmentation of broad regional alliances, Noboa does not fear being partially isolated. After all, he has the support of US President Donald Trump, who sent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health of the United States, to the inauguration along with an old acquaintance of the Noboa family.
Daniel Noboa Sworn in as President of Ecuador Amid Fraud Challenges
An ambiguous presidential address
Niels Olsen, president of the National Assembly, offered a brief welcome to the event by extolling – perhaps excessively – the figure of Noboa. Both belong to the same party, National Democratic Action (ADN), which in recent days secured a majority in the Assembly after convincing several Assembly members of Pachakutik (PK), the party of the Indigenous movement, to vote jointly; PK is currently going through a deep crisis due to this alliance of some of its members with the neoliberal government.
In his speech, Olsen said that the Assembly over which he presides will be “useful”. A statement that could be interpreted as supportive of Noboa’s government, which seeks to approve several reforms through the legislative channel.
Much was expected from Daniel Noboa’s speech: his economic policies, his constitutional reform project (announced during the campaign), his proposals to combat the insecurity that plagues the country (that during his government has escalated to record levels of murders), his international agenda, etc. However, the president’s speech was marked by emotional and general statements, without speaking concretely about the plans of his political project. “This is the essence of the New Ecuador. It was never a campaign [slogan]. It is a way of governing: firm against crime, fair with its people, visible with its works, and indecipherable for the old politics,” Noboa said.
He affirmed that he will continue his fight against organized crime, although this fight has not produced the results the government claims. He also stated that he had “rescued Ecuador from the abyss and financial catastrophe” through his policy of economic austerity. Surprisingly, Noboa assured that he would increase public investment during his new term to generate more employment – something he had also promised two years ago. But he quickly returned to the topic of the fight against criminal gangs, which in a way was the throughline of his entire speech.
In addition, he promised to strengthen infrastructure, health, foreign investment, and education – though without specifics. What he did say is that he will sign contracts with the private sector to invest in the state – a move that aligns with the privatization policies the IMF has pushed for in Ecuador for several decades. He offered a plan to build a nuclear power plant to help alleviate the serious energy crisis that the country has been going through for several years. He also announced that there will be foreign, private, and public investment in several projects that will generate energy from oil.
A controversial moment in the president’s speech occurred when he affirmed that he would not disappoint the Ecuadorians, but only the oligarchies that have benefited from the state.
However, Noboa belongs to the richest family in Ecuador and one of the most powerful economic groups in the country.
In a way, this underscores the tone of the president’s discourse: a formality emptied of concrete content, a political communication unburdened of history, an architectural paraphernalia without visible columns. How many of these proposals Noboa will be able to fulfill remains to be seen. For now, his promises read more like platitudes than policy – wrapped in symbolism, but lacking the substance to meet Ecuador’s deepening crises.
