January 25, 2007   Reuters, AP and all Latin media are reporting on the death by helicopter crash last night of Ecuador's defense minister Larriva. Media corrections are seriously needed: contrary to early media statements, this bottle blonde, however personable, was not highly popular.

She had already arranged for low level family members to skip over other overdue military promotions. As ersonName w:st="on" ProductID="La Ministra">La MinistraersonName> de Defensa Nacional del Ecuador y Presidenta Nacional del Partido Socialista Ecuatoriano Guadalupe Larriva launched support for the specious verbal attacks on Plan Colombia based on NGO style propaganda and never on the facts. She was the leader of Ecuador's Fora de Sao Paulo activists.

She hated the U.S. presence at the Manta Base even though the Manta Base provides increased security for Ecuadoreans even as numerous U.S.-led efforts have assisted in rescuing scores of Ecuadoreans lost at sea or being sold into white slavery. Larriva was, by all accounts, untrained, unqualified, and not prepared to be their Minister of Defense.

As such, we wish no harm to anybody and consider her death by accident sad but frankly, she was incompetent, full of political hatred for the USA and Colombia's Uribe and was already active in the recent firings of the military leaders. She would have been ardently supportive of the Chavez and communist retreat from any semblance of counterterrorism activities and herself would have served as an agent to aid and abet Chavez-Iran and the FARC.

Well liked- as previously noted? Well that is not accurate. Incompetent, however pleasant in demeanor, and never going to respect her high office to which she was not prepared-? Yes. She should have never been holding this position anyway as she had no knowledge or respect for any military except a generic grasp that she needed to co-opt their independence and subvert Ecuador's military to service to Rafael Correa's obedience to Hugo Chavez's total military controls. She should have been legally impeached from her post for incompetence....not to speak ill of the dead but those are the facts.

One can hope that Correa, who hates the USA, does NOT blame the U.S. military at Manta for her death. Already Castro's own news agencies are covering this sad loss in the Andes while their bloggers such as Justin Podur and Noam Chomsky's "Z Train"- most notably sourcing Castro's Prensa Latina rushing to  raise blame the USA for these deaths by pilot error and urged their cult-like followers in their screed called "

Did the Americans Kill the Ecuadorean Defense Minister ?" to use her death to further demand the end of the U.S. base at Manta. .In fact, the U.S. military- in acts of true charity- rushed to the scene of the crash to try to assist. Early reports cite pilot error that caused two helicopters to collide. Early reports of Minister Larriva's demise note too that her teen age daughter and five other officials died with her in the crash of the military helicopter in which she was riding. Correa's government claims that Larriva and her daughter and the officials were "testing" in a night flight. We do not know what contribution her young daughter performed in a military night flight test near the U.S.-funded base at Manta nor why she was authorized to be present for military flight tests.

The Associated Press reports that  " ...In a televised interview, Vice-President Lenin Moreno said the helicopters were performing a night flight test `and in a bad maneuver it appears that the blades collided and the helicopters fell to the ground.' "

Seven people are dead according to Lenin Moreno due to bad maneuvers- pilot errors or mechanical problems- all failures while performing a night flight test, whatever that means. Early assessments indicate a conclusion that the crash was due to incompetence and not a wild eyed plot by the USA, offered up for anti-US propaganda. Correa's government will see the core problem of incompetence replayed many times over in the coming weeks.

Their personal lack of preparedness, lack of education and incompetence has been the hallmark of this new regime for Day One, starting with the faux shaman exercises heralding Correa's installation. We can only hope that the dead are not offered up as more excuses for political shenanigans, as urged by Noam Chomsky and Justin Podur's "Z Train." Rather, let the families mourn their loss with respect due and not with a disrespectful phony political propaganda event staged by the Chavez and Castro propagandists. Seven persons are dead in Ecuador today from incompetence and “bad maneuvers.”

- Juan Ponce de Leon for ECrisis

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 24/01/07

Ecuador's new defence minister dies as helicopters collide

GONZALO SOLANO

Associated Press

QUITO — Ecuador's first female defence minister died Wednesday in a collision of two helicopters that also killed her daughter and five members of the military, officials said.

The wreck in the port city of Manta killed Defence Minister Guadalupe Larriva, 50, her daughter, Claudia Avila, 17, and five officials, Interior Secretary Gustavo Larrea confirmed.

In a televised interview, Vice-President Lenin Moreno said the helicopters were performing a night flight test "and in a bad manoeuvre it appears that the blades collided and the helicopters fell to the ground."

The crash took place near the military base in Manta, 250 kilometres southeast of the capital of Quito.

No top ranking commanders were on board the helicopters, Moreno said.

Ms. Larriva was appointed by President Rafael Correa and both took office on Jan. 15. In addition to being the first female defence chief, she also was the first to have never served in the military.

In a statement aired on Canal 1, Mr. Correa asked the Ecuadorean people "to pray for Guadalupe, her daughter, the pilots, for her family members, for the government of Ecuador."

Mr. Correa appointed seven women to his cabinet, saying he wanted to promote gender equality in his South American nation.

Ms. Larriva shook off concerns about resistance from the military to her appointment. Before taking office, she said she expected more curiosity than animosity from Ecuador's military brass "over whether a woman can lead in this role."

Mr. Larrea announced the creation of a special investigative commission to look into the cause of the crash.

A teacher by vocation, Ms. Larriva rose through her party's ranks and served in congress.

She is survived by a daughter and son. Her husband, Rodrigo Avila, died eight years ago.