QUITO – Ecuador’s Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner resigned Tuesday amid a coronavirus outbreak that devastated the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, and noted that his profile was strengthened by leading the government’s efforts to restart the economy.
Sonnenholzner, who has been in the workplace for 18 months, is the third deputy to President Lenin Moreno to resign since Moreno began his term in mid-2017. In a televised statement, Sonnenholzner did not make his resolution or verify the media hypothesis that he plans to run in next year’s presidential election.
“I’m leaving with the satisfaction of a responsibility, ” said Sonnenholzner.
Sonnenholzner was at the helm in March and April during one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Latin America in Guayaquil, when the bodies of the sick were left at homes and on the streets because hospitals did not have the capacity to recover them.
About 4,800 more people have died from the virus in the Andean country, adding 1,600 in the neighboring province of Guayaquil.
Sonnenholzner became aware of sending medical resources to hospitals and delivering food to members of society. He also led the government’s plan to revive the economy through support work and lending to sectors on horseback. (Report through Alexandra Valencia written through Angus Berwick edited through Jonathan Oatis)
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