US embassy cable - 05QUITO484

UNCLAS QUITO 000484 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/AND, INR/B 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, EC 
SUBJECT: BIO INFO FOR NEW GOE GOVERNMENT MINISTER 
 
REF: QUITO 2959 
 
1.  (U) On February 22, President Lucio Gutierrez swore in 
former Secretary General for the Administration Xavier 
Ledesma as his new minister of government, replacing Jaime 
Damerval, who resigned a day before (Reftel).  He is the 
fifth person to hold this cabinet position since Gutierrez 
assumed office in January 2003. 
 
2.  (U) Ledesma, 56, graduated from the Catholic University 
of Guayaquil with a degree in Political and Social Sciences. 
 He began his professional career in that city, winning the 
municipal secretary generalship in 1972.  In 1973, he earned 
the presidency of the Law School Association of his alma 
mater.  His political career began a year later as a member 
of the Democratic Left Party (ID).  Ledesma eventually became 
ID party chief in Guayaquil and, in 1986, national director. 
He also served as an ID congressional deputy from 1979 to 
1984. 
 
3.  (U) Ledesma subsequently abandoned the ID, joining forces 
with eventual President Sixto Duran-Ballen (1993-97) and his 
center-right Republican Unity Party (PUR).  Representing the 
PUR, he won a congressional seat in 1992.  During this second 
legislative stint, Ledesma was chairman of the Labor and 
Social Affairs Committee.  In 1995, he left congress for the 
cabinet, becoming Duran-Ballen's minister of government in 
1995. 
 
4.  (U) Ledesma is married to the former Monica Velasquez and 
has two sons and one daughter.  He speaks some English, 
having spent a year of high school in England.  Ledesma has 
acknowledged serious health problems in the past, and 
recently received medical treatment (reportedly for glaucoma) 
in the United States. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
5.  (SBU) Ledesma is a skillful tactician, but has weak 
inter-personal skills and is introverted.  He gained the 
confidence of President Lucio Gutierrez by engineering his 
counter-attack on the opposition and takeover of the courts 
after a failed impeachment attempt in November 2004. 
Lesdesma has maintained cordial relations with the Embassy 
and is reputed to have good relations with the main 
opposition Social Christian Party (PSC). 
KENNEY