Our actions, our attitudes, our struggles progressively mark us, make us who we are, enable us to establish an idea of ​​ourselves. It is very important to choose those actions, those attitudes, and those fights well. In a global sense, state constitutions give us certain guidelines on how to be good people. Among other things, our duty and civic responsibility are: respecting human rights and fighting for their realization; promote the common good and put the general interest before the interest of the individual, fight against corruption. In the military world, values ​​and honor especially form the north and the basis of its activities.

General Jorge Gabela, brutally murdered for condemning an act of corruption, understood very well the importance of decency, of being uncorrupted. The resignation of the negotiator for the procurement of those shameful helicopters cost him his life. You don’t have to be a genius or an enlightened criminologist to realize that those who ordered it to be silenced forever were people who were on the other side: that of vile corruption. General Jorge Gabela, with his courageous action to condemn the agreement, gave us a clear message of honor and decency: we must expose the corrupt even if we risk doing so. Courage, honor, conviction are involved. These elements of life cannot and must not go unnoticed by our society, by current and future generations of soldiers and ordinary citizens. We must fight for the good, for deeds that fulfill our lives, for just and noble goals, even in spite of the risks involved. General Gabela refreshed us with his example that values ​​have a golden place in our lives. That nobility is valid. That there are risks that we must take for the benefit of society.

In addition to what I have rightly pointed out, there is another part of this noble battle: the tireless struggle of Mrs. Patricia Ochoa, a widow from Gabela, to discover and punish those who kidnapped her husband. We have seen her many times on television, unwavering in her zeal for truth and justice. His steadfastness and conviction are moving. Ms. Ochoa may not be able to measure the admiration her unwavering efforts evoke in society. You can already see some gray hairs on him. But they are other gray hairs: they don’t age her, they illuminate her, honor her, exalt her. In them are traces of their struggle, their love. And love, as Íngrid Betancourt said, “is like water: it always finds a way out.”

General Gabela and his wife are and will be two important values ​​of our society. I believe that the municipality of Quito should mark an important avenue or park with the name of General Gabela. It is a well-deserved recognition, but also the value of great ideals. And the military school where he studied should erect a symbolic plaque in his honor. They are ways to achieve nobility. They are forms of justice. (OR)

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