Pabel Muñoz

A former planning official and National Assembly member for Pichincha, he has been Metropolitan Mayor of Quito since May 2023. He registered as a candidate for re-election in the 29 November 2026 Quito mayoral election.

Career

Muñoz was subsecretary of state reform at the planning agency Senplades in 2007–2009, secretary general of planning for the Quito municipality in 2009–2010, vice minister of economic and social inclusion in 2010–2011, deputy general secretary of Senplades in 2011–2013 and national secretary of planning and development with ministerial rank in 2013–2015. Elected to the National Assembly for Pichincha for Alianza PAIS in 2017 and re-elected in 2021, he resigned on 8 September 2022 to run for mayor. He had joined Revolución Ciudadana in 2018 after the split between Lenín Moreno and Rafael Correa. In the February 2023 election he won with about 25% of the vote in a field of twelve and took office on 14 May 2023. On 6 August 2026 he registered for re-election.

Positions

As mayor, Muñoz has clashed with the national government over the trolleybus fleet held up at customs, the garbage fee collected on electricity bills and transport subsidies. Spanish Wikipedia reports that he argues the government should keep the diesel subsidy for passenger transport, since the municipality lacks the legal authority to absorb the compensation, and that in March 2026 he challenged a reform of the COOTAD law as a threat to municipal autonomy and social programmes. He defends the Metro's record. In September 2026 the council approved a bus fare rise from 0.35 to 0.40 dollars from January 2027. Wikipedia describes his movement as left-wing, with socialism of the 21st century as its most cited label.

Controversies

In April 2024 the Electoral Contentious Tribunal, by three votes to two, upheld a first-instance ruling that Muñoz broke the ban on public officials campaigning by backing Luisa González's presidential bid in 2023. Primicias reports a fine of about 9,200 dollars and a public apology; complainants Juan Esteban Guarderas and Mónica Jaramillo also asked for his removal from office, which the tribunal refused as the sanction was proportionate. Spanish Wikipedia reports that he apologised and called the ruling unjust. The ruling is final and the sanction has been carried out.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia (Spanish) · Primicias · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (Spanish) · Vistazo

Photo: Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)