The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, announced this Friday its intention to appoint Gabriel Martínez, until now Minister of Transport and Public Works, as the new head of the Government (Interior) portfolio, after the resignation of retired General Patricio Pazmiño.
In a message on social networks, Moreno thanks the management of his resigned minister and informs that “in the next few hours” he will sign the decree designating Martínez as the new head of the government portfolio, responsible for the citizen security forces.
Martínez Until now he has served as Minister of Transportation and Public Works and, from Galapagos, where he was supervising biosecurity measures at the airport on the island of Baltra, he accepted the position.
“Democratic challenges are unavoidable when Ecuador needs us to be at its service. I thank the President for his confidence. I offer my commitment to work in citizen security and democratic governance ”, he wrote on his Twitter account.
He is the fifth government minister since May 2017, when Moreno took office.
Before Pazmiño there were Cesar Navas Vera, dismissed due to the crisis and murder of three journalists in 2018; Mauro Toscanini, who resigned after four months for personal reasons; and María Paula Romo, who was censored for the October 2019 riots.
Democratic challenges are inescapable, when #Ecuador you need us to be at your service. I thank the President @Lenin for your trust. I offer my commitment to work in citizen security and democratic governance. https://t.co/eeibG8qf8q
– Gabriel Martínez (@martinezjg) March 5, 2021
Pazmiño presented his resignation on Friday, after only three months in office, in apparent relation to criticism against him for the insecurity situation in the country and a recent revolt in the country’s prisons.
In a letter to the president that he also disseminated through social networks, he explains that although as a public official it is his obligation to render accounts, “my management in the Ministry has been unjustifiably questioned from various sectors.”
“I am convinced that in an act of transparency, the defense of my management must be carried out outside of office,” he said.
Retired General of the National Police, Pazmiño said he made the decision “as a person who believes in democracy, and in my capacity as a passive duty police servant, I want to avoid tarnishing the great work that the National Police has been doing.”
The minister has been in the eye of the storm due to the growing public insecurity in the country, and more recently due to the concerted revolt in four prisons in which some 80 prisoners died in alleged settling of accounts between two criminal gangs.
In his letter, the minister also mentions that “a PCR test that I carried out due to the biosafety protocols has tested positive for covid-19, for the second time, which added to the catastrophic disease that I have exposes me to an enormous risk already the impossibility of continuing to fulfill my responsibilities in accordance with the demands that this delicate position demands ”