PRIAN Presidential hopeful, Alvaro Noboa, closed his electoral campaign this afternoon in Guayaquil. Noboa held a press conference in TAME (LAN), where he declared that “February 17th will be the final battle in order to transform Ecuador in a country where wellbeing and happiness reign”; a day in which, he indicated, he would emerge victorious in the elections to be held this Sunday.
The banana magnate, together with his running mate Annabella Azín, and candidates for the National Assembly, Provincial Assembly and the Andean Parliament, toured the principal streets of the port city accompanied by hundreds of sympathizers up to Machala Ave and Gómez Rendon street, from where Noboa gave his closing campaign speech.
Noboa indicated that Ecuador is currently under the influences of Castro and Chávez, and that the country had lost its sovereignty, autonomy and freedoms. “This country is now being directed from Cuba and Venezuela with its 21st century Socialist ideology, which has taken more than a million Ecuadorians into unemployment over the last six years.”
The businessman invited Ecuadorians to unite this February 17, in order to break the slavery to which they had been submitted by the Government the those six years.
“I invite Ecuadorians to break the chains of slavery and that we will break the chain of slavery when that which makes us free will become a truth; when we don’t have to ask for charity or go out and steal, or go out and kill in order to have bread to eat, or in order to give our children something to eat; when we can speak freely; when the press can freely express what it sees and what it feels; when Ecuadorians can conquer the fear that is present in all of our homes in Ecuador. So much fear that 30% of Ecuadorians today, when they are surveyed, say that they haven’t decided which way to vote in order to avoid suffering any consequences – even though they have decided to vote for Álvaro Noboa, President of Ecuador.”
After his speech, Noboa continued touring the center streets and the southern part of the city.
Campaign Closing Speech By Álvaro Noboa Pontón
I ask God for inspiration in this crucial moment in which there is going to be a change in our history. A history of slavery. 700 years ago, the conquistadors, the warriors of the Inca Empire came to this people of Ecuador and we were conquered by them and we lived conquered by them for 200 years. Then, to continue along that route of slavery, the Spanish came at the beginning of the 1500s and they remained, to sack our nation for 300 years, taking gold, taking our resources, exploiting. They said they came to protect and, unfortunately, they came to enslave.
At the beginning of the Republic, our first Chief of State was a Venezuelan, that is to say, he also wasn’t of this nation, and we continued to walk under the influence of the big powers of the world without ever having had sovereignty or autonomy, without ever being able to freely call ourselves a nation. And now this great country is being directed from Cuba and from Venezuela, with their 21st century socialist ideology, and it has taken more than a million Ecuadorians into unemployment in the last six years. Because six year ago, one million declared themselves unemployed and asked for the Voucher. Now two million declare themselves unemployed and handicapped and ask for the Voucher, without counting the people who work half time or part time and do what they can to survive on one or two dollars a day.
All of this, because we could never break the chains of slavery, and it is to that I invite Ecuadorians to break the chains of slavery and that we will break the chain of slavery when that which makes us free will become a truth; when we don’t have to ask for charity or go out and steal, or go out and kill in order to have bread to eat, or in order to give our children something to eat; when we can speak freely; when the press can freely express what it sees and what it feels; when Ecuadorians can conquer the fear that is present in all of our homes in Ecuador. So much fear that 30% of Ecuadorians today, when they are surveyed, say that they haven’t decided which way to vote in order to avoid suffering any consequences – even though they have decided to vote for Álvaro Noboa, President of Ecuador.
In order to break the chains, the biggest of all come from poverty, I have written, with the help of God, the Noboa Plan, which consists of Ecuadorians with judicial guarantees; Ecuadorians without class warfare; Ecuadorians without fear, and all those foreigners who wish to unite themselves to us, being able to develop our natural resources without them being carried off by others, without being robbed by others, and to transform, in that way, the poor of Ecuador into an honorable middle class, educated at technical colleges, at university, in the very same businesses, so that they can earn enough to have a respectable house, a respectable mode of transportation, and education for each and every one of their children.
In order to conquer fear, we have to do nothing more than to walk with our heads held high, to resist anyone who want to extort our own goods, like I myself have been a victim of, that has me here, fighting, without being able to leave the country, with my companies interfered with, accusing me of not paying taxes, when there is no one who pays more taxes in Ecuador, who is Álvaro Noboa, President.
In order to achieve freedom, we have to cut the chains to Cuba with a nationalist spirit; cut the chains to Venezuela. Or is it that here, in Ecuador, we don’t have great minds? I think that the 14 million Ecuadorians have the capacity to think, to develop the ingenuity to produce, and that we don’t, at any moment, need for Venezuela or Cuba to want to put us in their shadow.
In order to get up every morning to fight against those dictators of the history of Ecuador, there have been so many and they’ve wanted to drive us to our knees. I, myself, in 1973, was disappeared by a Military Junta, but they weren’t able to drive me to my knees. Because no man can drive me to my knees who wishes to take from me, or my family, or from Ecuadorians, our freedom, our freedom, our freedom and our resources, which don’t belong to them, but belong to us.
Therefore, Ecuadorians, let’s take, finally, for ourselves, for the 14 million Ecuadorians, that, which, by right, is ours. Education is free and is our right. The oil is ours and is our right. Bananas are ours and are our right. The shrimp, the flowers, the industries are ours and are our right. But we have to achieve another level of consciousness: a higher level to the one you have.
Leave fear to one side, and on Sunday, February 17, go with your head held high, in your best white shirt and your black trousers and submit your vote for freedom, submit your vote for wellbeing, submit your vote for security, submit your vote to lower prices on food and domestic appliances, that are strangling us. Submit your vote for studies, submit your vote against crime, submit your vote against unemployment, and vote for Álvaro Noboa, President.
I have dedicated years of my life to this struggle, and I don’t think of making deals with anyone in Ecuador, nor abroad. I plan to leave a large part of the time that I have dedicated to my businesses, which have given me and my family enough to live very well on, and to use all of my ingenuity, everything that God has given me, to serving the 14 million Ecuadorians, and to transform each and every one of them into human beings who live honorably.
In my fight, I will restore to teachers the rights lost to them over these years. They work longer hours, they are not paid more, their salary scale is not respected, and I am not going to allow that. I am going to defend the national police, who have lost all their rights. Their medals are not recognized, their seniority is not recognized, the value of their work is not recognized. Therefore the police go out every day to die or to kill a wave of criminals who have invaded our country with the authority of this government.
In order for all of you to live better, I am going to lower taxes, because in that way, thousands of Ecuadorian and foreign investors will come to this country, and 10 x 1000 = 10,000. When this country doesn’t have even 40 mid-sized business groups who, proportionally, generate 1,000 in taxes, or that is to say, a tenth of what I am proposing. My Treasury will have ten times more money than the current Treasury, because you, the 14 million Ecuadorians, will be ten times wealthier than you are now. Therefore, we all win with this plan.
This time, we can’t remain quiet with our arms folded if they want to steal the presidency from us again like they stole it in ’98. We have to break the chains, in not allowing fraud to be committed any more in the history of Ecuador. Because when they take the Presidency away from the President you have chosen, they are not only laughing at you, but they are also preparing to take away your goods, your health, your education and to make you into a poor and miserable country, which neither you, nor I are going to ever permit to happen again: never again, never again, never again, never again, never again, never again, never again, never again, never again.
Thank you, beloved Ecuadorians, for having delivered to me, during 14 years of struggle, your support, your love, your solidarity. Thank you, beloved Ecuadorians. The only way that I can thank you for so much support and so much love is to work for you without stopping, day and night, so that you have a better life.
I will dedicate my life to bringing about an economic miracle, here in our country, and I ask God, as well, that after all those years that I for in order to serve Him and to serve Ecuadorians, that I will be on my deathbed, together with Annabella, together with my son, Daniel, together with my daughter, Carla, together with my son, Juan Sebastián, together with my son, Santiago, together with these colleagues in the political arena, and in the business arena, who have followed me and have believed in me, and they will be able to hear the whisper of a dying man who will say: I love you, but I love, love, you don’t know how much, I love you and every single Ecuadorian.
I love you Ecuador, I love you Ecuador, I love you Ecuador, I love you Ecuador, I love you!
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