When Lenín Moreno was sworn in as president of Ecuador last May, expectations were low.
Most assumed the mild-mannered former vice president to the bombastic leftist Rafael Correa would simply keep the seat warm for his erstwhile boss, who had termed out but was widely expected to run again in 2021.
How, after all, could a politician named after the legendary Russian revolutionary be expected to move the Andean nation away from the hard-left antics and vocal anti-American posturing of his predecessor?
Meanwhile, his passionate, career-long advocacy of humor as a way of improving quality of life had left some critics labeling Moreno, the son of public school teachers in a remote Amazonian province, an intellectual and political lightweight.
READ: [Ecuador’s President Ousted From His Party]
Yet, just nine months after taking office, Moreno — the world’s only wheelchair-bound head of state — is defying the odds as he rings in momentous changes in Ecuador.
He has reversed several key policies of his domineering predecessor, including Correa’s notorious repression of the media, while seeking to replace the fractious national climate that his mentor seemed to thrive on with “dialogue.”
Moreno, 64, has even broken with Venezuela and Cuba, calling back Ecuador’s ambassadors to both countries for supposedly being too close to their authoritarian socialist hosts. He has also, however clumsily, sought a face-saving exit to the impasse over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s continued tenure at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
Yet this Sunday may see Moreno take his most audacious step yet as Ecuadoreans vote on seven questions in a referendum the new president has pushed through against heavy opposition, including from his own political party, Country Alliance, which is still packed with Correa loyalists. Proposals include rolling back oil drilling in the Amazon and mining in natural protected areas, both once heavily promoted by Correa.
Although Correa’s name is not on the ballot, no one in Ecuador doubts the referendum’s most significant proposition, to limit elected officials to just two terms, is targeted at the former president. If passed, the measure, which has around 70 percent support in polls and Moreno describes as necessary for democracy, would bar Correa from ever leading the country again.
Correa has been outraged by what he perceives as his former protégé’s betrayal, accusing Moreno of being a “traitor” and a ” wolf in sheep’s clothing.” The president, in turn, has charged Correa with bugging his presidential office.
Sunday’s referendum vote in Ecuador may also lay down a marker for the region, with roughly two out of three voters across Latin America selecting new leaders this year. Corruption has become a defining issue from Tierra del Fuego to Tijuana and prominent politicians, from the left and the right, could pay dearly for their perceived graft.
In a country accustomed to seeing weak presidents come and go every couple of years, it is hard to overstate how towering — and polarizing — a presence Correa remains in Ecuador. Serving from 2007 to 2017, he survived a dramatic televised coup attempt, overhauled the police and failing public schools, and gave Ecuador a long overdue dose of political stability.
But now, in Moreno, Ecuador appears to have uncovered another strong-minded and, initially at least, wildly popular president. But unlike Correa, Moreno, who started his career as a teacher before running a tourism company and then moving into public administration, talks quietly and welcomes criticism.
‘Authoritarians Are Not Known for Their Sense of Humor’
Moreno’s early months as president are hardly the first time that he has been underestimated. Through the years, even the paraplegia that is the most visibly remarkable thing about him, has been dismissed as his only real selling point. Thanks to Wikileaks, we know that one Ecuadorean disability campaigner suggested Correa’s initial nomination of Moreno to be his running mate was tokenism, claiming that the president simply wanted someone from the disabled ” sector.”
César Ricaurte, who heads Fundamedios, a Quito-based media think tank that Correa once tried to shutter, notes two key difference between Moreno, who has three adult daughters with Rocío, his wife of 40 years, and his predecessor: Moreno’s tolerance of independent journalism and his laughter.
Indeed, Moreno does not just like to crack jokes. He has actually spent a significant chunk of his professional life promoting humor as a way to make life better, penning nearly a dozen different books on the subject with titles including, “The Theory and Practice of Humor,” “Being Happy is Easy and Fun” and “The Best Jokes in the World.”
Moreno’s interest in promoting humor came after the botched 1998 robbery that left him without the use of his legs. Shot at point-blank range outside a bakery in Quito by thieves who wanted to steal his car, Moreno, publicly at least, barely broke stride.
“For many people being left in a wheelchair like that could have been something that was impossible to overcome, but he managed to do it with optimism and humor,” Ricaurte says. “That says a lot about the man, but also about the politician. Authoritarians, and Correa, are not known for their sense of humor.”
Xavier Torres, who heads Ecuador’s National Council of Disability Equality, adds: “What he’s done as president does not surprise me. He is decisive and detail-oriented but, above all, it is striking how good a listener he is. He doesn’t interrupt. He always waits until you are finished.”
Torres, who also uses a wheelchair, first became friends with Moreno when the future president sought him out after his shooting. Since then, Torres says, Moreno has helped put Ecuador at the forefront of global disability rights.
READ MORE: [In Ecuador, Fissures Grow Among Cubans]
First, as vice president, Moreno initiated an urgent national audit of Ecuador’s disabled population, turning up a litany of horrific tales including of people abandoned by their families or living in cages. “We knew nothing,” Torres says. “We were starting from scratch. The questions we were asking were who are they, where, and what do they need?”
With Moreno as their champion, the South American nation’s annual budget for disabilities jumped from $900,000 to some $200 million, with money invested in everything from prostheses and specialized computers to improving physical access to buildings.
Between his two terms as vice president and his run for president, Moreno brought his message to the world when he served as the United Nations’ Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility.
For Torres, Moreno’s achievements are unique. He is not the world’s first disabled president. After all, Franklin Roosevelt led the United States while crippled by polio. However, in the pre-television age, most Americans had no inkling about their president’s handicap.
Moreno has spoken movingly of the humility that becoming disabled fostered in him, noting how using a wheelchair makes him look “down” rather than up. With a personal approval rating of around 70 percent, he would appear to have the political capital to continue fighting for the downtrodden, and for reforming Ecuador, for some time yet, starting on Sunday.
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Ecuador Referendum May Be Lenín Moreno’s Boldest Risk Yet originally appeared on usnews.com
