[A-List] Ecuador: Berlusconi mk II?

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Ecuador maverick Noboa flouts election rules
By Guy Hedgecoe in Quito
Financial Times: November 12 2002

The family of Alvaro Noboa - Ecuador's controversial presidential
candidate - built a fortune buying banana plantations on the Ecuadorean
coast and exporting fruit around the world. Now Mr Noboa's political
opponents allege he is using politics to extend a business empire already
worth about $1.2bn, approximately 6 per cent of Ecuador's gross domestic
product.

"What worries people is that Noboa will become the owner of the country and
turn it into his own personal hacienda," said Simon Pachano, a social
scientist at the Quito offices of the Latin American Faculty for Social
Sciences (Flacso).

Certainly, Mr Noboa, who is contesting a presidential run-off for the second
time, appeared to use his personal wealth to support campaigning. In theory,
candidates are limited to spending $1.2m a restriction introduced after
former president Jamil Mahuad was found to have accepted a campaign
contribution of $3m from a banker.

But Mr Noboa overspent some $1.1m and says he is unwilling to play by the
same rules as the other presidential contenders. At the beginning of the
first round, he refused to sign a "fair play" document obliging candidates
to conduct clean campaigns, publicly reveal their financial assets and
participate in debates.

The legislation looks like being difficult to enforce. The electoral
authorities have announced that Mr Noboa must pay a fine, but as Emma
Bonino, head of a European Union observer mission, says: "The law is not at
all clear regarding what the sanction is for parties that violate the
spending law."

Critics say Mr Noboa has already used political power to advance his
personal interests. He served as central bank governor in the ill-fated
administration of Abdala Bucaram, an eccentric populist president who was
impeached on grounds of mental instability in 1997.

The Noboa family has maintained a feud since Mr Noboa's father died. Mr
Noboa's sisters have taken him to court, claiming their brother illegally
appropriated their share of the family business when he was in the central
bank.

Mr Noboa has helped to raise his political profile by spending money on
charity and publicity stunts. His foundation - the New Humanity Crusade -
provides medical and social aid to poor communities. Last year his son's
baptism in New York, attended by North American friends such as the actors
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and members of the Kennedy family, was shown
live on Ecuadorean television.

"He wants to be recognised in politics, which is a field where his father
never ventured, because he is not recognised as a great businessman and he
suffers from the stigma that he simply inherited his wealth," said a former
business associate.

The success of Mr Noboa, who is not related to Gustavo Noboa, Ecuador's
current president, probably has as much to do with the ineffectiveness of
mainstream politicians. Successive crises and seemingly endemic corruption
have left establishment politicians in disrepute. Mr Noboa's attacks on
these groups have gone down well among voters. He has refused to take part
in public debates he labels "meetings of hypocrites" and his vague political
proposals are peppered with populism.

But in this respect Mr Noboa could soon find himself outflanked by Lucio
Gutiérrez, a former military colonel and coup leader, who pushed him into
second place in last month's first- round contest. Recent polls have shown
Mr Gutiérrez extending his lead.

Mr Bucaram's Roldosist Party, which once backed Mr Noboa, is now supporting
Mr Gutiérrez, as it seeks to prevent Mr Noboa from stealing the mainly
coastal, populist vote it has held over recent years.