The new president of Ecuador, Alfredo Palacio, starting forming a new government on Thursday, naming his first ministers to a new cabinet. He named Mauricio Gandara as interior minister and Antonio Parra Gil as foreign minister. Luis Herreria was named secretary general of the presidial administration and spokesman for Palacio. In all, he replaced eight of the 15-member cabinet that served the deposed president Lucio Gutierrez, who was voted down by National Congress on Wednesday. Palacio, 68, a cardiologist with limited political experience who had served as Gutierrez' vice president, was hurriedly sworn into office on Wednesday in a capital where chaos reigned. The situation in the streets had however stabilized by Thursday. The move followed months of unrest over Gutierrez' bold replacement of the Supreme Court, which in turn negated an arrest warrant for corruption against the former Ecuadorean president Abdala Bucaram. When Bucaram, also known as "El loco" - the crazy one - returned from exile in Panama, public anger boiled over. --More 0113 Local Time 2213 GMT
