Lenín
Moreno, Ecuador’s president-elect, has described being a paraplegic as a
blessing. People who walk, he explained a few years ago, keep their
gaze trained forward and upward.
“When
you don’t have legs, you look down,” he said in 2012, when he was vice
president, during a visit to the World Bank. “That’s what I learned:
that there’s another life, another existence, that there are other human
beings that need a lot from us. For me, this was a novel experience
that I thank God for.”
When
he assumes office next month, Mr. Moreno will be the only head of state
who needs a wheelchair to get around. That will make him among the most
powerful and visible champions of people with disabilities, and
position Ecuador to continue setting an example on a human rights issue
that has lagged as a global priority.
There are reasons to question whether Mr. Moreno, who won a tight runoff contest on Sunday, will be a good president. The way he snapped at journalists during his first news conference does not bode well for Ecuador’s press freedoms,
which eroded sharply during the decade-long tenure of President Rafael
Correa, who won his first election in 2006 with Mr. Moreno as a running
mate. Critics also fear that the incoming president could shield former
government officials suspected of corruption from prosecution.
Yet,
on disability rights, Mr. Moreno has spoken with tremendous passion,
and there is much he can do to make the world easier to navigate for
people like himself.
When Mr. Moreno arrived on the national political stage, he was not always taken seriously. An American diplomatic cable in 2006
about Ecuador’s presidential election was headlined, “Correa Selects
Unknown Running-Mate,” and described him with a bit of derision. Mr.
Moreno, it said, was a “motivational speaker and promoter of ‘laugh
therapy’ for the disabled.” The diplomatic dispatch, which was included
in the trove revealed by WikiLeaks, added that another disability
advocate had told embassy personnel that Mr. Correa had also offered
that person the vice-presidential slot because he “was apparently intent
on selecting someone from this sector.”
Mr.
Moreno was not regarded as a highly influential vice president under
Mr. Correa, a fiery left-wing economist who aligned Ecuador with other
socialist governments in Latin America. But his sense of humor, his tendency to break into song at
political events and his leadership on social services initiatives for
marginalized communities made him popular among Ecuadoreans. Among his
first priorities was to carry out a detailed census of Ecuador’s
population of people with disabilities.
“When
we started on this issue 10 years ago, we had three basic questions,”
Xavier Torres, the president of the National Council on Disability
Equality, said in an interview. “Where are they, how are they and what
do they need.”
Nota: O Presidente do EUA FDR não foi eleito na cadeira de rodas.
0 comentários:
Enviar um comentário