Noboa reassigns Ecuador’s vice presidency amid dispute with Verónica Abad

*Event date: 2025-01-02*

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has again designated Planning Minister Sariha Moya as interim vice president in a worsening dispute with Vice President Verónica Abad. The move, announced by the government minister José de la Gasca, keeps the office in Noboa’s orbit while Abad challenges the decision as unconstitutional.

According to Swiss Info, the decree names Moya as vice president until Jan. 22 or until Abad appears at Ecuador’s embassy in Turkey. That condition underscores how tightly the dispute is tied to Abad’s current posting and to Noboa’s effort to control the executive transition around her.

Abad has rejected the move and taken the case to the Constitutional Court. She argues that the decree violates the constitution and is an attempt to halt what she calls a rupture of the constitutional order. Those claims show that the political fight has moved beyond personnel management and into a direct legal challenge over who can exercise the powers of the vice presidency.

The conflict did not begin with this latest decree. Abad had already been suspended for alleged unjustified abandonment of her duties while serving as ambassador to Israel, a posting ordered by Noboa shortly after he took office in November 2023. The government’s current move therefore fits into a longer confrontation over the role and status of a vice president the president has repeatedly sought to sideline.

The dispute is significant because the vice presidency in Ecuador is not just ceremonial. Control over who performs the office can affect the balance of power inside the executive branch and the government’s ability to present continuity. By naming Moya again, Noboa is signaling that he intends to keep the position under his political control while the legal case plays out.

The report also suggests the government believes Abad’s absence from Turkey is central to the issue. By tying Moya’s interim appointment to Abad’s appearance at the embassy, the decree implies that the administration sees compliance, not confrontation, as the path back to regularity. Abad, by contrast, frames the action as unlawful and has asked the court to intervene.

The result is a contest between executive discretion and constitutional restraint. Noboa’s camp is acting as though the vice presidency can be temporarily reassigned under the current circumstances. Abad is insisting that the president is overreaching and that only the court can settle the matter.

For Ecuador, the practical danger is prolonged institutional confusion. If the dispute drags on, the country could face uncertainty over who legitimately holds one of the republic’s top offices while both political and judicial channels are pulled into the fight.

For now, the immediate facts are clear: Noboa has again named an interim vice president, Abad has challenged the move in court, and the constitutional dispute between the two continues to widen.