Letters to Quito: September 5, 2026

The article describes President Daniel Noboa’s reported order to force the sale of $2 billion in real-estate assets held by Ecuador’s Social Security Institute, or IESS, as “a historic raid” on workers’ assets. It presents the move as the culmination of a desperate fiscal policy disguised as administrative efficiency, and warns that it could undermine the foundations of the welfare state and future pensions.

The constitutional objection is central to the article’s argument. It cites Article 370, which protects the IESS’s autonomy, and Article 372, which states that public social-security funds and reserves are separate from state finances. The article quotes the provision as saying: “The funds and reserves of public social security shall be its own and distinct from those of the Treasury. No state institution may intervene in or dispose of its funds and reserves, still less diminish its assets.”

The properties targeted for sale, including land, large plots and buildings, are described not as government property but as technical reserves belonging exclusively to contributors and retirees. Their legal purpose, the article says, is to preserve the system’s long-term sustainability.

The article contrasts the planned asset sales with the IESS’s problems in healthcare. It says the institution cannot guarantee access to treatment while essential medicines remain chronically unavailable and dialysis clinics and outside oncology centers face financial pressure. In its view, the issue is not a shortage of assets but structural nonpayment, with the government allegedly failing to transfer billions of dollars it legally owes the IESS.

The article also invokes the “Apagón” case, involving the alleged embezzlement processing of senior officials at the state electricity corporation over costly generation contracts that did not operate. It portrays the case as evidence of public funds being wasted during an emergency while patients with catastrophic illnesses are denied care on grounds of insufficient funding. It says the government has responded by accusing opposition mayors and prefects of owning dialysis centers, framing that rhetoric as an attempt to divert attention from corruption and justify dismantling the IESS.

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The funds and reserves of public social security shall be its own and distinct from those of the Treasury. No state institution may intervene in or dispose of its funds and reserves, still less diminish its assets.