The stunning victory of Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa on Sunday might be a sign Latin America is turning to the right after decades of being considered a primarily left-of-center region.
With the triumph of "law and order" conservative Noboa, three other countries with long histories of left-of-center and anti-U.S. governments are now considered better-than-even money to elect presidents running on conservative agendas such as a tough crime-fighting stance and friendship with President Donald Trump.
With near-final returns in Monday night, Noboa won a decisive 55.8% run-off victory over leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, a protégé of former President Rafael Correa and Venezuela's strongman President Nicolas Maduro.
In a sense, the Noboa-Gonzalez bout was one between Trump and Maduro by proxy. Along with vowing to take a hard line against the rising murder rate, Noboa, 37, spoke warmly of Trump and how he was working with the U.S. president on deportation of illegal immigrants back to Ecuador.
Like Maduro, Gonzalez made clear she would not work closely with Trump on repatriation of Ecuadorians illegally in the U.S. Noboa campaigners pointed out that Gonzalez's mentor Correa, the U.S. military was ordered out of Ecuador in 2014 but Noboa and his predecessor Lasso reopened military ties to the U.S. a decade later.
(Once the returns were final, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Congratulations to Daniel Noboa, who will be a great leader for the wonderful people of Ecuador. He will not let you down!")
"Daniel Naboa had a resounding victory in Ecuador's presidential elections on Sunday, exceeding almost all expectations," Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center For A Secure Free Society, told Newsmax. "Most polls showed a tight margin with around 2 point difference for either candidate. Polls, however, turned out to be wrong again and now President Naboa has a strong mandate to make the changes needed to stabilize and secure his country."
Humire noted that Naboa is a strong partner of the U.S. on "Counter-Transnational Organized Crime, countering China to include IUU [Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated] fishing, and even to combat illegal mass migration."
"But most importantly," Humire emphasized, "President Naboa has the opportunity to join the ranks of Presidents [Nayib] Bukele of El Salvador and President [Javier] Milei to make Latin America a land of freedom, prosperity, and security."
There are others who might easily join their ranks this year.
The next Latin American countries to elect president will be Bolivia (Aug. 15), where polls show conservative Cochabamba Mayor Manfred Reyes Villa leading a crowded field; Chile (Nov. 16), in which Johannes Kaiser, dubbed the "Ron Paul of Chile" for his libertarian views, is running neck and neck with liberal Providencia Mayor Evelyn Matthei; and Honduras, where former Tegucigalpa Mayor and conservative Nasry Asfura is the front-runner in a three-way race.
The common denominator is, in all three countries, the government that is stepping aside has been hostile to the U.S., opposed to free markets, and overseen a rise in crime and violence.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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