Alfredo palace
Luis Alfredo Palacio González (Guayaquil, January 22, 1939) is an Ecuadorian doctor and politician. He was the 44th president of the Republic of Ecuador from April 20, 2005 to January 15, 2007.
Biography
His father was the well-known Ecuadorian sculptor Alfredo Palacio Moreno, who made the monument to the Liberal Revolution, with the figure of Eloy Alfaro, ordered by the Municipality of Guayaquil and which, after a geometric resettlement, is located in the roundabout that It connects to the Rafael Mendoza Avilés bridge and Avenida Benjamín Rosales Aspiazu in Guayaquil. His mother was Ana María González.
Member of the following scientific and medical organizations: New York Science Academy, Ecuadorian Scientific Community, Guayas Medical-Surgical Society, Ecuadorian Society of Cardiology and specialized societies of the Thorax, Pediatrics, Radiology and Internal Medicine. He is married to María Beatriz Paret, with whom he has 4 children:
- Alfredo Palacio Paret
- Ana María Palacio Paret
- Carola Palacio Paret
- Linka Palacio Paret
Studies carried out
He completed his primary studies at the Abdón Calderón Private Institute (IPAC). His secondary studies were carried out at the "La Salle" school, in the city of Guayaquil. Palacio graduated in 1967 from the University of Guayaquil as a Doctor of Medicine, later specializing in internal medicine, cardiology and surgery in the US. He has published scientific works in his area of expertise and is known to have an interest in scientific studies of a medical nature.
Professional Practice
Private cardiologist. His office in Guayaquil counted among his clients former presidents León Febres Cordero and Sixto Durán Ballén, as well as other public figures of Ecuadorian politics.
According to the official Carondelet website, Alfredo Palacio has received multiple awards: from the Ecuadorian House of Culture, the Ecuadorian Academy of Medicine, the Municipality of Quito, the American Medical Association, the Municipality of Guayaquil, from the Ministry of National Defense (Atahuallpa Merit Medal, in the rank of Commander), from the Civil Defense of Ecuador and from the Ecuadorian Executive (Recognition of Merit, in the rank of Grand Cross).
Public activity
He was Minister of Public Health between 1994-1996, during the government of Sixto Durán Ballén. During the border conflict with Peru, he organized the emergency health system, earning a decoration from the Armed Forces. Palacio has not been affiliated with a political party at any time, but has been close to liberal and progressive ideologies.
2002 Vice Presidential Candidacy
After Lucio Gutiérrez received amnesty for the events of January 21, 2000, the former military man formed the political party Sociedad Patriotica, an organization that reached a programmatic agreement with Pachakutik for an electoral alliance in the 2002 presidential elections. The points of the programmatic agreement included constitutional reform, the rejection of the negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, the establishment of a plan for the exit of the US outpost in the Manta Air Base and the establishment of leftist public policies.
As part of the alliance, Gutiérrez obtained authorization from the indigenous leaders of Pachakutik to get a running mate (candidate for vice president) in the city of Guayaquil, to achieve regional balance between the Costa-Sierra region. Palacio was not the first consulted, but he was the only one who accepted to run the candidacy with Gutiérrez, who decided to participate as an independent sponsored by the PSP, not joining the party.
Within the campaign, Palacio exploited his image as a doctor to promote the health agenda of the electoral offer. The specific offer of the candidate for vice president was to organize a mechanism that would allow all Ecuadorians to have some kind of health security system (Universal Health Insurance). Gutiérrez dressed in a green suit to remind the voter of the expulsion of Mahuad and recall military governments of the past. Although in recent years, Gutiérrez has revealed that Palacio hardly participated in the campaign, it can be considered that his image helped insert the candidacy in moderate groups from Guayaquil and Manabitas.
During the second electoral round campaign (balloting), Palacio demonstrated better communication skills than the vice-presidential candidate from the other list, Marcelo Cruz (also a doctor); almost in the same proportion as Gutiérrez was better than the presidential candidate Álvaro Noboa in terms of communication skills. Gutiérrez used a play on words with the surnames on his list and those of the opponents when repeating that the people shouted at his rallies: & # 34;With Gutiérrez, to the Palace; but with Noboa, to the cross".
Vice President of Ecuador
Palacio took office on Wednesday, January 15, 2003. Gutiérrez assigned to the Vice Presidency the social area, science and technology, the prevention of natural disasters, and planning, and allowed him to designate the Minister of Health (Francisco Andino was named, who resigned months later, in conflict with Palacio). In practice, the social area was not in charge of the Vice President, which led to the first friction between the President and the Vice President.
Over time, Gutiérrez relieved Palacio of all those responsibilities, leaving only the management of Science and Technology and the Universal Health Insurance project in his hands. The government's annual budgets provided meager items for these projects, which could not advance. Palacio blamed the budgetary inflexibilities on the existence of oil funds destined to prioritize the payment of the foreign debt. Of these oil funds, the best known was the Fund for the Stabilization and Investment of Oil Resources -FEIREP. The vice-presidency's economic adviser, Rafael Correa, had structured a mechanism to use part of the FEIREP funds for universal insurance and investment in science and technology, but the vice-presidency did not interfere in budget preparation or in the execution of the tax accounts.
After the hidden struggle of March 2003, Palacio kept a low profile while Gutiérrez faced the attrition of the government, including the accusation of illegal electoral contributions by a businessman convicted of drug trafficking who supported the candidacy at the behest of Palacio.
In October 2004, sectional elections were held in Ecuador, where President Gutiérrez's party had the active participation of the president. This was the origin of an attempt to impeach Gutiérrez in Congress, which allowed the then government minister, Jaime Damerval, to accumulate like-minded deputies based on buying consciences and bureaucratic offers in the Executive. Social groups that previously identified with Palacio distanced themselves from the vice president and the government and organized a movement that participated in elections under the name of the White Movement (its leader was former minister Francisco Andino). For his part, Vice President Palacio criticized Gutiérrez for engaging in an electoral campaign and asked the Comptroller's Office to investigate whether the Patriotic Society used public funds in its propaganda.
During the process leading up to Gutiérrez's impeachment, it was speculated that Palacio supported the removal of the President. A deputy from the Socialist Party of Ecuador denounced having received a call from the vice-presidential office, but this version was denied by Palacio days later.
Outlaw rebellion and fall of Gutiérrez
On December 4, 2004, the majority sympathetic to President Gutiérrez issued a resolution that dismissed the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and appointed their replacements, despite the fact that the Legislature had no power over any of these actions. The session of Congress had been expressly convened by Gutiérrez to lead the Judiciary: The MPD deputy, Luis Villacís, read the resolution prepared based on a legal interpretation prepared by the presidential legal adviser. Despite this, the government he refused to be responsible for the appointment of the new Court. The magistrates dismissed by Congress were expelled from the Supreme Court building with tear gas and shoved by police officers sent by the Minister of Government, Jaime Damerval. On that occasion, Palacio warned that it should be rectified, since the decision had concentrated all the functions of the State, directly or indirectly, in the person of Lucio Gutiérrez, installing a dictatorship. He had literally said that: & # 34; When constitutional ruptures occur, it is necessary to rectify urgently. The events of the last hours deserve this attention"
When the new Supreme Court, named Pichi-Corte, ordered the annulment of the trials against Abdalá Bucaram and other Ecuadorian politicians exiled in the Caribbean, the public came out to protest in greater numbers. Palacio had already sided with the opposition and blamed Gutiérrez for the installation of the Court: "It is not possible to deny that the Court and tribunals questioned originated in the extraordinary session of Congress on December 8 that you summoned Your responsibility to solve this tragedy is inescapable".
On Wednesday, April 13, 2005, the mayor of Quito, Paco Moncayo, led a protest in the Ecuadorian capital, which paralyzed part of the productive activity. Seeing that the city was not completely altered, Gutiérrez dismissed the protest and said that all those who did not protest with the mayor are in favor of his management. This prompted a lightning protest held on the night of the same day, organized by a major radio station in the capital called La Luna. The next day, Gutiérrez described those who protested in front of his house as a "group of outlaws".
This denomination became a password of pride and protest against the Gutierrez regime. On April 15, 2005, Gutiérrez ordered the closure of the Pichi-Corte of his inspiration and decreed a state of emergency in Quito. Since that day, protests have been going on night after night in the capital and in several other cities. On Wednesday, April 20, the National Congress suspended its meeting in its usual building (The Auditorium of the Central Bank of Ecuador, due to the fact that the Legislative Palace caught fire), to restart it at CIESPAL (International Center for Higher Studies in Journalism for Latin America, a non-governmental organization), where they proceeded to replace the President of Congress (also related to the Gutiérrez administration) and to resolve that Lucio Gutiérrez had abandoned his position as President by violating the Constitution by interfering in other functions of the state.
Presidency of Ecuador
Alfredo Palacio was sworn in as Constitutional President of the Republic in the CIESPAL auditorium by the first vice president of Congress, Cynthia Viteri of the PSC, who took over as president after the removal of the President of Congress, Omar Quintana of the PRE in the same session. He was not invested with the traditional presidential sash, given the urgency of the event. In his inaugural speech, he promised to resume the leftist agenda abandoned by Lucio Gutiérrez, carry out the political reform offered by previous governments to eliminate political interference in the administration of justice and prioritize social investment over payment of the foreign debt, being the most remembered phrase of his speech: "Today we re-found this country, (...) a country that opens white schools, clean hospitals...". In the same possession he offered to fight impunity: "The people of Ecuador ended the dictatorship, immorality, arrogance, terror, fear (...) has decided to found a Republic of hope, in whose streets and paths flourish and dignity, equity and joy reign (...) In addition to refounding the Republic, I offer you that there will be no forgiveness or forgetfulness for the people who have broken the Constitution, for the oppressors who have repressed the people, for all those that they have not respected public affairs"..
After his possession and an eventful press conference, he went out onto the balcony of CIESPAL, where protesters from Quito demanded that he order the closure of Congress. Palace refused. For more than 12 hours, Palacio was locked in a CIESPAL basement waiting for the protesters to leave the building, which was vandalized as a rejection of the Legislature (in fact, several deputies were attacked and forced to resign), being able to retire from the site after engaging in conversations with Paco Velasco, a radio broadcaster who was one of the leaders of the protests, and with former President León Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra, who were able to reduce the protests, allowing a strong military escort to take him to the Government Palace.
Public Policies
Already in government, he integrated a cabinet mainly with citizens far from active politics, mainly elderly citizens, although there were also young ministers, most of them akin to progressive and liberal ideologies. The first concern of the Palacio administration was to avoid victimizing former president Lucio Gutiérrez, who maneuvered to reach the residence of the Ambassador of Brazil and requested political asylum, which was accepted. Gutiérrez flew to Brazil a few days after he was granted asylum, unlike what Gutiérrez would do in his time, when he prevented the departure of former president Gustavo Noboa when he received asylum at the embassy of the Dominican Republic. Palacio received support in his hometown and later dedicated himself to implementing a political reform that included setting up a new Supreme Court, independent of parties and interests).
In the area of health, the implementation of a universal health insurance system (AUS) began, which materialized in three cities. Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca by agreement with their Municipalities and using a loan from the Human Development Bond. He also sent congress a legal reform to integrate the Supreme Court of Justice, which was called "The Ideal Court" and a legal reform to change the way of judging the presidents of the Republic, under the treatment of constitutional amendments, which were not approved. Something very important in his management was to avoid involving Ecuador in Plan Colombia, rejecting the offers of the Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, having well accepted the management of Francisco Carrión as Chancellor of the Republic.
His Minister of Economy, Rafael Correa, proposed eliminating the FEIREP oil fund and replacing it with a special account in the budget, called CEREPS. An oil fund called FEISEH was also created to prioritize investments in electrification and investment in hydrocarbon exploitation. They ended up like this, eliminating the oil revenue stabilization fund (FEIREP) which, especially Correa, accused of being a mechanism that favored the interests of public debt bondholders and replaced it with the "Account of productive and social reactivation" (CEREPS), which distributed these resources among different items (but which reverted to the budget at the end of each year). Palacio continued with the negotiations of Free Trade Agreements that began in the Gutiérrez government, making progress in the negotiations with United States, this being considered by leftist and opposition politicians as a betrayal of his promise to resume the progressive government model for which he was elected vice president, in addition to lowering standards of economic sovereignty. Correa in his three months As a minister he gained great popularity and support from social sectors for his management of the economy following a socialist and nationalist framework_ he tried to increase social investment, criticized and diminished the influence of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the economy, focusing on investing and collaborating internationally with the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chávez signing economic commitments with this country. President Palacio had many disagreements with Correa over his management of the economy, mainly for making decisions without the president's prior knowledge in international agreements, which resulted in Correa's resignation from the ministry.
After Correa's resignation, Palacio appointed a total of 5 ministers to manage that portfolio, including Diego Borja, who sent a law to reform oil contracts regarding the excessive profits of oil operators, In this way, he promoted a reform of the Hydrocarbons Law so that the State received at least 50% of the oil income. Borja also insisted that the regulation of the Law not dilute the participation of the State in oil revenues. Palacio's popularity deteriorated after Correa's departure, being highly criticized for having failed to implement the political reforms that he promised during his presidential inauguration, as well as being criticized for having carried out mediocre management of the public sector, not having support from any party in the National Congress, facing continuous political opposition that made his management of the government difficult. Alfredo Palacio ended his term on Monday, January 15, 2007, and handed over the presidential sash to the new Constitutional President of the Republic, the economist Rafael Correa, his former Minister of Economy, on January 15, in the National Congress.
Attempts at political reforms and Popular Consultation
Palacio tried to carry out a political reform, for which he tried several alternatives: collecting suggestions from citizens through a 1-800 line, letters, the Internet and calls to community radio stations. He sent a list of questions to Congress to seek authorization for a popular consultation. He made an alliance with the Democratic Left party to obtain the approval of a consultation by the Legislature. He asked the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to call a consultation for the installation of a Constituent Assembly. He then ordered the TSE to carry out the call and finally sent to Congress a constitutional reform project that would allow a direct call for popular consultation, however, Congress never gave way to any of these requests, the proposals being strongly criticized by the parliamentary opposition. for being economically unfeasible, in addition to the instability of the Palacio's proposals, which were continually being modified.
At the end of his administration, Palacio only managed to convene a Popular Consultation on social investment issues, with the objective of transforming the universal Medical Insurance projects, the Ten-Year Education Plan, and the reinvestment of oil surpluses in social projects, as public policies that exercise as a legacy of their government. The consultation was held the same day as the second round of the presidential elections in Ecuador in 2006, winning the yes vote at 3 o'clock by more than 60%.
Ministers of State
Post-Presidential Life
Dr. Palacio, after exercising the presidency, retired to the city of Guayaquil where he resumed his medical practice privately. He likewise gave medicine lectures at the Espíritu Santo de Samborondón University. He later he founded the College of Medicine of the university campus. He currently serves as President of the National Institute of Cardiology, Professor of Socio-Economic and Political Changes in Latin America, University of Specialties Espíritu Santo "UEES"; President of the Scientific Academic Governing Council of the Faculty of Medicine of the Espíritu Santo University UEES.
During the government of President Rafael Correa, Palacio maintained a distant stance from politics, but accommodating with the Correa government, tending to his presidential possessions and being invited to multiple government events.
Books published
- Atlas of two-dimensional Echocardiography. Yorke Medical Books. United States 1983
- Atlas of Bidimensional Ecocardiography. Editorial PLM. Mexico 1983
- Estudio Guayaquil 1: Cardiopathies in the province of Guayas - Ecuador. University of Guayaquil. Ecuador 1986
- Ischemic cardiopathy. Editorial of the Central Bank of Ecuador. 1989
- Towards a scientific humanism. Ecuador 1996
- Health: The right of all. Editorial Presidencia de la República. Ecuador 2006
Decorations and merits
- Gran Collar de la Orden Nacional de San Lorenzodesignated as Grand Master of the Order of highest rank in Ecuador, presided by the President of the Republic of turn.