The Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Juan Carlos Holguín, resigned from his position citing “personal reasons”, according to what he indicated in a letter addressed to the head of state, Guillermo Lasso.
“I have executed the mandate that he gave me to serve Ecuador, always acting fairly and in law, in order to permanently safeguard the high interests of the State,” he says in the letter posted on his Twitter account.
He adds that during these months he has tried to give all his abilities to contribute to the common good.
“For personal reasons, I present my resignation from the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the letter ends.
In the message on Twitter that accompanies the letter, he adds: “I thank Guillermo Lasso for playing for Ecuador and giving us the opportunity to serve him. It has not been easy, but I am sure that for the country and for his presidency, which must be respected, This is the right decision.”
Holguín described as “correct” the appointment of Gustavo Manrique, current Minister of the Environment, as his successor.
For his part, the president highlighted the work carried out by Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín, regretted his resignation and specified that next Monday Manrique will assume the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility.
The resignation of the chancellor – who took office on January 3, 2022 – occurs at a complex time for Lasso, against whom Parliament has initiated a political trial of censorship on charges of embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds), but the ruler has pleaded not guilty.
Lasso accuses the opposition, led by Correísmo (by former President Rafael Correa), of fabricating evidence against him to “seize power and weaken and destroy democracy.”
In a message to the nation this week, the Ecuadorian president pointed out that the Constitutional Court left out of the accusation the alleged crime of concussion for lack of evidence and that the charges for alleged embezzlement correspond to contracts signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020, before he became President in May 2021.
“They allegedly accuse me of abusing public funds for my own benefit when I was not yet president of the Republic. What do I have to do with a 2018 contract? There is not even an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office on this issue,” argued the president.
“I have not committed any crime, much less years before taking office (as president), and since there are no grounds for a criminal trial, they invent this political trial,” he added.
The head of state pointed out to the drug trafficking mafias, the insurance of public companies, illegal mining and illegal oil businesses for having joined politics and being behind this political trial “to recover the illegal perks that we remove”.
He also recalled that he was democratically elected for four years and that “the cycles in democracy must be fulfilled.”
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