Half a dozen changes in the Lasso Cabinet after the national strike

Not even a week passed end the national strike that promoted the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ecuador (CONAIE) so that the government of Guillermo Lasso announced a partial renewal of its ministers and secretaries.

And although the president assured that “these changes have not been forced by particular situations or circumstances”, but rather “are due to the orderly fulfillment of stages” as part of “a coherent and long-term vision”, it is clear that the mobilization of indigenous organizations caused discomfort throughout Ecuadorian society and, especially, in the government.

During the inauguration ceremony of his new collaborators, Lasso himself was in charge of confirming that “as of today, six dear friends, all of them excellent professionals and dedicated public servants, will no longer continue with us in the Cabinet”.

The most notorious change was that of the outgoing Minister of Economy and Finance, Simón Cueva, who accredits a doctorate in Economics and has extensive experience as a consultant in organizations such as the World Bank, the Organization of American States, the Andean Community, the Fund Latin American Reserves and the United States Agency for International Development.

In his place, Lasso appointed Pablo Arosemena, a young economist and businessman, who previously collaborated for the State in the Government of the province of Guayas, where he did not have to face precisely that issue, but rather the onslaught of organized crime and violence in the jails.

Arosemena arrives with the mission of reorienting public policy towards a more social vision, without this necessarily implying distance from multilateral credit organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In addition, he will have to move away from the image of his predecessor, who was accused of favoring the reduction of the fiscal deficit, from 7,000 to 4,000 million dollars, even if that means failing to provide sufficient resources to meet basic needs in areas such as public education. , the lack of medicines and supplies in hospitals, the countryside, and others.

On this last topic, which was insistently repeated during the mobilizationLasso said it will be necessary to turn the government’s attention to the agricultural sector.

“We have to get something positive out of three weeks of violence; that the countryside and rural areas tell us: ‘here we are present, take care of us too’, and they are right and we are going to do it”, declared the president.

The Ministry of Health and the Secretariat of Management and Development of Peoples and Nationalities are also part of the renovation. Until this Wednesday, the names of the people who will be in charge of these institutions were not made official.

In the inauguration ceremony, which took place just a few hours before the start of the dialogue tables between the government and the indigenous people, changes were made in the portfolios of Transportation and Public Works, Housing and in the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security .

The national strike, according to the government version, left losses for more than 1,000 million dollars.

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