Ione Wells
speaker
364 appearances
21 recordings
3 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard 17 Aug
Ione Wells’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.
Appearances
And suddenly the judge at the centre of it all is actually now being sort of taken on legally by Donald Trump and his company is quite interesting. On your wider point, though, of, you know, what could Trump actually do to assist Bolsonaro?
I think a lot of it is about sort of their support that they show online, the way that they're managed to really rally up people, use them as a cause that they can get international media's attention on, get their sort of fan base energised by. Practically, though... he is potentially going to face a legal process in Brazil.
So there is a bit of a question mark about whether that support, that rhetoric, only goes so far, really. If...
Yeah, I think to make another comparison with the US here, you know, the election that's due here in 2026 has a lot of parallels with the last US election. You have an elderly incumbent on the left who has had some recent health issues, who will be nearly 81 by the time of the next election, who is probably going to face pressure not to run again. That's President Lula.
Then you have, if, as you say, if Jair Bolsonaro is in some way allowed to run again, if this ban were to be lifted or if he wasn't to face trial and legal challenges ahead, you know, you then have this very popular right-wing figure who is energised by, you know, presumably, if he's got to that point, overcoming various legal barriers and and still has a big base in Brazil.
He is still very much the figurehead of the right in Brazil. His Liberal Party is the largest in Congress. He's still able to attract big rallies across the country. He, as I say, has big support among evangelical Christians, among farmers, agriculture business. Polls still suggest that he's the most popular right-wing figure. So I think that base is certainly still there.
I think where, again, there are parallels to Donald Trump is you do have some figures on the right, too, who can't really stomach him and feel like he is a toxic brand and basically privately probably would much rather that he does potentially go to jail and that they can kind of rebuild a more moderate right wing challenge to President Lula and the left in Brazil.
But I think it is fair to say that, yeah, were he to overcome these barriers, he would be a really significant electoral force, not least because he still has the sort of campaigning material behind him. He's still got a big base on social media and in real life here.
Thank you for having me.
It has been a bit of a shock result, particularly for the incumbent Daniel Noboa, because electoral authorities here in Ecuador have called this a technical tie after both Daniel Noboa and his main challenger, Luisa Gonzalez, received pretty much identical percentages of the vote. Now, it was expected that it could go to a second round in April, but polls say
had suggested that Daniel Noboa was significantly ahead. This result is more narrow than expected, indicating that second round could be much harder to call. And certainly the result dashed the hopes of Noboa's supporters, many of whom had been really buoyed by an early exit poll suggesting that he might even clinch victory outright.
I spoke to some of the supporters of Daniel Noboa, some of whom are... frustrated that he hasn't won this outright, but hopeful that he may well clinch victory in the second round.
He's really defined his presidency by this tough crackdown on violent drug gangs and criminal activity in the country by militarising the streets, militarising prisons, giving security forces sweeping new powers to try and tackle violence. So when I spoke to some of his supporters, they told me that their main hope is that they want his work in that field to continue.
So that was one supporter of the incumbent, Daniel Noboa, hoping that he might win in the second round in April. Certainly, as other Noboa supporters have said too, one of the reasons they want him to stay on is because he's only been in office for 15 months so far after his predecessor resigned. resigned. So they feel like he's only really just got started.
As for the opposition, Luisa Gonzalez, her supporters are certainly very excited tonight, given that she seems to have performed better than opinion polls were suggesting. She went into this campaign heavily criticising Daniel Noboa, not only for, in her words, sort of not delivering on promises to tackle violent crime, given it is still such a
not delivering on other issues like tackling unemployment and solving the country's energy crisis too. Her supporters as well felt that Neboa was not doing enough to tackle some of the root causes of crime.
So that was one of supporters of Luisa Gonzalez, hoping that she will be the one who is victorious come that runoff in April. I think, though, why this election really matters is whoever is successful in April has a huge task ahead of them. Ecuador has gone from being one of the safest countries in the region to one of the most dangerous.
In January this year alone, there were 750 homicides in the country. Kidnappings, murders are things that happen daily here. People are really, really worried about their security and want security. desperately for there to be solutions.
Some people I've spoken to in the last week or two say that if there aren't, they simply feel there is no choice but to leave the country and flee to other places, whether that be to the US or other neighbouring countries in South America or to Europe, for example. So this is a country desperate for change. And I think that is what is at stake for whoever is victorious come April.
Eva Morales was supposed to show up for a hearing on a possible retrial detention in this case, but failed to do so. That led to a judge issuing an arrest warrant. The case has fiercely divided Bolivia. Mr. Morales has claimed he is a victim of what he's characterized as legal warfare by his former ally and now rival, the current president, Luis Arce.
Showing 341–360 of 364 · page 18 of 19
← Previous
Next →