President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador has traveled to Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum this weekend to attract global investors to help spur growth in Ecuador.
Noboa, conservative President Javier Milei of Argentina, and José Raúl Mulino of Panama are the only Latin American leaders visiting this year’s annual retreat.
Ecuador’s Noboa, alongside Mulino of Panama, during a panel themed ‘Rebuilding Trust in Latin America’, highlighted a number of achievements during his brief tenure as president since taking office in November 2023.
Among Noboa’s stated accomplishments was his reduction in the national poverty rate in Ecuador to just over 21%. Noboa says that this is the lowest level in the nation’s history.
“We are pulling people out of poverty, from the hands of these narco-terrorist groups.”
The Ecuadorian head of state also assured foreign representatives that the Ecuadorian government and national security forces are in the midst of a “total war” against criminal drug trafficking organizations vying for control over the lucrative drug routes near and around the western port city of Guayaquil, which has grown into one of the region’s main drug trafficking hubs over recent years, sparking a bloody war between rival gangs, killing thousands.
Noboa was elected primarily on the issue of crime and is expected to deliver on restoring order in a country that has been tormented by violent crime and rampant corruption fueled by the profitable drug trade for the better part of a decade.
The Ecuadorian also pointed fingers at his political opposition back in Ecuador, claiming that there were political campaigns in Ecuador financed by the Maduro regime in Venezuela, a veiled allusion to Noboa’s opponent in the 2023 presidential election–left-wing candidate and political heir to Rafael Correa–Luisa González.
“Money flowed from the P.D.V.S.A.”
Noboa, in an attempt to present his South American nation as a safe destination for foreign investment, assured delegates that his two primary concerns in addressing during his administration are “misery and narco-terror”, which have plagued his country, ultimately preventing Noboa from carrying out his domestic agenda.
In recent months, the Noboa administration has established partnership arrangements with European governments, namely Italy and Great Britain, to combat organized criminal enterprises that are operating in Latin America.
During the panel alongside other Latin American delegates, Noboa also expressed optimism over the recent developments inside Venezuela. Ecuador has witnessed an increase in migration of Venezuelan migrants since 2016 due to the deteriorating economic conditions under the Maduro regime, stating, “Today we see hope in the Venezuelans who are in Ecuador and who had to leave their country.”
Noboa, a social conservative, has yet to follow the trend of other incoming Latin American leaders who have won elections in recent months, leaders who have vowed to enact large-scale deportation campaigns to facilitate the return of Venezuelan nationals to their homeland.
When asked about the ongoing feud between the U.S. Trump administration and European partner nations over the potential U.S. takeover of Greenland, Noboa stated, “I hope the differences are resolved by talking and not by imposing.”
