The election of a market-friendly banker to the presidency of Ecuador will provide a new ally for the United States in Latin America, a region flooded with populist leaders whose priorities often do not match those of Washington. .
But Guillermo Lasso, who on Sunday beat his left-wing rival, will also have to woo Biden administration’s main rival, China. Lasso, 65, is challenged to dig his country out of the worst economic crisis in a generation, the product of a Covid-19 pandemic that has killed more than 17,000 people.
“Lasso, to say the least, is very pragmatic and today in Ecuador this requires close relations with the United States and also with China,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a political group based in Washington. “The country is in an extreme situation and it is unrealistic to take sides or exclude one of the countries.”
Ecuador is now so embroiled in debt with Beijing that public coffers are almost empty, forcing the country to restructure its debt with private creditors and get a $ 6.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Under President Rafael Correa, who served until 2017 and guided his country to the United States and China, Beijing’s generosity built everything from dams to mines and hospitals. The debt burden is huge: $ 18.4 billion, the third highest in Latin America and behind two much larger countries, Brazil and Venezuela, according to the Inter-American Dialogue.