US embassy cable - 05QUITO1097

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 001097 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/AND, WHA/PPC, EB, AND DRL/IL. USDOL FOR JORGE 
PEREZ-LOPEZ. PLEASE PASS USTR FOR A/USTR CLATANOFF, V. 
LOPEZ AND B. HARMON. 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINR, ELAB, EC 
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: BIOS: NEW MINISTER OF LABOR IS UNION 
FAVORITE 
 
REF: QUITO 1050 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reason 1.4 (b&d) 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  The President swore in Galo Chiriboga 
Zambrano as Minister of Labor on May 11, completing his 
Cabinet.  Chiriboga, who was pushed by union leaders, took 
office pledging to strengthen worker rights and fight child 
labor, while also increasing competitiveness.  Chiriboga's 
appointment is good news for labor and for our labor rights 
agenda.  Biographical information follows on Minister of 
Labor Galo Chiriboga, Labor Vice Minister Betty Amores, 
Ambassador to the OAS Mario Aleman, Minister of Social 
Welfare Alberto Rigail, and Minister of Health Wellington 
Sandoval. 
 
Minister of Labor 
----------------- 
 
2.  (U) President Palacio named Galo Chiriboga Zambrano 
Minister of Labor on May 11.  The nomination of Chiriboga, 
the last Minister needed to complete the Cabinet, was rumored 
to be delayed because of pressure from some business leaders 
who proposed other names.  Chiriboga, whose name was 
submitted to the President by the United Workers Front (FUT), 
was part of the Quito Assembly that opposed former President 
Gutierrez, leading to his ouster.  Chiriboga describes 
himself as a "modern leftist." 
 
3.  (U) During statements made after his swearing-in and 
repeated in interviews to the press, Chiriboga said he would 
work to strengthen worker rights, while also increasing 
productivity.  Chiriboga said he supported increased dialogue 
between workers and unions.  He said he would help unions 
modernize and move from confrontation to negotiation. 
Chiriboga would seek to increase the use of collective 
bargaining as a means to reform labor practices.  He said in 
this way the business representatives and union leaders could 
themselves be "legislators."  Chiriboga said he wanted to 
find four or five points that unions and business could agree 
on that would be the focus of Ecuador's labor agenda for the 
next ten to fifteen years. 
 
4.  (U) Chiriboga said he wanted to increase productivity, 
and that increasing worker stability could help meet this 
goal.  Chiriboga said he was not against subcontracting per 
se, but against subcontracting being used to deprive workers 
of their rights.  He said he thought subcontracting should 
only be used for certain company functions, not to include 
its main functions.  He also said he would make combating 
child labor a priority. 
 
5.  (U) Chiriboga was president of the American Association 
of Jurists from 1998-2003.  He has been a legal advisor to 
CEOSL, the largest union confederation, from 1984 to the 
present.  Other positions held include: alternate magistrate 
to the constitutional tribunal (1999-2003), director of 
Filanbanco Bank (March 2001), and Pichincha police intendant 
(1980-1983). 
 
6.  (U) In 1984, Chiriboga received his law degree from 
Quito's Catholic University.  Other studies include: 
specialization in labor rights, Quito's Central University 
(1977); specialization in human rights, France's Robert 
Schuman University (1999); specialization in financial law, 
Simon Bolivar Andean University in Quito (2002); and 
specialization in contracts, Spain's Salamanca University 
(2004).  He has published several works on human rights, 
worker rights, and ethics. 
 
Vice Minister of Labor 
---------------------- 
 
7.  (U) Chiriboga named lawyer Betty Amores as Vice Minister. 
 Amores was previously working as a law consultant 
specializing in modernizing the state and administration of 
justice.  She told LabOff that she had participated in the 
drafting of the Child and Adolescents Code.  She said she was 
very interested in combating child labor, particularly the 
elimination of child street vendors.  Amores believed 
municipalities should formulate local policies to combat 
child labor. 
 
Ambassador to the OAS 
--------------------- 
 
8.  (C) Mario Aleman Salvador, the new Ecuadorian Ambassador 
to the US is a retired career diplomat who has served at the 
UN and in Latin America.  EmbOffs who knew Aleman in the 
early 1990s said he was a strong nationalist, a warm 
conversationalist with a sense of humor, and someone who was 
always cooperative. 
 
9.  (C) Aleman has a degree in political and social science 
from Quito's Central University.  From 1962-72, Aleman served 
as a diplomat in Uruguay, Brazil, Dominican Republic, and 
Mexico.  Aleman was Deputy Permanent Representative and 
Counselor to the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York 
during 1973-76.  He served as the MFA's Director of 
International Instruments and Organizations in 1977, and 
became Under Secretary for Political Affairs in 1979.  He was 
Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva 
in 1982. 
 
10.  (C) In 1985, he was named Ambassador to Paraguay.  His 
assignment there was curtailed by one year in 1987; he 
suspected it was because the GOP complained about his 
contacts with all political sectors.  He was supposed to 
return to Ecuador to be head of the GOE's Diplomatic Academy, 
yet the government of Leon Febres Cordero, someone Aleman had 
been known to be in opposition to, denied him the position. 
In 1988, he was secretary general of the MFA, and became Vice 
Minister in the early 1990s under President Borja, with whom 
Aleman had a friendship since his university days.  He was 
born March 18, 1935.  He speaks Spanish, English, and 
Portuguese.  He is married and has children. 
 
Minister of Social Welfare 
-------------------------- 
 
11.  (U) Dr. Alberto Rigail Arosemena received his medical 
degree from the University of Guayaquil in 1968.  He has been 
director of the Workplace Health and Safety Center at 
Guayaquil's Catholic University since 1999.  In 1967, he was 
the second in charge at the Ministry of Health's Department 
of Medicine Price Control.  He has been a professor for the 
last 32 years. 
 
Minister of Health 
------------------ 
 
12.  (U) Wellington Sandoval was born in Cuenca and graduated 
from Quito's Central University.  He did post-graduate study 
in Detroit.  He is a professor and head of the Surgery School 
at Ecuador's International University's Medical School.  He 
is also medical director of Quito's Metropolitan Hospital. 
He is a member of the American Surgical School and the 
Latin-American Trauma Society.  He has written books on 
thoracic surgery and transplants. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
13.  (SBU) Chiriboga's appointment is welcome news.  He is a 
firm supporter of worker rights and enjoys union support. 
His appointment was clearly pay back for union support for 
the ouster of the Gutierrez government.  Reaction from the 
business community has been muted thus far, but we are aware 
of opposition to his nomination from business hard-liners, 
including Alberto Dassum, an influential leader of the 
Guayaquil business community.  We will engage quickly with 
him to promote key USG labor concerns in the context of free 
trade negotiations. 
CHACON