Joe Biden receives Guillermo Lasso in strong gesture of support for Ecuador in the face of turmoil in the region

President Joe Biden will receive his Ecuadorian colleague, Guillermo Lasso, at the White House this Monday, with the aim of giving him strong political support and strengthen the alliance between the United States and Ecuador, in times of upheaval and threats to democracy in the region.

Since the pandemic ended, Biden has received very few presidents. Indeed, the meeting with President Alberto Fernández scheduled for June has been postponed due to the Covid of the head of the White House and there are no signs that it will ever take place.

Now the American president has decided Promote Ecuador as a strategic regional ally. He also offered a visit to Lula who will be coming to the United States after taking office in Brazil in January.

It is not only Biden who sends a strong signal to the country from Lasso, a former conservative banker and businessman. Congress passed the United States-Ecuador Association Law last week, the first time in history that legislation dedicated exclusively to relations between the two countries has been passed, aimed at increasing bilateral cooperation on trade issues and deepening security , democracy, human rights and environmental protection.

what will they talk about

Security, economy and migration These are issues that presidents will address. But above all they will talk about the importance of democratic institutions, when neighboring Peru faces a major crisis that does not stop, and which included a self-coup, the arrest of President Pedro Castillo and a wave of violence in the streets.

Leaders will also discuss the launch of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity in the Americas, a new agreement to spur growth, mobilize investment, promote clean energy and biodiversity, and strengthen supply chains, a partnership the United States promotes for curb Chinese influence in the region.

“The appointment to the White House is a recognition of the strategic importance of Ecuador at this moment and of the positions shared by President Lasso with the United States,” he said clarion Roberto Izurieta, director of Latin American Projects at George Washington University, who stressed that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s first visit to South America was to Ecuador.

“When these meetings take place, it sends a signal and a course of action throughout the administration. This drives the common agenda,” Izurieta said. One of Ecuador’s priorities, he added, is the fight against international organized crime and that this “is a shared challenge” with the United States.

For Luis Martínez, professor and expert on Latin America at the University of Chicago, the United States seeks to strengthen Ecuador as a strategic ally in the region which is going through a delicate situation.

“Economically, many countries have high inflation and growth forecasts for next year are not very encouraging. Politically, Peru is going through an acute political crisis and in many other countries, such as Colombia and Chile, left-wing governments have recently come to power. Brazil has just had a very complex election in which the democratic regime has been questioned and in Argentina, former president Cristina Fernández, now vice president, has just been convicted of corruption,” he said clarion.

“These factors may affect US economic and political interests and lead this country to seek to strengthen its relations with strategic allies such as Ecuador,” he added.

turbulence

The expert adds that the United States fears that the turbulence in Peru will spread to the region. “While this instability seems to be quite specific to Peru, with several changes of president in recent years, it is also true that other countries such as Colombia or Chile have experienced significant protest movements in recent times. These movements have been associated with increased electoral support for leftist proposals, which tend not to be very similar to US economic and political interests in the region.

Martínez underlines the importance of the global context: “The invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for the United States on the need to strengthen relations with its allies and to re-establish its relations with those countries that can provide a strategic advantage”.

John Polga-Hecimovich, professor of political science and Latin America expert at the United States Naval Academy, said clarion that Ecuador has now become a “strategic regional ally” of the United States.

“In general terms, I see at least three geopolitical factors behind the Biden-Lasso meeting: the regional shift to the left, China’s commercial advance in Latin America and an increase in violence related to drug trafficking in Ecuador,” he underlines.