Primera vuelta: La amenaza despótica

Abstract

The article examines Ecuador’s 2006 first electoral round as a struggle for hegemony between a widespread desire for change—manifested negatively through rejection of the political system and demands for a Constituent Assembly—and the clientelist, authoritarian appeal embodied by Álvaro Noboa, who captures popular expectations for immediate solutions through a paternalistic, neoliberal and anti‑communist discourse. Saltos argues that the left failed to convert social discontent into a coherent alternative project due to programmatic fragmentation, the weakening of the historical subject of change, and the disconnect between representation and grassroots mobilization. He warns that Noboa’s rise, supported by business, military and clientelist networks, signals a “despotic threat” capable of consolidating an authoritarian state, deepening neoliberal reforms, and obstructing the democratic path toward an original Constituent Assembly.