4 things to know about the young conservative anti-crime president of Ecuador who was just re-elected

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa – who’s served just 16 months after a 2023 snap election – is now projected to serve a full four-year term after Sunday’s contest. 

Noboa, a 37-year-old heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, received 55.8% of the vote with more than 92% of ballots counted, according to Ecuador’s National Electoral Council. Leftist lawyer Luisa González, a protégée of former President Rafael Correa, earned 44% in Sunday’s runoff election, but she demanded a recount, alleging "grotesque" election fraud.

President Donald Trump congratulated Noboa on Truth Social, sharing a link to the BBC's reporting of the center-right leader as the run-off election winner. 

"Congratulations to Daniel Noboa, who will be a great leader for the wonderful people of Ecuador. He will not let you down!" Trump wrote.

Noboa, considered a pro-Trump conservative, and González, an ideological ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, competed in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly. Sunday marks the third consecutive time that the party of Correa, the country’s most influential president this century, failed to return to the presidency. 

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The president declared a state of emergency in seven of its 24 provinces the day before the election, citing increased cartel violence. González alleged voter suppression. 

Here are four things to know about the re-elected leader of the South American country.  

Under Noboa's watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023, to 38.76 per 100,000 people in 2024. But despite the decrease, the rate remained far higher than the 6.85 homicides per 100,000 people seen in 2019.

Noboa, billed as a law-and-order president, is expected to continue applying some of his no-holds-barred crime-fighting strategies that part of the electorate finds appealing but which have tested the limits of laws and norms of governing. 

He declared Ecuador to be in a state of "internal armed conflict" in January 2024, allowing him to deploy thousands of soldiers to the streets to combat gangs and to charge people with terrorism counts for alleged ties to organized crime groups.

Ecuador started 2025 with its bloodiest beginning on record, averaging a murder every hour, according to CBS News. 

The South American country has erupted in drug-trafficking-related violence in the last five years, the New York Times reported, citing how overcrowded jails, corruption and underfunding have resulted in gangs with international backing taking hold. 

Noboa has defended ordering an April 2024 raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito to apprehend former vice president Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive who had been hiding there for months. Further, Noboa entrusted presidential powers while campaigning earlier this year to a government official, unelected Vice President Verónica Abad, as required by the Ecuadorian Code of Democracy.

Last month, Noboa called on U.S., European and Brazilian soldiers to support the Ecuadorian police and military in their "war" against criminal gangs, according to the BBC. He called on the Trump administration, which has designated Tren de Aragua, of Venezuela, and MS-13, of Mexico, as foreign terrorist organizations, to do the same for cartels in Ecuador. 

"I would be glad if he considers Los Lobos, Los Choneros, Los Tiguerones as terrorist groups because that's what they really are," he told the BBC in March. 

Noboa said 70% of the world’s cocaine exits through Ecuadorian ports, arguing that "international forces" are necessary to combat what started as "criminal gangs" in the country, but have devolved into "international narco-terrorist" groups. 

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During his brief first term, Noboa has sought to establish a friendly relationship with the Trump administration. Grace Jaramillo, an Andean region expert and professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Associated Press these efforts played a role in some voters’ decisions.

"The majority of Ecuadorians have migrant relatives and know well that a scenario with González, a leftist, would be terrible for deportations," Jaramillo told the AP. "It’s an issue that touches every middle- and working-class home... Showing closeness to Trump was crucial for many families."

Ecuadorian officials communicated to Trump allies last month an interest in hosting a U.S. military base in the South American country, as well as negotiating a free trade deal, Reuters reported. 

Ecuador was exempt from Trump’s tariff rollout last week. In February, Ecuador levied a 27% tariff on Mexico. 

A U.S. intelligence assessment conducted days before Sunday’s runoff found that the re-election of incumbent Noboa over González, of the Citizen Revolution party, would better serve American interests over the next four years, CBS News reported. 

One U.S. intelligence official declined to detail the discussions but told CBS that "the goal of any partnership or U.S. presence in Ecuador would likely be towards kinetically going after criminal organizations, not simply just a training mission." 

Correa ordered the U.S. military out of Ecuador in 2014, the BBC reported. Lasso, and then Noboa, resumed cooperation with the U.S. military a decade later.

Noboa is the Miami-born heir to a fortune built on the banana trade – the country’s main crop. He opened an event-organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His first foray into politics was his stint as a lawmaker. 

In 2023, he became the youngest person elected president of Ecuador at a time when killings, kidnappings, robberies and other criminal activities had become a part of everyday life in the country once considered the "island of peace" in South America. 

The spike in violence is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. Mexican, Colombian and Balkan cartels have set down roots in Ecuador and operate with assistance from local criminal gangs.

In August 2023, then-presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated. In the months leading up to Noboa’s October 2023 runoff victory, other politicians and political leaders had been killed or kidnapped, car bombs exploded in multiple cities, including the capital, Quito, and inmates rioted in prisons. Seven men held as suspects in Villavicencio’s slaying were killed inside prisons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.