El Abogado Álvaro Noboa en la Rueda de Prensa en la Central del CFP
ÁLVARO NOBOA PRESS CONFERENCE FROM THE CFP OFFICES
Walter Freire: Welcome CFP colleagues, 63 years of glory, of popular struggle and of the Concentration of Popular Forces. This is the party of Guevara Moreno. This is the party of Assad Bucaram. This is the part of the Ecuadorian people who say: Álvaro Noboa is present in the popular fight to reach victory from the Government Palace.
We give the most cordial, most warm, most brotherly welcome to the candidate of the poor of Ecuador, and we say that in your government you are going to change the history of this country. Welcome future President of Ecuadorians!
Álvaro Noboa Pontón: I want to thank the Concentration of Popular Forces, the CFP, for your endorsement of my presidential candidacy. In the next days, I will present to all of Ecuador, via the Press, the other movements and parties which have resolved to support my struggle in order to achieve the transformation of Ecuador from a poor country to a country where the middle class is first, where the middle class earns $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 dollars and where that person can have – who today is poor – can be able to have a cement house, can be able to have a car, and higher education. I want to take the opportunity to say to the people of Ecuador, as well, that all the victories that the government of Economist Rafael Correa has achieved in the social arena will be respected by my government. That the very good program of healthcare developed by Rafael Correa will continue. That the protection of social security for everyone, also developed by Rafael Correa will also continue, and that the construction of roads will also continue, something that Economist Rafael Correa has achieved with great success. But in addition to those social conquest will be added our proposal to transform Ecuador and to resolve the problems that Rafael Correa has not been able to. We will resolve poverty in Ecuador. We will eradicate poverty in Ecuador. We are going to generate jobs. We will end this terrible economic situation that the middle and poor classes are experiencing who, due to the high price of foods and consumer items, are not able to survive on their income. I will also fight against crime which is one of the biggest problems in Ecuador. Crime which has hit the poor and the middle-income people and keeps hitting them day after day. I will bring the best security consultants in the world, and I will attract national and foreign investment so that there aren’t only 20 large company groups like there are today, but rather 1,000. For that, it is important to have judicial security; that the investor knows that justice is not gained at the expense of government, but that justice will be impartial and independent.
We will also give them a context where there are no social conflicts between workers and owners, where government, owners and workers will fight together to transform this country into a great country.
This is our proposal and I am grateful to this great party, the CFP, which is over 63 years old, for uniting in this great struggle and just like this party calls itself the Concentration of Popular Forces, I hope to achieve a concentration of diverse movements and parties so that together with the PRIAN, List 7, we can reach power and we can finally say with pride that we live in a country where there is no poverty, where there is freedom, where the press and the citizens are free, where there is no class war, and where God lives in the heart of each one of us. Long live Ecuador!
PRESS: Counselor, do you agree with attorney Abdalá Bucaram’s return to the country? Do you agree that he can return for the next elections?
Álvaro Noboa: I think that under democratic law everyone should participate and attorney Bucaram has spent more than 16 years abroad. Therefore, yes, I do agree that he come to participate in the electoral lineup.
PRESS: What does the CFP gain from supporting the candidacy of Álvaro Noboa? Can they put their leader with the PRIAN flag? Because the candidates are already ready.
Álvaro Noboa: In our PRIAN lists, in the national and in the provincial lists there are, today, figures from the CFP, so we hope to govern together for the good of Ecuador.
PRESS: Counselor, are you in contact with other political groups and will you be making similar announcements in the next few days?
Álvaro Noboa: That’s right, I hope this week and next to be able to present to the whole of Ecuador via the Ecuadorian press all the other movements and parties that have decided to support our candidacy. Here we have a representative of META, Pocho Harb, who is also here, but we will hold a special event with him in which he will bring the directors of his movement in order to make a definitive agreement. Pocho, also a Meta representative, is here today as the first Assembly candidate for Guayas District 2.
PRESS: Counselor, the candidates from your party, the PRIAN, in other provinces. How are they going? Have they already been notified?
Álvaro Noboa: The majority, as you know, there are six or eight parties that are participating and that until now we have not been challenged. I believe that we have two small challenges that we are going to be able to resolve, now that we have the corresponding documents.
PRESS: How does it feel having had your running ticket approved by the CNE?
Álvaro Noboa: It’s been a long fight. I have been the subject of persecution. However, under my leadership, I will not persecute Economist Rafael Correa. I will not prohibit him from leaving and entering the country like I am prohibited to do at the moment. I am not going to seize any of the goods he owns. I am not going to send people to intimidate him or to harass him in his home, like they did to me a few days ago, when they went to take some vehicles from my wife’s house. When I am President, Economist Rafael Correa will be respected like all the citizens of Ecuador, in every sense of the word.
PRESS: How many CFP party members will take part in your lists?
Álvaro Noboa: The most important candidate is Walter Freire, and also Averroes Bucaram is going to be an important member of the political bureau, where the directorship of the PRIAN is, the directorship of the CFP, directors from other movements that have joined this great popular struggle.
Walter Freire: We thank the national press this very special deference towards our party and we say, “Let’s go forward”. We are ready to continue with this fight. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much, Álvaro, for honoring the house of the Ecuadorian people with your presence.
The CFP is from this moment – from four earlier opportunities – present in this struggle. This is the fifth opportunity in which the CFP gives its unconditional support to the presidential campaign of Álvaro Noboa. For those things of destiny, for the oppression and persecution of the popular sectors, this party submitted 435,600 affiliation cards; they approved 135,000. 22,500 were declared incomplete. For all of the other parties they approved the incomplete ones as valid and they have disappeared 40,000 cards, we don’t know in what office they are now, but we are going to solve this. Be sure that this party will receive electoral recognition from the CNE. They have given us 12 months to complete 20,000 cards, but we have more than enough. This party, with re-registration or without re-registration will support, as it has done on four previous presidential occasions, our candidate, Álvaro Noboa Pontón.
Thank you very much.
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