At the age of 36, Ecuador’s fresh-faced new President Daniel Noboa has been thrust into a full-scale confrontation with narco gangs terrorizing the South American nation in a bloody battle for supremacy.
A political novice and outsider, he took office last November as one of the youngest leaders in the world, vowing to tackle drug-related crime and violence that have turned the once pacific South American country on its head.
He may not have expected the day of reckoning to come so soon, or so brutally.
Since Monday, Noboa has spearheaded a military takedown of criminal groups that responded to his declaration of a state of emergency by taking hostage police officers and prison guards, threatening random executions, shooting up a TV studio live on air and setting off explosions in public areas.
At least 10 people have died, but Noboa has vowed to stand firm.
“This government is taking the necessary actions that in recent years nobody wanted to take. And that requires balls the size of ostrich eggs,” he told Canela radio Wednesday.
Noboa is a man of few words, but a straight shooter.
With a serious air but tanned and sporty, he tends to avoid official press conferences and interviews in favor of handing out hugs and selfies, and speaking his mind via Instagram.
Born in the United States as the heir to a banana empire, Noboa defines himself as a center-leftist but has the backing of right-wing political parties and embraces neoliberal economic thinking.
He is a sommelier and musician, collects chilli peppers, and is passionate about cars and horses, according to his press team.
At the time of his election, he was said to own seven dogs.
– ‘Without impunity’ –
Noboa has little political experience, having served as a lawmaker for two years during which time he was chairman of parliament’s economics committee.
He studied business administration at New York University and public administration at Harvard Kennedy School, and holds a Master’s degree in governance and political communication from George Washington University.
At the age of 18, he created his own events company before joining the Noboa family business.
Then last year, he realized the dream of his father Alvaro Noboa — one of Ecuador’s richest men, and who had failed in five presidential campaigns of his own.
Noboa Jr was elected Ecuador’s youngest-ever president for a period of 18 months to complete the four-year term of predecessor Guillermo Lasso, who quit to avoid possible impeachment.
On the campaign trail, Noboa had promised the “militarization of ports and borders” and to build a society “without impunity, without injustice and without insecurity.”
As president, he announced the country would construct two maximum security prisons — similar to the one built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in his own controversial war on gangs — to hold the most dangerous criminals.
– Avid athlete –
Noboa was catapulted into the limelight after he showed up to an election debate wearing a bulletproof vest and claiming he had received death threats.
That was shortly after the assassination of anti-graft and anti-cartel candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
This week, Noboa’s first real test as president came with the prison escape of prominent narco leader Jose Adolfo Macias, aka “Fito.”
He declared a state of emergency and countrywide nightime curfew that unleased a violent response from gangs that he has promised to put down.
“We cannot give in to these terrorist groups,” Noboa said Wednesday, vowing to “relentlessly confront” the gangs thought to have more than 20,000 members.
During his stint in parliament, Noboa had been accused of a conflict of interest for having financed, from his own pocket, a trip for seven MPs to Russia — a key market for his family’s banana business — after the invasion of Ukraine.
He has also been accused of tax evasion, but was never found guilty of wrongdoing.
An avid athlete, Noboa gets up at dawn to exercise, according to a profile released by his campaign. He also loves doing impressions of other people.
He is married to nutrition influencer Lavinia Valbonesi with whom he raises two children, with a third on the way.
