A municipal reset follows Zamora’s suspension as 13 contenders move toward the November vote.

Peñaloza moves to review Zamora’s team

Cuenca’s acting mayor, Marisol Peñaloza, has moved quickly to put her stamp on the municipal administration, requesting the resignations of senior officials across the city’s municipal corporation while the political field for November’s vote becomes increasingly crowded.

The request, sent Friday, July 3rd, went to 18 managers, coordinators and directors appointed during the administration of suspended mayor Cristian Zamora. According to the memorandum, the goal is to begin a comprehensive evaluation of the management team rather than immediately remove officials from office.

Peñaloza made clear that the request for resignations does not automatically mean that they have been accepted, nor does it by itself represent a termination or separation from municipal service. Any actual departures would still have to move through the corresponding administrative process.

The decision comes little more than two weeks after Peñaloza assumed the duties of mayor following the six-month suspension of Zamora’s political rights by the Electoral Disputes Tribunal. The case, tied to gender-based political violence, has reshaped both the municipal government and the campaign to lead the city.

Pressure from inside City Hall

The latest personnel move followed another visible sign of tension inside the municipality: the resignation of María Caridad Vásquez, manager of the Cuenca Cleaning Company, known as EMAC. Her exit came amid complaints over unpaid workers responsible for cleaning city streets.

Those payment delays triggered a protest by cleaning workers in the Historic Center, placing immediate pressure on the new acting administration. Payments began to be made Thursday afternoon, but the episode added to the sense that Peñaloza’s first weeks in office are being defined as much by administrative cleanup as political transition.

The acting mayor had already made changes shortly after taking office. On June 19th, she ordered the dismissal of Marlon Torres and Pablo Albornoz, two of Zamora’s closest advisers. Both held freely removable positions and had worked with Zamora since his 2023 campaign.

Peñaloza later said many municipal employees had reported their duties and responsibilities after she took over, and in most cases, she authorized them to continue. Torres and Albornoz, however, did not provide that information, according to her account. The message from the new administration was blunt: those who remain must be prepared to explain what work they are doing for the canton.

Peñaloza is also preparing to add former prefect and former assemblyman Leonardo Berrezueta to her team. She has said she intends to meet with Azuay’s assembly members to discuss issues including security, education and governance.

A race without the suspended mayor

The shake-up at City Hall is unfolding as Cuenca’s mayoral race begins to take shape for the 2027 sectional elections, which are scheduled for November 29th, 2026. The National Electoral Council says 13.8 million voters are eligible to participate nationwide.

Zamora’s suspension removes the incumbent from the race and forces political organizations to recalibrate. Before stepping aside temporarily, he publicly said he and Peñaloza had worked as a team, but the early personnel decisions show the acting mayor is not simply preserving the structure he left behind.

His absence has opened space for both familiar names and unexpected contenders. As of the close of the internal primary period, 13 pre-candidates were known in the race for mayor of Cuenca, including 10 men and three women.

Old rivals and new alliances

Among the most prominent returning figures is Pedro Palacios, who won the mayoralty in 2019 and is now seeking the office for a third time. Former prefect Paúl Carrasco is also returning to the contest, again pursuing the mayor’s office after previous runs.

Former mayor Marcelo Cabrera has re-entered the race as well, running with the Igualdad movement. Cabrera has already served two terms as mayor, from 2004 to 2009 and again from 2014 to 2019, and this would be his fifth run for the office.

The political field also includes names linked to broader national alliances and local repositioning. Azuay Prefect Juan Cristóbal Lloret has emerged as a possible contender through a path shaped by alliances involving the Socialist Party and AMIGO. Councilman Iván Abril has also been named through AMIGO, reflecting the maneuvering of political groups after Zamora’s suspension altered expectations.

Zamora’s own political circle is also present. Renacer, a movement founded by his adviser Marlon Torres, has entered the local scene with figures close to the suspended mayor, including María Consuelo Orellana, his former Human Resources director.

Other names are entering the mayoral race for the first time, including Juan Pablo Riquetti, Fabián Ledesma and former minister Juan Carlos Vega, the ADN movement’s candidate in Cuenca. María Isabel Vásconez has been announced for Futuro, formerly Democracia Sí, while Marlene Novillo Jara is the pre-candidate for Unidad Popular.

For now, Cuenca faces two overlapping transitions: one inside the municipality, where Peñaloza is testing the loyalty and performance of a team built under Zamora, and another outside City Hall, where parties are trying to turn a disrupted political map into a winning campaign before voters go to the polls in November.