🎤 Upset odds and a nightclub tragedy

Hello, and welcome to the LatAm Report, your pulse on Latin America’s power plays and economics. If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach us at [email protected]

Ecuador’s runoff: same crisis, different odds

Just 18 months after banana empire heir Daniel Noboa defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa González in Ecuador’s 2023 snap election, the two are poised for a rematch — this time for a full four-year presidential term. The winner will inherit a country still grappling with the political and economic turmoil unleashed in the wake of the pandemic.

👉 Why it matters. In a region tilting to the right, Ecuador’s left appeared to have only a slim path back to power. But despite a ban on her political mentor — the two-time former President Rafael Correa, exiled in Belgium after a corruption conviction he denies — González has emerged once again as a formidable contender. 

• Her resurgence has upended expectations that Noboa’s re-election was all but assured.

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