Former Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa (2000-2003, center), who in 2000 dollarized his country’s economy amid the worst banking crisis, died in a hospital in the United States this Tuesday at the age of 83.
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“Ecuador is in mourning. From tomorrow I will issue a national mourning in memory of Gustavo Noboa”President Lenín Moreno said via his Twitter account.
The president called him a “dear friend, respected Democrat, moral trainer of the youth, patriot” and expressed his “condolences to his family and friends.”
Noboa was elected vice president in 1998 in conjunction with Jamil MahuadBut he took power through constitutional succession after the former Christian Democratic president was overthrown in January 2000 by an uprising by the military and indigenous people.
With his promotion, backed by the military leadership, Noboa “ prevented a military coup from continuing ” in the country before the subordination of then-army colonel Lucio Gutiérrez, political scientist Simón Pachano, of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, told AFP (Flacso ).
He added that Noboa “It has weathered a difficult (political and financial) crisis and knew how to give the next government a better land than it received.”
Ecuador is in mourning. Starting tomorrow, I will issue a national mourning in memory of Gustavo Noboa, former President of the Republic. Dear friend, respected Democrat, moral builder of youth, patriot. My condolences to his family and friends. pic.twitter.com/jXLC9pwBDA
– Lenin Moreno (@Lenin) February 16, 2021
Dollarization, its legacy
Gutiérrez was fired and won the presidential election to succeed his
Noboa, but was removed by Congress in 2005, in the middle of a popular uprising.
In March 2000, with Noboa at the helm of the government, Ecuador adopted dollarization as a way out of a deep banking crisis that led to losses of more than $ 5 billion and as the price hike threatened to turn into hyperinflation.
“It is his great legacy, he left the fundamentals of dollarization that continues to this day,” Pachano emphasized, adding that the Noboa “His low confrontability was surprising, unlike the politicians of the time.”
Lawyer and former rector of the Catholic University of Port of Guayaquil (Southwest), the ex-president was at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he underwent surgery for a brain tumor on Feb. 9.
In full recovery, Noboa – benign and benign – died of a heart attack, according to family membersBorn on August 21, 1937, Noboa also served as Governor of Guayas Province, whose capital is his native Guayaquil.
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Political asylum seeker
In August 2000, he managed to renegotiate some of Ecuador’s external debt following a moratorium imposed by Mahuad. This led to Noboa being charged with embezzlement by the late ex-president (1984-1988) after leaving the presidential seat and by the then right-wing lawmaker, León Febres Cordero.
Justice ordered his imprisonment and Noboa applied for asylum in the Dominican Republic in July 2003, where he traveled after seeking refuge in the embassy in Quito. After two years he returned to the country, having been declared innocent.
“An honest, responsible president who has successfully led the country through very difficult times,” his personal friend and former vice president of the country (1992-1995) Alberto Dahik wrote on Twitter. So said Joffre Campaña, his lawyer in the embezzlement process, on the same social network “Ecuador loses one of its best men. Youth coach, statesman. An exceptional being.”
Noboa wrote several books on law and politics, he was married to María Isabel Baquerizo, with whom he had six children.
AFP