Diana Salazar Méndez (born 5 June 1981,

Ibarra, Ecuador Ibarra (; full name San Miguel de Ibarra; Quechua: Impapura) is a city in northern Ecuador and the capital of the Imbabura Province. It lies at the foot of the Imbabura Volcano and on the left bank of the Tahuando river. It is about northeast of ...

) is an Ecuadorian jurist and lawyer, and the current Attorney-General of Ecuador. She was said to be leading the country's fight against "narcopolitics" in January 2024.

Early life and education

Salazar spent her childhood in her native Ibarra, moving to

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

at age 16 with family. She was raised solely by her mother Olivia Méndez, an educational psychologist, along with three siblings. She is of

Afro-Ecuadorian Afro-Ecuadorians or Afroecuatorianos (Spanish), are Ecuadorians of predominantly Sub-Saharan African descent. History and background Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by Spanish slavers to Ecuad ...

descent. Salazar has a degree in

Political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

from the

Central University of Ecuador , image = Escudo de la Universidad Central del Ecuador.png , caption = , alt = , motto = ''Omnium Potentior est Sapientia'' , established = , type = National university , president = , ...

. She also has a master's degree in

Procedural Law Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil, lawsuit, criminal or administrative proceedings. The rules are ...

with a Criminal mention, from the Indoamérica Technological University.

Career

In 2001, at the age of 20, she began working in the Pichincha Prosecutor's Office as an assistant prosecutor, while still studying at the Central University Law School. In 2006 she was promoted as a secretary in the office, and in 2011 she became a prosecutor for the south of the capital. As prosecutor, Salazar investigated the

2015 FIFA corruption case In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach s ...

, in which the ex-president of the

Ecuadorian Football Federation The Ecuadorian Football Federation ( es, Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol or ) is the governing body of football in Ecuador. Its headquarters are in Quito, and it organizes the country's various football competitions and oversees the Ecuador ...

Luis Chiriboga was arrested. She later chaired the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit, and directed investigations into corruption, such as then Vice President

Jorge Glas Jorge David Glas Espinel (; born 13 September 1969) is an Ecuadorian politician and electrical engineer. He served as Vice President of Ecuador from 24 May 2013 to 13 December 2017. President Lenín Moreno suspended Glas of his official duties ...

's involvement in the

Odebrecht scandal Operation Car Wash ( pt, Operação Lava Jato) was a criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil's Curitiba branch. It began in March 2014 and was initially headed by investigative judge in France, but unlike judges in the common law ...

. Diana Salazar was appointed unanimously as the Attorney General of Ecuador by the transitionary Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control on 1 April 2019. She was the first black woman to hold the position. In December 2023, she led operation Metastasis which led to the arrest of the president of the Judiciary and another police senior figure for

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

and

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

. There were 30 arrests and 75 raids. She was said to be leading the country's fight against "narcopolitics" in January 2024 because politicians and judges were collaborating with drug gangs. This was during events was when a national TV station's live programme was taken over at gun point and one of the country's most notorious criminals, José Adolfo Macías Villamar went missing from prison. In 2024, ''Time'' magazine described her work as some of the most challenging and risky in the Western Hemisphere, naming her to their annual list of

100 most influential people ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, po ...

. There has been at least three attempts to impeach her. On 16 May 2024 she said that she was pregnant with her second child. The next day the Legislative Administrative Council resolved to suspend another attempt to have her impeached until February 2025. Salazar had argued that she had a right to have her pregnancy in peace. There are seven member of the Legislative Administrative Council. Five of them agreed with her and two, Esther Cuesta and

Viviana Veloz Rebeca Viviana Veloz Ramirez is an Ecuadorian politician who represents the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province in the National Assembly (Ecuador), National Assembly. She led the prosecution of Guillermo Lasso, President Guillermo Lasso in th ...

, abstained.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salazar Mendez, Diana Living people 1981 births Women government ministers of Ecuador Ecuadorian women lawyers Ecuadorian women judges Central University of Ecuador alumni University of Castilla–La Mancha alumni People from Ibarra, Ecuador 21st-century Ecuadorian women politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian politicians African diaspora in Ecuador