TFAH01: Ecuador's President intends to visit Haiti on

UNCLAS QUITO 000035 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL EAID UN HA EC SUBJECT: TFAH01: Ecuador's President intends to visit Haiti on January 28 ¶1. (SBU) Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Coordination and Planning Galo Yepez informed Poloff and DAO representative that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa intends to visit Haiti on January 28. Yepez emphasized repeatedly that Correa would visit Port-au-Prince in his capacity as President of Ecuador and President of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The Government of Ecuador requests landing slots for the President's plane, an Embraer Legacy 600, and for a C130 flight carrying 9 tons of food, medicine, and water that the GOE would like to land shortly before the President's arrival. ¶2. (SBU) Yepez said that Correa would arrive in Santo Domingo at approximately 11:00 am Dominican Republic time, meet with Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, then depart for Port-au-Prince, with an expected arrival at approximately 12:30 Haitian time, to meet with President Rene Preval and the Ecuadorian MINUSTAH contingent. Ecuador's Minister of Health and the Secretary of National Risk Management will accompany Correa. PolOff and DAO representative advised Yepez that we would immediately inform the Department of this request, and repeated that getting two landing slots in Port au Prince on January 28 could be difficult. ¶3. (SBU) Yepez also said that the second official aid flight to Haiti would depart Saturday, January 23 for the Dominican Republic. Materials carried in that plane would be delivered overland, and the Ecuadorian Search and Rescue team currently on the ground in Port-au-Prince would likewise travel by road to Santo Domingo and depart for Ecuador on the return flight. CHRITTON