Spanish
Quito.- Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is getting ready to be the setting for the new presidential inauguration of Daniel Noboa, after having won the elections in April to continue governing until 2029, now with greater stability thanks to having a majority in the National Assembly, which some analysts describe as "fragile".
The National Democratic Action (ADN) movement, which in the February elections for the formation of Parliament, obtained 66 seats, has gained support from legislators of other groups to the point of having taken over the presidency of the Legislative, with 80 votes.
Former Minister of Tourism Niels Olsen will lead the Assembly for two years, while the Citizen Revolution movement (RC), led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), remains the largest opposition group in the legislature, which obtained 67 seats in the elections but lost one due to a disaffiliation.
Olsen will impose the presidential sash on Noboa in the ceremony that will take place at the headquarters of the National Assembly, a body made up of 151 legislators, including Annabella Azin, mother of the head of state and leader of the most voted list for assembly members.
Two presidents
Noboa, in power since November 2023, will be accompanied at the inauguration ceremony by his counterparts from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and Peru, Dina Boluarte.
The two leaders will be part of the delegations from 74 countries and authorities from 19 international organizations that will participate in the inauguration, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Petro, who did not acknowledge Noboa's victory over the correísta Luisa González by more than a million votes, will arrive in Quito accompanied by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laura Sarabia.
The Colombian president was the only head of state who also attended Noboa's first presidential inauguration in 2023, when he was elected to complete the presidential term that corresponded to Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), who forced the calling of extraordinary elections after dissolving the National Assembly, which had an opposition majority.
Noboa will have bilateral meetings with both Petro and Boluarte, with whom he will sign a binational roadmap for the recovery of degraded environments, protection and conservation of the cross-border Puyango--Tumbes basin.
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There will be no representation of the countries with which Ecuador has broken diplomatic relations, such as Mexico, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, following the detention in the Mexican embassy of former Vice President Jorge Glas, sentenced by the justice system, and his subsequent imprisonment in La Roca, Ecuador's maximum security prison.
Quito also awaits the arrival of the vice presidents of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Peña; and of El Salvador, Félix Ulloa, as well as the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Celinda Sosa; of Brazil, Mauro Vieira; of Costa Rica, Arnoldo Tinoco; of Morocco, Nasser Bourita; and of Panama, Javier Martínez-Acha.
Spain and the USA
Spain will be represented by the President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, and the United States will do the same with the Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., with whom Noboa already met in Mar-a-Lago (Florida) when he had a brief meeting with the U.S. President, Donald Trump, in the middle of the electoral campaign in Ecuador.
Meanwhile, China's Education Minister, Huai Jinpeng, will be Xi Jinping's special envoy.
Other ministers attending include Paraguay's Interior Minister, Enrique Riera Escudero; Guatemala's Interior Minister, Francisco Jiménez Irungaray; Italy's State Secretary, Giorgio Silli; the United Kingdom's Security Minister, Dan Jarvis; Canada's Minister of International Trade, Maninder Sidhu; and Ukraine's Minister for Veterans Affairs, Natalia Kalmykova.
Guests to the ceremony will enter the Legislative headquarters from 08:30 local time (13:30 GMT) until 10:15 local time (15:15 GMT), at which time Olsen will enter, before the confirmed rulers and the elected vice president, María José Pinto.
Noboa's entry to the National Assembly is scheduled for 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
