Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05QUITO1050
2005-05-06 21:18:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Quito
Cable title:
ECUADOR: NEW VICE PRESIDENT ROUNDS OUT CABINET
how-toThis record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 QUITO 001050
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EC
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: NEW VICE PRESIDENT ROUNDS OUT CABINET
REF: QUITO 983
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 QUITO 001050
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EC
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: NEW VICE PRESIDENT ROUNDS OUT CABINET
REF: QUITO 983
1. (U) Summary: Congress swore in Alejandro Serrano Aguilar
as Vice President of Ecuador on May 5. Serrano hails from
Ecuador's third largest city of Cuenca, providing some
regional balance to a Guayaquil-centric cabinet. Serrano's
swearing in leaves only the Labor portfolio still open; labor
sources tell us the front-runner is a pro-labor candidate.
Below is biographical information for the following new
Cabinet members and government officials: Vice President
Alejandro Serrano Aguilar, Minister of Environment Anita
Alban, Minister of Energy Fausto Cordovez, Minister of
Agriculture Pablo Rizzo, Presidential Communications
Secretary Carlos Cortez, Minister of Public Works Derlis
SIPDIS
Palacios, Minister of Housing Rogelio Bravo, Minister of
Sports Omar Cevallos, and Executive Secretary of the
government's indigenous development agency CODENPE Lourdes
Tiban. End Summary.
Vice President
--------------
2. (U) On May 4, Congress chose 72-year-old Alejandro
Serrano Aguilar to be the next Vice President from a list of
three candidates submitted by the President. Serrano's
politics are considered Center-Right; he was a member of the
no-longer-existing United Republican Party that put Sixto
Duran Ballen in the Presidency. (Minister of Government
Mauricio Gandara also played a key role in the formation of
this political party.) Serrano, a native of Azuay province,
is rumored to have been supported by former President Sixto
Duran Ballen and Minister of Government Mauricio Gandara.
(Palacio was Minister of Health under Duran Ballen.)
3. (U) Serrano took some criticism for representing the
political "old guard," but in the end was supported by 63
deputies from the PSC, ID, PRE, PRIAN, DP, PSP, and
independents. Palacio has said that Serrano will be in
charge of organizing the dialogue roundtables that will lead
to a future referendum.
4. (U) Serrano received degrees in philosophy and civil
engineering at the Naval Engineering School in Madrid.
Serrano served as mayor of Cuenca (1970-77) under Ecuador's
military dictatorship. He has also held the following posts:
municipal councilor in Cuenca, vice president of the
Municipal Council, Congressman for Azuay province, Ambassador
on a special mission to the Vatican (1978),and president of
the Society for the Fight Against Cancer in Cuenca. He has
also been a primary and secondary school teacher, rector of
the Fray Vicente Solano School, and a philosophy professor at
the University of Cuenca.
5. (U) Serrano was born in Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest
city, on January 14, 1933. Serrano married Ana Cordero
Acosta 49 years ago and has four children: Juan, Ana Maria,
Catalina, and Jorge. He enjoys reading books by Cervantes
and Mario Vargas Llosa, and also is a soccer fan; Serrano
founded Cuenca's Sports Club.
6. (U) The President had submitted his list of three Vice
Presidential candidates to Congress on May 3 consisting of
Alejandro Serrano Aguilar; Berenice Cordero, a UNICEF
employee and former director of the National Institute for
the Child and Family under President Fabian Alarcon; and Mae
Montano, a former manager of customs in Esmeraldas who also
worked at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington.
Minister of Labor
--------------
7. (SBU) As of May 6, a Minister of Labor had not yet been
named. Embassy labor contacts tell us that Galo Chiriboga, a
name proposed by unions, had been offered the job, but had
initially refused. However, they believe Chiriboga had
reconsidered the offer imposing two conditions: that he
could strengthen labor rights and that he would have the
authority to modernize the Ministry of Labor. Chiriboga was
president of the American Association of Jurists from
1998-2003. He has been a legal advisor to CEOSL, the largest
union confederation, from 1984 to the present.
Additional Information for the Minister of Environment
-------------- --------------
8. (U) Anita Alban received her J.D. and bachelor's degree
in social and political sciences from Guayaquil's Catholic
University. She is currently in her first year of Social and
Development Management in Guayaquil's Casa Grande University.
Minister of Energy
--------------
9. (U) Fausto Cordovez Chiriboga has been a municipal
councilor for Riobamba, a deputy for Chimborazo province, and
mayor of Riobamba. He was Minister of Finance under
President Camilo Ponce Enriquez, Minister of Defense under
Clemente Yerovi, and Minister of Agriculture under Velasco
Ibarra. He also served in those Presidents' governments as
acting Minister of Foreign Relations, Education, Labor, and
Public Works. He was president of the National Development
Bank and president of the Ecuadorian Commission of the
Alliance for Progress.
10. (U) Cordovez is a former president of the Transparency
Commission that investigated a theft of arms from the Armed
Forces arsenal. On December 12, 2002, Cordovez led a march
in Quito in a campaign for security in the city after the
murder of his granddaughter. He also participated in the
Civic Convergence for Democracy which was opposed to Lucio
Gutierrez' government. Cordovez was born in the city of
Riobamba on April 18, 1925.
Minister of Agriculture
--------------
11. (U) Pablo Rizzo Pastor is an agricultural engineer who
received his degree from the University of Guayaquil's School
of Agronomy and Veterinary Sciences in 1967. Rizzo has major
agro-export investments on the Coast. Rizzo also vied for
the post of Minister of Agriculture during the Gutierrez
administration. Rizzo is currently the president of the
National Federation of Chambers of Agriculture and of the
National Chamber of Agricultural Engineers.
12. (U) Rizzo has also been president of the Chamber of
Agriculture, executive president of the National Agriculture
and Fishing Forum, and continental director of the World
Association of Agricultural Engineers. Rizzo has been first
vice president of the Pan-American Association of Agronomy
Engineers, acting Vice Minister of Agriculture, and director
of the National Development Bank. Rizzo has the support of
banana exporters and the Social Christian Party (PSC),
however, the association of independent banana producers has
rejected Rizzo's nomination and have threatened to go on
strike the week of May 9. The independent banana producers
are opposed to Rizzo's nomination because they fear he will
favor large exporters in setting internal banana prices, a
Ministry function.
13. (U) Press noted some absences at Rizzo's induction
ceremony including flower industry representatives. Diego
Borja of Expoflowers, the association of flower producers and
exporters, told press that Rizzo was part of former Minister
of Agriculture Leonardo Escobar's inner circle, and that
Rizzo just represented more of the same.
Presidential Communication Secretary
--------------
14. (U) Carlos Cortez received his economics degree from the
University of Guayaquil. He served as dean of the Economics
and Administration division at Guayaquil's Catholic
University. He also studied planning in Spain; comparative
statistics in France, the US, and Chile; and integration
economics in Argentina. Cortez was a economic advisor to
President Jaime Roldos, as well as secretary of public
information and financial advisor to the president of the
National Finance Corporation (CFN) during the same
President's term. Cortez was director of the Ecuadorian
Statistics and Census Institute under President Gustavo
Noboa, and an economic advisor to then Vice President Palacio
(2003-2004).
15. (U) He previously was director of Guayaquil's Catholic
University's School of Continuing Education. Cortez taught
international finance at Laica Vicente Rocafuerte
University's School of Diplomacy. Cortez has also been an
economic issues editor in the media. He was an editor for
Sucre Cadenar Radio, and was an analyst for television
station Telerama, and is a member of the editorial board of
Expreso newspaper.
Executive Secretary of CODENPE
--------------
16. (U) Lourdes Tiban, the new Executive Secretary of the
government's indigenous development agency CODENPE, is
married to indigenous organization ECUARUNARI's vice
president, Raul Ilaquiche, a former IVP. The Palacio
government has said that Tiban will have the rank of
Minister. Tiban made public comments on May 4 saying that
the US viewed Ecuador's indigenous movement as a threat to US
interests. Tiban was Vice Minister for Social Welfare in the
beginning of Lucio Gutierrez' presidency.
Minister of Public Works
--------------
17. (U) Derlis Rolando Palacios Guerrero, the new Minister
of Public Works, is a civil engineer and has been a builder
since 1985. He was a member of the Executive Commission of
the Council on Programming Emerging Works in the Basins of
the Paute River and its Tributaries (2001-2005). He was
president of the Association of Professional Schools of Azuay
University (2001-2002). Palacios was born on June 27, 1961
and studied at the University of Cuenca.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development
--------------
18. (U) Armando Rogelio Bravo Nunez, studied civil works and
hydraulics at Guayaquil's state university. He has
professional experience in designing and supervising the
construction of public works. He has been president of the
Manabi School of Civil Engineers and was a member of the
Directorate of the Anti-corruption Commission of Manabi. He
is a native of Manabi province.
Minister of Sports
--------------
19. (U) Omar Cevallos Patino is a civil engineer who
received his degree from Quito's Central University. He was
a vocal in the Sports Concentration of Pichincha in 1996,
vice president of the Pichincha Sports Concentration between
1996-2000, and from 2000 on was the Concentration's
president. Cevallos was also marketing manager at Westoil
(1997-2002) and alternate provincial counselor for Pichincha
province (1998-2002).
Washington Appointments
--------------
20. (U) PolChief met on May 6 with Gustavo Palacio, the
President's step-brother, who has been appointed GOE
representative to the IADB in Washington. The 49 year-old
Palacio (youngest of six Palacio siblings from three mothers,
Alfredo being the eldest) was until recently serving as
Consul General in San Francisco. Married to a Spaniard and
with two teenage children, Palacio grew up in Guayaquil and
attended the elite Christopher Colombus school.
21. (SBU) According to Gustavo Palacio, former Vice FM Mario
Aleman will be Ecuador's next Ambassador to the OAS. The
Ambassador to the US has not yet been decided.
Comment
--------------
22. (SBU) In choosing Serrano for the Vice Presidency, the
President sought balance with a candidate from the highlands,
as Palacio and most of his Ministers are from the Coast.
Presidential sources tell us that Palacio did not know
Serrano personally before appointing him. This is somewhat
surprising, given the propensity of VPs to conspire for the
top job. Clearly, the appointment does not nothing to answer
popular calls for new and more youthful faces in the Cabinet.
KENNEY
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EC
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: NEW VICE PRESIDENT ROUNDS OUT CABINET
REF: QUITO 983
1. (U) Summary: Congress swore in Alejandro Serrano Aguilar
as Vice President of Ecuador on May 5. Serrano hails from
Ecuador's third largest city of Cuenca, providing some
regional balance to a Guayaquil-centric cabinet. Serrano's
swearing in leaves only the Labor portfolio still open; labor
sources tell us the front-runner is a pro-labor candidate.
Below is biographical information for the following new
Cabinet members and government officials: Vice President
Alejandro Serrano Aguilar, Minister of Environment Anita
Alban, Minister of Energy Fausto Cordovez, Minister of
Agriculture Pablo Rizzo, Presidential Communications
Secretary Carlos Cortez, Minister of Public Works Derlis
SIPDIS
Palacios, Minister of Housing Rogelio Bravo, Minister of
Sports Omar Cevallos, and Executive Secretary of the
government's indigenous development agency CODENPE Lourdes
Tiban. End Summary.
Vice President
--------------
2. (U) On May 4, Congress chose 72-year-old Alejandro
Serrano Aguilar to be the next Vice President from a list of
three candidates submitted by the President. Serrano's
politics are considered Center-Right; he was a member of the
no-longer-existing United Republican Party that put Sixto
Duran Ballen in the Presidency. (Minister of Government
Mauricio Gandara also played a key role in the formation of
this political party.) Serrano, a native of Azuay province,
is rumored to have been supported by former President Sixto
Duran Ballen and Minister of Government Mauricio Gandara.
(Palacio was Minister of Health under Duran Ballen.)
3. (U) Serrano took some criticism for representing the
political "old guard," but in the end was supported by 63
deputies from the PSC, ID, PRE, PRIAN, DP, PSP, and
independents. Palacio has said that Serrano will be in
charge of organizing the dialogue roundtables that will lead
to a future referendum.
4. (U) Serrano received degrees in philosophy and civil
engineering at the Naval Engineering School in Madrid.
Serrano served as mayor of Cuenca (1970-77) under Ecuador's
military dictatorship. He has also held the following posts:
municipal councilor in Cuenca, vice president of the
Municipal Council, Congressman for Azuay province, Ambassador
on a special mission to the Vatican (1978),and president of
the Society for the Fight Against Cancer in Cuenca. He has
also been a primary and secondary school teacher, rector of
the Fray Vicente Solano School, and a philosophy professor at
the University of Cuenca.
5. (U) Serrano was born in Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest
city, on January 14, 1933. Serrano married Ana Cordero
Acosta 49 years ago and has four children: Juan, Ana Maria,
Catalina, and Jorge. He enjoys reading books by Cervantes
and Mario Vargas Llosa, and also is a soccer fan; Serrano
founded Cuenca's Sports Club.
6. (U) The President had submitted his list of three Vice
Presidential candidates to Congress on May 3 consisting of
Alejandro Serrano Aguilar; Berenice Cordero, a UNICEF
employee and former director of the National Institute for
the Child and Family under President Fabian Alarcon; and Mae
Montano, a former manager of customs in Esmeraldas who also
worked at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington.
Minister of Labor
--------------
7. (SBU) As of May 6, a Minister of Labor had not yet been
named. Embassy labor contacts tell us that Galo Chiriboga, a
name proposed by unions, had been offered the job, but had
initially refused. However, they believe Chiriboga had
reconsidered the offer imposing two conditions: that he
could strengthen labor rights and that he would have the
authority to modernize the Ministry of Labor. Chiriboga was
president of the American Association of Jurists from
1998-2003. He has been a legal advisor to CEOSL, the largest
union confederation, from 1984 to the present.
Additional Information for the Minister of Environment
-------------- --------------
8. (U) Anita Alban received her J.D. and bachelor's degree
in social and political sciences from Guayaquil's Catholic
University. She is currently in her first year of Social and
Development Management in Guayaquil's Casa Grande University.
Minister of Energy
--------------
9. (U) Fausto Cordovez Chiriboga has been a municipal
councilor for Riobamba, a deputy for Chimborazo province, and
mayor of Riobamba. He was Minister of Finance under
President Camilo Ponce Enriquez, Minister of Defense under
Clemente Yerovi, and Minister of Agriculture under Velasco
Ibarra. He also served in those Presidents' governments as
acting Minister of Foreign Relations, Education, Labor, and
Public Works. He was president of the National Development
Bank and president of the Ecuadorian Commission of the
Alliance for Progress.
10. (U) Cordovez is a former president of the Transparency
Commission that investigated a theft of arms from the Armed
Forces arsenal. On December 12, 2002, Cordovez led a march
in Quito in a campaign for security in the city after the
murder of his granddaughter. He also participated in the
Civic Convergence for Democracy which was opposed to Lucio
Gutierrez' government. Cordovez was born in the city of
Riobamba on April 18, 1925.
Minister of Agriculture
--------------
11. (U) Pablo Rizzo Pastor is an agricultural engineer who
received his degree from the University of Guayaquil's School
of Agronomy and Veterinary Sciences in 1967. Rizzo has major
agro-export investments on the Coast. Rizzo also vied for
the post of Minister of Agriculture during the Gutierrez
administration. Rizzo is currently the president of the
National Federation of Chambers of Agriculture and of the
National Chamber of Agricultural Engineers.
12. (U) Rizzo has also been president of the Chamber of
Agriculture, executive president of the National Agriculture
and Fishing Forum, and continental director of the World
Association of Agricultural Engineers. Rizzo has been first
vice president of the Pan-American Association of Agronomy
Engineers, acting Vice Minister of Agriculture, and director
of the National Development Bank. Rizzo has the support of
banana exporters and the Social Christian Party (PSC),
however, the association of independent banana producers has
rejected Rizzo's nomination and have threatened to go on
strike the week of May 9. The independent banana producers
are opposed to Rizzo's nomination because they fear he will
favor large exporters in setting internal banana prices, a
Ministry function.
13. (U) Press noted some absences at Rizzo's induction
ceremony including flower industry representatives. Diego
Borja of Expoflowers, the association of flower producers and
exporters, told press that Rizzo was part of former Minister
of Agriculture Leonardo Escobar's inner circle, and that
Rizzo just represented more of the same.
Presidential Communication Secretary
--------------
14. (U) Carlos Cortez received his economics degree from the
University of Guayaquil. He served as dean of the Economics
and Administration division at Guayaquil's Catholic
University. He also studied planning in Spain; comparative
statistics in France, the US, and Chile; and integration
economics in Argentina. Cortez was a economic advisor to
President Jaime Roldos, as well as secretary of public
information and financial advisor to the president of the
National Finance Corporation (CFN) during the same
President's term. Cortez was director of the Ecuadorian
Statistics and Census Institute under President Gustavo
Noboa, and an economic advisor to then Vice President Palacio
(2003-2004).
15. (U) He previously was director of Guayaquil's Catholic
University's School of Continuing Education. Cortez taught
international finance at Laica Vicente Rocafuerte
University's School of Diplomacy. Cortez has also been an
economic issues editor in the media. He was an editor for
Sucre Cadenar Radio, and was an analyst for television
station Telerama, and is a member of the editorial board of
Expreso newspaper.
Executive Secretary of CODENPE
--------------
16. (U) Lourdes Tiban, the new Executive Secretary of the
government's indigenous development agency CODENPE, is
married to indigenous organization ECUARUNARI's vice
president, Raul Ilaquiche, a former IVP. The Palacio
government has said that Tiban will have the rank of
Minister. Tiban made public comments on May 4 saying that
the US viewed Ecuador's indigenous movement as a threat to US
interests. Tiban was Vice Minister for Social Welfare in the
beginning of Lucio Gutierrez' presidency.
Minister of Public Works
--------------
17. (U) Derlis Rolando Palacios Guerrero, the new Minister
of Public Works, is a civil engineer and has been a builder
since 1985. He was a member of the Executive Commission of
the Council on Programming Emerging Works in the Basins of
the Paute River and its Tributaries (2001-2005). He was
president of the Association of Professional Schools of Azuay
University (2001-2002). Palacios was born on June 27, 1961
and studied at the University of Cuenca.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development
--------------
18. (U) Armando Rogelio Bravo Nunez, studied civil works and
hydraulics at Guayaquil's state university. He has
professional experience in designing and supervising the
construction of public works. He has been president of the
Manabi School of Civil Engineers and was a member of the
Directorate of the Anti-corruption Commission of Manabi. He
is a native of Manabi province.
Minister of Sports
--------------
19. (U) Omar Cevallos Patino is a civil engineer who
received his degree from Quito's Central University. He was
a vocal in the Sports Concentration of Pichincha in 1996,
vice president of the Pichincha Sports Concentration between
1996-2000, and from 2000 on was the Concentration's
president. Cevallos was also marketing manager at Westoil
(1997-2002) and alternate provincial counselor for Pichincha
province (1998-2002).
Washington Appointments
--------------
20. (U) PolChief met on May 6 with Gustavo Palacio, the
President's step-brother, who has been appointed GOE
representative to the IADB in Washington. The 49 year-old
Palacio (youngest of six Palacio siblings from three mothers,
Alfredo being the eldest) was until recently serving as
Consul General in San Francisco. Married to a Spaniard and
with two teenage children, Palacio grew up in Guayaquil and
attended the elite Christopher Colombus school.
21. (SBU) According to Gustavo Palacio, former Vice FM Mario
Aleman will be Ecuador's next Ambassador to the OAS. The
Ambassador to the US has not yet been decided.
Comment
--------------
22. (SBU) In choosing Serrano for the Vice Presidency, the
President sought balance with a candidate from the highlands,
as Palacio and most of his Ministers are from the Coast.
Presidential sources tell us that Palacio did not know
Serrano personally before appointing him. This is somewhat
surprising, given the propensity of VPs to conspire for the
top job. Clearly, the appointment does not nothing to answer
popular calls for new and more youthful faces in the Cabinet.
KENNEY