QUITO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa welcomed his Cabinet of Ministers on Sunday for the first official photo with his work team, three days after taking power for a brief 18-month government.
As highlighted in a statement by the General Secretariat of Communications (Segcom) of the Presidency, the Cabinet is “mainly composed of women and young people who head strategic departments of the State.”
The president, a 35-year-old businessman and centrist politician, took his official photo with the presidential sash along with 24 ministers at Carondelet Palace, the seat of government in the state capital Quito, Segcom published.
The major absence from the photo was Vice President Verónica Abad, to whom Noboa assigned the sole role of working as a “peace collaborator” in Israel amid the Middle East conflict.
The Segcom added that the cabinet was joined by Arianna Tanca as Minister of Women and Human Rights and César Martín Moreno as Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society, appointed by executive decree.
In the coming days, Noboa will appoint Juan Carlos Vega as Minister of Economy and Finance, who has already attended government meetings with multilateral organizations and other meetings focused on resolving the country’s energy crisis.
“The Cabinet began efforts by all ministries and secretariats, at the direction of the President, to take measures that meet the urgent needs of the citizens,” Segcom said.
Noboa will finish the unfinished mandate of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved the National Assembly (unicameral Congress) last May and allowed early elections amid a political crisis.
The new president has been gradually assembling his team of aides to implement a roadmap that he said will prioritize reducing criminal violence and poverty and creating jobs. End