Daniel Noboa knew international blowback after Ecuador’s police stormed the Mexican embassy would be swift. But the 36-year-old Ecuadorean president-cum-strongman took a bigger gamble: that the raid would be to his benefit at home.
Since launching a war on drug traffickers driving a wave of violence across the once-peaceful Andean nation, Noboa’s popularity has surged despite growing concerns over a slide towards authoritarianism. Last month respondents to a poll by research group Cedatos put his approval rating at 82 per cent, with crime their number one concern.
But Friday’s raid on the Mexican embassy, a move rarely attempted even by military dictatorships, marked a dramatic escalation of the hardline stance adopted by Noboa, the son of a billionaire banana magnate who was elected in a special election in October.