This was announced by the northern country’s diplomatic headquarters and the communications secretariat of the Ecuadorian presidency.
The US official will arrive in Quito this Wednesday and, in addition to meeting with the President, will also meet with Secretary of State Juan Carlos Holguín, with whom she will discuss Ecuador’s participation as a member of the UN Security Council for the period 2023 -2024 .
Thomas-Greenfield will then travel to Costa Rica for the second edition of the 2023 Democracy Summit, whose initial call – made in 2021 – was deemed a failure by the media and governments.
The US diplomat’s visit to Ecuador comes as President Lasso stands at the gates of a possible political trial over alleged crimes against public administration and polls show his approval ratings are below 13 percent.
According to analysts, Ecuador now represents an interesting enclave for Washington given the current geopolitical scenario in the Latin American region.
This became clear following the numerous visits to these Andean countries by senior officials from the North, most recently by a group of members of the House of Representatives this month in March.
Beginning in the second half of 2022, Lasso received numerous US agencies, including Christopher J. Dodd, Special Advisor to President Joe Biden for America, and US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
A bipartisan Senate delegation led by Bob Menéndez also visited Quito; the head of the United States Southern Command, General Laura Richardson; the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland; and Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
In December, the US Congress passed the Strategic Association Act with Ecuador, an ordinance that provoked divided opinion while presenting an opportunity for the Lasso government to expand cooperation, for others submission and interference
jha/avr