The rumors that we have been hearing for some time now have been confirmed: Ecuador is going to remove its foreign secretary, Antonio Parra Gil. More precisely, Parra will be sent off to Madrid to switch places with Ecuador’s ambassador to Spain, Fracisco Carrión, who, according to President Alfredo Palacio, will “maintain the same nationalistic and sovereign policies of his predecessor, but with a less belligerent discourse.”
Tellingly, Palacio confirmed the switch to the media just as he headed off for his visit as president to the United States. The move is a blow to the Ecuadorian social movements, who had come to count on Parra as one of their few trusted allies in the government. The biggest effect will be likely be on Ecuador’s relationship with neighboring Colombia, especially in terms of one of the most controversial issues of the drug war in that country…