The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, replaced six ministers in his cabinet after the defeat suffered last Sunday (16) in the referendum in which Ecuadorians rejected the four proposals presented by the president.
The ministers leaving their positions are Zaida Rovira (Government), Ivonne Núñez (Labour), Alegría Crespo (Education), Jimmy Martín (Health), Danilo Palacios (Agriculture) and Harold Burbano (Human Development), as announced this Tuesday (18) by the presidency in a statement.
However, Rovira and Burbano will continue in government, but in the Human Development and Labor portfolios, respectively, as part of the reorganization in Noboa’s cabinet.
The Ecuadorian president appointed Álvaro Rosero as government minister and left the Ministry of Health temporarily under the command of the country’s vice president, María José Pinto.
To replace Palacios at the Ministry of Agriculture, Noboa appointed Juan Carlos Vega, who was his Minister of Economy between November 2023 and February 2025. At the Ministry of Education, Gilda Alcivar will replace Crespo.
The Presidency spokesperson, Carolina Jaramillo, announced on X that she is also leaving her position.
The renewal of the ministerial cabinet came after Noboa suffered its first major defeat at the polls.
Since winning his first presidential election in 2023, Noboa has only achieved electoral victories. In a referendum held in April 2024, the Ecuadorian population approved nine of 11 proposed changes to legislation presented by the president.
Most of the approved topics were related to the security area, such as the support of the Armed Forces to the police in the fight against organized crime, the extradition of Ecuadorians who committed crimes in other countries and the increase in penalties for crimes such as terrorism and its financing, human trafficking, among others.
In April of this year, Noboa was re-elected – the short space between one election and another is because the 2023 election was only to indicate who would complete the presidential term period started in 2021 by Guillermo Lasso, who resigned due to the possibility of being impeached by the Ecuadorian Parliament.
In Sunday’s referendum, the Ecuadorian population rejected the possibility of establishing a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution to replace the current Magna Carta, inherited from Correísmo.
The “no” also won resoundingly on issues relating to the installation of foreign military bases in Ecuador, the withdrawal of public funding for political parties and the reduction from 151 to 73 in the number of members of Parliament.
