ECUADOR: Casket of Ecuador's first female defence minister, killed in a mid-air collision, arrives in her hometown where wake is held

The casket of Ecuador's first female defence minister, killed in a mid-air collision with her daughter, arrived in her hometown of Cuenca on late Thursday (January 25) where hundreds of mourners attended her wake. Guadalupe Larriva, her teenage daughter and five military personnel were killed on Wednesday when two Gazelle helicopters crashed in the coastal province of Manabi after a military air practice. Hundreds of mourners from her socialist party crowded the street as the hearse carrying her casket arrived for a stop at Cuenca party headquarters. Larriva was a 50-year-old former teacher and leader of the socialist political party supporting Correa. "You haven't abandoned us," said party leader Carlos Paredes. "Today, you leave a legacy and that legacy is that we need to continue as you, tirelessly, on that path to achieve the objectives." The casket was then taken to a local theatre where hundreds of people attended the wake. The crash shook President Rafael Correa's 10-day-old government and briefly deflated tensions between the leftist and Congress over his plans to rewrite the constitution in the unstable country, where three presidents have been ousted in the last decade. Correa called for a crash investigation with the help of Chilean Air Force investigators and called on the French government to send over technicians from the company that built the helicopters. Eurocopter, the helicopter unit of European aerospace giant EADS , will dispatch a group of technicians this week to help with the probe, a company spokeswoman said. Some members of Larriva's Socialist Party demanded a deep investigation into the causes of the crash and have not ruled out sabotage. Correa wanted Larriva, one of a few civilians to lead Ecuador's 176-year-old military, to control an institution that has played a part in toppling three elected presidents by publicly withdrawing its support for them.

ITN Source | January 26, 2007

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