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Ecuador defense minister killed in chopper accident

Two Ecuadoran military helicopters collided late on Wednesday, killing Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, her daughter and five army officials near an air base on the Pacific coast, the government said.

"The minister, her daughter and five officials of the Ecuadoran Army were killed in the incident," Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea told reporters.

Official reports said that the crash came as the two helicopters -- one of them carrying Larriva, 50, and her 17-year-old daughter -- were conducting a night military exercise near the Manta air base.

"There are no survivors," Larrea said.

The accident occurred around 9pm on Wednesday and local media reports said the two helicopters crashed in mid-air.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who expressed sorrow over the accident, traveled to the accident scene and confirmed the deaths near the air base at the port city of Manta, 275km southwest of Quito.

"I only ask the Ecuadoran public to pray for the soul of Guadalupe and the other victims," said Correa before leaving for the port of Guayaquil in the southeast.

The Manta fire chief said that the rescue team so far had recovered the bodies of two men and a young woman.

Socialist leader Larriva, who called herself "a revolutionary, a woman of the true left," took office with Correa on Jan. 15, becoming the first woman to serve as her country's defense minister.

She openly opposed the presence of US troops in the country and US anti-drug operations. Correa himself had pledged not to renew the US military presence at the Manta air base in 2009.

The US uses Manta as its main outpost in its fight against drug trafficking in the Pacific region.

Aaron Sherinian, spokesman for the US embassy in Quito, said that US teams were working with the Ecuadoran authorities to try to find out how the crash occurred.

But in Quito, the vice president of Larriva's Socialist Party-Broad Front political party, Gustavo Ayala, expressed doubts about the cause of the accident and demanded his party be a part of any investigation.

"We have come to the defense ministry to form the investigating commission," said Ayala, accompanied by several other party leaders.
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