Ecuador's dueling presidential hopefuls made a last-ditch pitch to late-deciding voters Thursday, wrapping a bitter campaign dominated by surging cartel violence and economic crisis.
Incumbent President Daniel Noboa and his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez crisscrossed their equator-hugging Andean nation, holding final rallies ahead of a midnight deadline to halt campaigning.
"We are surviving, not living," said 56-year-old Quito street vendor Jesus Chavez, summing up widespread discontent over insecurity and the country's anemic post-pandemic economic recovery.
Ecuador -- once a beacon of prosperity, stability and democracy in a troubled region -- today finds itself drenched in a bloody turf war between cartels, mafias and gangs of Colombian, Mexican, Italian, Albanian, Turkish and homegrown varieties.
This who's who of organized crime is vying for control of ultra-lucrative trafficking routes linking the clandestine coca plantations of Colombia and Peru with the nightclubs of Europe, Australia and the United States -- via Ecuador's Pacific ports.
In the last five years the country's murder rate has increased more than 400 percent according to non-governmental group Human Rights Watch, albeit from a low base.
That has been enough to scare off tourists and to prompt tens of thousands of Ecuadorans to flee overseas.
"There are cruel deaths, assassinations, crimes, it is a daily reality," said Chavez, who has been robbed multiple times during his hour-long commute to and from Quito's picturesque colonial heart.
Almost 14 million Ecuadorans are obliged to vote in Sunday's election.
From Friday midday, a total alcohol ban will enter into force, allowing fun-loving Ecuadorans a period of sober -- if slightly grumpy -- reflection.
In all, more than a dozen candidates will appear on the ballot.
Most are polling near zero, so the real race appears to be between Noboa, the telegenic tattooed scion of a banana empire, and Gonzalez, a similarly telegenic tattooed single mother and heir to Ecuador's powerful leftist movement.
Noboa, 37, has staked his political fortunes on a hardline "mano dura" policy of tackling criminal gangs head on, and on his youthful "Action Man" image.
On the campaign trail, he has strode shirt-unbuttoned shoulder-to-shoulder with heavily armed soldiers, and donned a bulletproof vest while leading spectacular ready-for-TV security operations.
In the volcano-ringed capital Quito Thursday, his campaign trucks ploughed major thoroughfares blasting salsa tributes, the lyrics heralding his ability to bring prosperity and tackle corruption.
A few passers-by swayed their hips in support.
In affluent parts of the city, shop owners peppered window fronts with life-sized cardboard cutouts of the president in a tank top and shorts, or dressed-down with arms crossed.
His campaign finale will take place in a 13,000-capacity Quito bull ring late Thursday.
"He's going to end the robberies, the narcotrafficking," said 64-year-old wheelchair-bound Noboa supporter Angelica Andrade.
Gonzalez's campaign has focused on her coastal strongholds, and on mopping up votes in poorer neighborhoods where her political mentor, exiled ex-president Rafael Correa made his name.
During a final rally in the country's largest city Guayaquil she ripped Noboa as an out-of-touch and vain "cardboard man" whose cash-strapped administration has neglected public services while issuing "declarations of war".
"There can be no peace without social justice, no peace without medicines in hospitals," she told supporters while flanked on stage by rifle-wielding special forces in full combat armor.
Most polls show Noboa with a consistent lead over Gonzalez. But he shocked pollsters by winning a snap election in 2023, and another upset is possible.
Each candidate will have to get 50 percent of Sunday's vote, or ten percent more than their nearest competitor to avoid an April second-round runoff.
