Larriva Case II

Update on my posting of a couple of days ago regarding the investigation of the death of Minister of Defense Maria Guadalupe Larriva in a helicopter crash in January:

Larriva's successor Lorena Esudero resigned as MinDefense yesterday afternoon without any public explanation as of this writing. News reports this morning indicate that she or Correa had planned her departure some time ago. Whatever the facts at this point, it had been apparent for some time that Escudero was not a strong Minister. She certainly never mounted a convincing case for not, repeat not, prosecuting high level military leaders for their (negligent) role in the Larriva disaster.

I saw a wire report saying that Correa had not been in agreement with the results of his own Commission's report and its findings regarding responsibilities and responsible parties in the case. This literally is news to me, since I personally have never heard or seen anything that indicated that Correa was not in agreement with Escudero or his Security Coordinator, Fernando Bustamante who both have steadfastly maintained the innocence of military commanders in the case.

Whatever Correa might be thinking, it's clear that the government was not happy with Escudero's performance, not as clear as to what high level military is thinking. As I said, earlier, though, for sure, Correa doesn't want to rock the military's boat as we move towards the Constituent Assembly, so I don't expect that changes in MinDefense will change the Commission's findings regarding ultimate responsibility for the death of Larriva and others.