Ecuador leader fires army chief over crash

Latin America News Review

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, right, congratulates Lorena Escudero, new Defense Minister, at the Government Palace in Quito, Friday, Feb. 2, 2007. Lorena Escudero replaces Guadalupe Larriva, who died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa R.)February 2, 2007QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) -- Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa fired the country's army chief after blaming him in part for last week's helicopter crash that killed Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, a government official said Friday.

Economy Minister Ricardo Patino, who was briefly acting as defense minister, said a military report unveiled a series of mistakes with the planning, operation and security of the helicopters' flight in which Larriva, her teenage daughter and five military officers died.

The minister said Army chief Pedro Machado was responsible for Larriva's security."The army made those mistakes, and Gen. Machado has to answer for those mistakes," Patino said.Correa has called for an investigation with the help of international experts into the crash of the two Gazelle helicopters."This change will create some uneasiness in the military, but a cleanup is needed after Larriva's death," said Fredy Rivera, a military expert with Ecuador's branch of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences...(click here to view entire report)