Ecuador’s electoral council approved on Saturday a request by President Daniel Noboa to organise a referendum asking voters to approve key changes to the nation’s constitution, as its conservative government seeks more tools to fight drug related violence. Voters will be asked whether a prohibition against foreign military bases in Ecuador should be eliminated. And whether the State should no longer have an obligation to fund political parties. Noboa called for the referendum through a decree issued earlier this week, which also said that voters should be asked if the nation should rewrite its constitution by organizing a constituent assembly. On Friday, however, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court suspended the request for voters to decide on a constituent assembly as it reviews several lawsuits against the move.
Noboa, 37, was elected earlier this year to a second term. The conservative politician, heir to one of the nation’s largest fortunes, has implemented iron-fisted policies against drug cartels that include militarising some of the nation’s most violent cities, suspending some civil liberties and declaring drug gangs enemy combatants. Located between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador was once one of the safest countries in South America. But homicides rates in the nation of 18 million people have tripled since 2020, as drug gangs fight for control over smuggling routes along the Pacific coast.