Dilemmas for the Ecuadorian left in the shadow of Correa

in the second round of the presidential elections on 15 October 2023 was perplexing for supporters of the former president, Rafael Correa.How did a right-wing candidate with a similar neoliberal agenda to the deeply unpopular outgoing president, Guillermo Lasso, defeat Luisa González, the left-leaning candidate of the correísta party, Revolución Ciudadana?Surely, after six years of International Monetary Fund (IMF)-sponsored neoliberal austerity, soaring violence, escalating poverty and surging migration, the time was ripe for a correísta president to steer the country away from the abyss?Understanding why Ecuadorians opted for Noboa, a member of one of Ecuador's wealthiest families, over González, a loyal correísta, requires looking back at Correa's decade-long presidency and delving into the nature of correísmo, the political movement that he leads from Belgium.Unpacking correísmo and exploring its complicated relationships with progressive organisations and movements reveal the dilemmas that the Ecuadorian left faces as it attempts to build a lasting alternative to neoliberal capitalism. 1 By placing correísmo at the centre of my analysis, I am not suggesting that the movement is responsible for the catastrophe that Ecuador is experiencing, a common claim of right-wing commentators as well as some on the left.Nor do I overlook the structural factors that complicate building and sustaining left movements in Ecuador.The peripheral position that the country occupies in the capitalist world economy creates significant obstacles, while dollarisation, which was hastily introduced in 2000, brings additional problems.Drug trafficking, especially of cocaine, creates further