The Government of Ecuador denounced this Tuesday an assassination attempt against President Daniel Noboa during an official trip to the province of Cañar, in the south of the country. According to the official version, a group of people attacked the presidential motorcade with stones and projectiles when the president was heading to the municipality of El Tambo to participate in the inauguration of a public work. Noboa was unharmed and continued his agenda “normally,” as confirmed by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Inés Manzano. Five people have been arrested and will be prosecuted for attempted murder and terrorism.
The Ecuadorian Presidency has released images of the incident through the social network “We do what corresponds to us and they cannot stop us: reaching every corner of the country, where families need works, services and the presence of their president,” declared Noboa himself. In another message, the Executive assured that “the destabilizers failed to stop the national government” and accused the attackers of obeying “radicalization orders” to prevent the delivery of a community project.
Manzano, who filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office for an alleged assassination attempt, explained that during the attack “500 people appeared” and that in the president’s vehicle “there are signs of a bullet.” “We are not going to allow this. Ecuador says: ‘Yes to peace, yes to work,’ and these types of demonstrations that are not peaceful are not what we need at a time of progress and development,” he added. The Ministry of Communication has confirmed that the presidential car is under Criminalistics analysis.
The Government has framed the attack within a destabilization strategy against the Noboa Administration. “All those detained will be prosecuted for terrorism and attempted murder,” said the Executive, which considers the event an example of the “violent radicalization” of certain groups opposed to the economic reforms promoted by the president. The official discourse insists on projecting the image of a State that maintains control and does not give in to the pressure of protests.
However, political reactions have not been long in coming. The leader of Correismo and former presidential candidate, Luisa González, has criticized the Government’s version. “Everyone who opposes Noboa turns out to be a terrorist. What name do we give to the one who forgives 98 million and makes everything more expensive for the people?” he wrote in his X account, in reference to the reduction of the debt of the family company Exportadora Bananera Noboa, which went from 95 to 3.5 million dollars. For its part, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) has denounced a “brutal police and military action” against “the mobilized people” during the president’s arrival in El Tambo, and has demanded the release of the five detainees.
The attack on the presidential convoy occurs in a context of high social tension. The protests, called by Conaie, have now been going on for more than two weeks in rejection of the elimination of the diesel subsidy, a measure that raised the price of a gallon from 1.80 to 2.80 dollars. Protesters demand the restitution of this aid and a reduction in VAT from 15% to 12%. In recent weeks, an indigenous protester has been killed by gunshots allegedly from the military and more than a hundred people have been injured. The Government maintains that it will not reverse the measure, considering that the subsidy favored smuggling and illegal mining.
Minister Manzano has insisted that “the ancestral indigenous communities are not involved in this,” attributing the events to “certain criminal cells” infiltrated in the mobilizations. The Executive thus tries to separate the attack from legitimate protests and present it as an isolated violent action. However, tensions between the Government and Conaie continue, with nine roads blocked in three provinces and a calendar of mobilizations that threatens to extend until the constitutional referendum on November 16.
The climate of political insecurity is not new in Ecuador. The assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in August 2023, during the electoral campaign, marked a turning point in the perception of violence and the penetration of organized crime in national politics. Since then, the country has experienced episodes of social upheaval and growing distrust of institutions.
Noboa, who came to power promising to “recover peace,” has tried to project an image of stability despite the attacks. After the incident in Cañar, he continued his official agenda and maintained the planned events. But the event once again exposes the fragility of the Ecuadorian scene, trapped between the pressure of the street, the economic crisis and the need for leadership that is still seeking to assert itself. Less than two months before the referendum that could redefine the political map of the country, the Cañar attack has returned to Ecuador the feeling that the border between protest and violence is once again too thin.
