Ecuador's runoff election is pitting a socialist against a banana baron

Ecuador’s leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez took the lead in the country’s presidential election held yesterday (Aug. 20). Backed by the powerful party of Rafael Correa—the fugitive ex-president who held the apex post between 2007 and 2017—45-year-old lawmaker Gonzalez has harked back to the economic and security situation under the Correa administration, when homicide rates were far from the current record highs and poverty was a diminishing.

But she won’t slide into office without having to put up a fight. Businessman Daniel Noboa, a political outsider, is a surprise contender in second place. The 35-year-old...