Guillermo Lasso, former president of the Republic of Ecuador, visit the University of Ecuador.

Guillermo Lasso, president of the Republic of Ecuador between May 2021 and November 2023, visited the University of Navarra and gave the lecture 'Leadership and Challenges in Latin America', organized by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). The former president shared with the students his most important lessons learned during his mandate, the relevance of politics to transform society and the challenges in Latin America to address insecurity, institutional crisis and poverty. In his conversation with the young people, Lasso highlighted the importance of the university stage and encouraged them to continue their education to put their skills at the service of society. Pablo Pérez, Full Professor of Contemporary History and Scientific director of the ICS, introduced the lecture with a review of his career.

"Look, when you have a lot to do in life, you have plenty of time. When you have little to do in life, you lack time". With this committee from his father, the former president began his lecture in a classroom crowded with Ecuadorian students. "That is why I have always tried to have a lot to do in my life," he said. Now 69 years old, Guillermo Lasso continues to undertake new projects. In this lecture, he addressed the challenges facing the region and the tools to solve them.

The former president delved into the causes that led him to dedicate himself to politics and explained that he entered public life to amplify his capacity for service. In this sense, child malnutrition was one of the most important issues during his mandate: "I carried out a strong fight against chronic child malnutrition. The ethics of government power obliges me to focus on this subject of issues", he declared. For the former president, health issues such as malnutrition are a priority in the subject of government: "Anyone builds roads, but does not save children. I received a country with 23.6% of chronic child malnutrition, the second highest in Latin America. And I handed it over with 19 percent. Currently, Lasso is dedicated to combating child malnutrition through his foundation Ecuador Crece Contigo (Ecuador Grows with You).

In his analysis of the current situation in Latin America, the former president argued that the region has a permanent challenge that is divided into three fundamental problems: poverty, insecurity and weak institutions. To solve these problems, he stated that it will take a long time, and that for this it is important to be above ideologies:

"When I went as Ecuador's representative to the Latin American presidential summits there was always an ideological discussion, but insecurity was never discussed. I suggested that we concentrate on solving the problem of insecurity, since it has no ideology," he said.

To conclude, Lasso highlighted ethics as acore topic tool to positively influence politics and focused his hope on young people, who were the core of his lecture: "My optimism is in you, in young people, because it is possible to fight corruption. I encourage you to fill the empty chair, I believe in the ethics of power. When a president is elected, he has not earned the award to do whatever he wants with the country".