VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #2434 2762120
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 032120Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5387
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 6020
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ OCT LIMA 0993
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 2058
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 1222

UNCLAS QUITO 002434 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE, SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR PGOV EC
SUBJECT: Ecuador's Presidential Spokesman Resigns and Criticizes 
President Palacio 
 
¶1.  (SBU) The Palacio administration remains rife with internal 
divisions and instability, most recently reflected in the 
resignation of the Presidential spokesman. Enrique Proano, Secretary 
of Communication and spokesman for Ecuadorian president Alfredo 
Palacio, resigned on Sept. 25, 2006, and publicly criticized 
president Palacio for neglecting his official duties to focus on his 
campaign to be elected the next Director General of the World Health 
Organization (WHO).  Proano was replaced by Gonzalo Ponce Leiva, a 
high-ranking aide at the Secretariat of Communications with ties to 
current presidential candidate Rafael Correa. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)Proano had worked as presidential spokesman since February, 
2006, the fourth spokesman in the last two years.  During a 9/25 
press conference he held at home to announce his resignation, he 
made public his frustration.  He explained that in recent weeks his 
communication with the president had become difficult and that the 
President was ignoring government business as he focused almost 
exclusively on his WHO candidacy.  Proano did not travel with the 
president on his recent trip to Cuba and the U.S. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) A 9/26 press article on the Proano resignation reported 
that new spokesman Gonzalo Ponce, while working at the Communication 
Secretariat over the past months as a special assistant, was in 
 
SIPDIS 
charge of publishing a book by president Palacio entitled "Health 
for the 21st Century."  This book, describing Palacio's career, 
accomplishments as president and a regional proposal for the WHO, 
was distributed by Ecuador at the recent Non-Aligned Nations Summit 
meeting in Havana. The president's chief of staff, Rafael Parreno, 
denied Proano's charges in a 9/26 press conference, and Ponce 
reportedly stated that the Communication Secretariat has no special 
unit working on the president's WHO campaign. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Comment:  Gonzalo Ponce is the brother of Javier Ponce, a 
prominent diplomat at the ministry of Foreign Relations who is in 
charge of preparing the GOE's "Ecuador 2020" (PLANEX) document, 
which reportedly contains a clause banning any foreign troops from 
Ecuadorian soil. Some have speculated that Javier could be a foreign 
minister candidate under a Correa administration. In addition, 
Gonzalo Ponce worked as a public relations aide to Rafael Correa in 
2005 when Correa was the finance minister, and has touted himself 
privately as a Correa protege.  In a 10/2 meeting with PAO and IO, 
Ponce said that he did not know Correa before Correa asked him to 
work for him at the Ministry in 2005, but that now they have a close 
relationship and friendship. 
 
JEWELL