President-elect Lucio Gutiérrez has appointed top Ecuadorian Indigenous leaders to prominent positions in his administration. Nina Pacari Vega will serve as the foreign relations minister in Gutiérrez’s government. She is a former vice president of Congress and the founder of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONIAE). Vega, who opposes the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the presence of U.S. troops at Ecuador’s Manta air base, will be the first indigenous person to serve as the country’s foreign minister. Indigenous leader Luis Macas, who is a former CONIAE President, will hold the minister of agriculture and ranching post. The Gutiérrez administration is set to take office on January 15, 2003.
