María Paula Romo (born 4 June 1979) is an

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians () are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

politician who served as Minister of Government under President

Lenin Moreno Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924, and of ...

. She was a member of the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

that crafted Ecuador's current Constitution between 2007 and 2008. She later won a seat at the National Assembly of Ecuador for the period 2009–2013.

Life

She entered politics in 2004 as one of the founders of "Ruptura de los 25", a political leftist movement that participated in the protests that toppled then-president

Lucio Gutiérrez Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born 23 March 1957) is an Ecuadorian politician and former military officer who served as the 43rd president of Ecuador from 2003 until his impeachment in 2005. In 2023, he was elected to the National Assembly. ...

. Two years later, Ruptura de los 25 supported

Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Corr ...

in his successful bid to become Ecuador's President in the Ecuadorian 2006 general election. The group broke their alliance with Correa in 2010 after he took actions they perceived as authoritarian. Romo participated along Ruptura de los 25 in the 2013 general election in opposition to Correa, but she did not keep her seat. President Moreno chose Romo as Ecuador's Interior Minister on 31 August 2018. National Assembly members Lourdes Cuesta, Amapola Naranjo and Roberto Gómez, challenged Romo saying that she had failed to fulfil her ministerial duties during the national strike in October 2019. On November 24, the National Assembly, with 104 positive votes, approved the motion to censure and dismiss her for allowing harsh police intervention against protesters during that strike. She was also accused of allowing police to use expired tear gas canisters that endangered people's lives during the 11 days of anti-government protests in Quito. The protests were over the removal by President Lenin Moreno’s administration of fuel subsidies on October 16, 2019 and other economic policies in a bid to obtain a loan from the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

(IMF).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romo, Maria Paula 1979 births Living people Universidad San Francisco de Quito alumni Women government ministers of Ecuador Members of the National Congress (Ecuador) Ecuadorian feminists Female interior ministers Politicians from Quito 21st-century Ecuadorian women politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian politicians