Defense appoints Juan Carlos Tapia Aldás as executive director of INOCAR

The Ministry of National Defense appointed CPNV-EMC Juan Carlos Tapia Aldás as executive director of the Navy Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute (INOCAR), replacing CPNV-EMT Nelson Andrés Pazmiño Manrique. The decision is contained in Ministerial Agreement No. 030, signed by Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo Rendón and published in the Official Registry, Supplement No. 396, on Friday, October 23, 2026, on page 7.

The appointment is based on Article 154, numeral 1, of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, Article 10, literal g), of the Organic Law of National Defense, and Article 5 of the Law of the Navy Oceanographic Institute, issued via Supreme Decree No. 642, published in the Official Registry No. 108 on July 25, 1972. That regulation created the institute with headquarters in Guayaquil and national jurisdiction, as a body dependent on the General Command of the Navy, with its own legal personality, assets, and funds.

The current institutional framework stems from Executive Decree No. 1038, published in the Official Registry No. 209 – Supplement on May 22, 2020, which merged the Navy Oceanographic Institute and the Ecuadorian Antarctic Institute into a single entity attached to the Ministry of National Defense. Its Article 3 establishes that the executive director of the institute “shall be appointed by the Minister of National Defense.”

The process that originated the appointment

The agreement is based on memorandum MDN-SUD-2026-0008-ME dated January 14, 2026, sent by the Undersecretary of Support for Sectoral Development - Defense, which requested the issuance of the legal instrument. That document, in turn, refers to two official letters and a naval message:

• Official Letter ARE-COGMAR-CDO-2026-0022-O dated January 12, 2026.
• Official Letter INOCAR-INOCAR-2026-0022-OF dated January 13, 2026.
• Naval Message No. ARE-DIGTAH-PER-N-171800Z-DIC-2025-R.

In those communications, the state department was informed about the transfer of military personnel corresponding to the change of the institute’s director, between Pazmiño Manrique Nelson Andrés, as the outgoing official, and Tapia Aldás Juan Carlos, as the incoming official. The file was completed with the Naval Service Record and the credentials of the proposed officer.

What Ministerial Agreement No. 030 provides

The instrument, electronically signed in Quito, contains four resolutive articles:

• Article 1: designates Tapia Aldás Juan Carlos as executive director of INOCAR, replacing Nelson Andrés Pazmiño Manrique.
• Article 2: provides for sending an authentic copy of the agreement to the general commander of the Naval Force, for their knowledge and processing.
• Article 3: obligates the director to comply with constitutional, legal, and regulatory provisions in all administrative acts executed, with responsibility for action or omission.
• Article 4: establishes the validity from its signing, without prejudice to its publication in the Ministerial General Order and in the Official Registry.

Background of the institute’s leadership

The departure of Pazmiño Manrique closes a cycle that began with his appointment through Ministerial Agreement No. 034 of January 25, 2024, published in Ministerial General Order No. 012 of the same date. Subsequently, Ministerial Agreement No. 121 of March 27, 2024, disseminated in Ministerial General Order No. 048, reformed the designation used in that appointment and replaced the phrase “Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute of the Navy of Ecuador - (INOCAR)” with “Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute of the Navy”.

The institute’s affiliation with the Ministry of National Defense dates back to Executive Decree No. 940, published in the Official Registry Supplement No. 581 of November 22, 2011, which incorporated INOCAR and the Military Geographic Institute (IGM) as institutes generating geoinformation and specialized services for the Armed Forces.

The change in leadership directly affects the country’s military oceanographic and antarctic research, a field that the agreement itself links to the defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity, support for national development, and cooperation with state and international organizations. With the signing of Ministerial Agreement No. 030, the Defense portfolio formalizes in the Official Registry a relief that had already been operationally executed at the beginning of 2026 and which defines who heads the technical entity responsible for marine and antarctic information in Ecuador.

Source: Official Registry, Supplement No. 396, Friday, October 23, 2026, Section I, page 7 (official reference: Ministerial Agreement No. 030, Ministry of National Defense).