Outrage in Ecuador over the disappearance of the Ministries of Women, Culture and Environment

With this restructuring, the Government will go from 20 to 14 ministerial portfolios. Quito.– Various social, cultural, and environmental groups in Ecuador expressed their concern and rejection this Friday following the officialization of the elimination of six ministries, a measure announced by President Daniel Noboa at the end of July and formalized today through executive decrees. The Ministry of Women and Human Rights will be integrated into the Ministry of Government; Culture and Heritage will fall under the Ministry of Education; Environment, Water and Ecological Transition will move to Energy and Mines; Urban Development and Housing will join Transport; and Tourism will join Production. Secretariats such as Ecuador Grows Without Child Malnutrition, Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Public-Private Investments will also be incorporated into other dependencies.

Consternation:

Feminists, represented by Daniela Pullas, executive director of the Ecuadorian Center for the Promotion and Action of Women (Cepam), expressed their dismay at the materialization of this decision by Noboa.

“Los casos de violencia de género y las subvenciones que se le brindan a las mujeres de escasos recursos no existirán. Quedarán desamparadas. Son políticas neoliberales que obviamente retrasan derechos y qué mejor que empezar con las más vulnerable”,

señaló Daniela Pullas.

On the other hand, environmental groups staged several protests to revoke this governmental decision, alleging that the Executive is moving forward with regulations that only favor foreign investment and support for extractive, mining, and oil companies.

“It’s a setback. There must be an independent body to carry out environmental control. This responds to a strategy to dismantle the scarce environmental controls and affect social organizations. They want to turn us into exporting nations regardless of the cost,” said Ricardo Buitrón, from Accion Ecológica.

Likewise, Javier Cevallos Perugachi, director of Artistic Promotion of the Ecuadorian House of Culture, highlights two main threats due to the disappearance of the Ministry of Culture and its attachment to Education. Among them, the uncertainty of what will happen with the Ministry’s pending projects, such as the implementation of the coordination system with Education to establish guidelines for art education in schools or the creation of a network of independent artistic spaces and a network of community managers.

You can also read: Noboa merges 7 ministries and eliminates several

“I started my career when the Ministry didn’t even exist. Its creation, along with the Culture Law, allowed the institutionalization of artistic activity. Until then, independent artists had many limitations and cultural spaces were only accessed by large families or established artists,” he explained.