Ecuador's Presidential Spokesman Resigns and Criticizes

UNCLAS QUITO 002434

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE, SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PINR PGOV EC
SUBJECT: Ecuador's Presidential Spokesman Resigns and Criticizes
President Palacio


1. (SBU) The Palacio administration remains rife with internal
divisions and instability, most recently reflected in the
resignation of the Presidential spokesman. Enrique Proano, Secretary
of Communication and spokesman for Ecuadorian president Alfredo
Palacio, resigned on Sept. 25, 2006, and publicly criticized
president Palacio for neglecting his official duties to focus on his
campaign to be elected the next Director General of the World Health
Organization (WHO). Proano was replaced by Gonzalo Ponce Leiva, a
high-ranking aide at the Secretariat of Communications with ties to
current presidential candidate Rafael Correa.


2. (SBU)Proano had worked as presidential spokesman since February,
2006, the fourth spokesman in the last two years. During a 9/25
press conference he held at home to announce his resignation, he
made public his frustration. He explained that in recent weeks his
communication with the president had become difficult and that the
President was ignoring government business as he focused almost
exclusively on his WHO candidacy. Proano did not travel with the
president on his recent trip to Cuba and the U.S.


3. (SBU) A 9/26 press article on the Proano resignation reported
that new spokesman Gonzalo Ponce, while working at the Communication
Secretariat over the past months as a special assistant, was in

SIPDIS
charge of publishing a book by president Palacio entitled "Health
for the 21st Century." This book, describing Palacio's career,
accomplishments as president and a regional proposal for the WHO,
was distributed by Ecuador at the recent Non-Aligned Nations Summit
meeting in Havana. The president's chief of staff, Rafael Parreno,
denied Proano's charges in a 9/26 press conference, and Ponce
reportedly stated that the Communication Secretariat has no special
unit working on the president's WHO campaign.


4. (SBU) Comment: Gonzalo Ponce is the brother of Javier Ponce, a
prominent diplomat at the ministry of Foreign Relations who is in
charge of preparing the GOE's "Ecuador 2020" (PLANEX) document,
which reportedly contains a clause banning any foreign troops from
Ecuadorian soil. Some have speculated that Javier could be a foreign
minister candidate under a Correa administration. In addition,
Gonzalo Ponce worked as a public relations aide to Rafael Correa in
2005 when Correa was the finance minister, and has touted himself
privately as a Correa protege. In a 10/2 meeting with PAO and IO,
Ponce said that he did not know Correa before Correa asked him to
work for him at the Ministry in 2005, but that now they have a close
relationship and friendship.

JEWELL