Former Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa (2000-2003, center), Who in 2000 introduced the dollarization of his country’s economy in the midst of the worst banking crisis, died on Tuesday at age 83 in a hospital in the United States.
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“Ecuador is in mourning. From tomorrow, decree national mourning in memory of Gustavo Noboa”, Said President Lenin Moreno through his Twitter account.
The ruler called him a “beloved friend, respected Democrat, youth moral trainer, patriot” and presented his “condolences to his family and friends.”
Noboa was elected in 1998 vice president in binomial with Jamil Mahuad, But assumed power by constitutional succession after the former Christian Democrat president was overthrown in January 2000 by a military and indigenous rebellion.
With his rise, backed by the military leadership, Noboa “prevented a military coup from continuing” in the nation under the subordination of then-Army Colonel Lucio Gutierrez, political scientist Simon Pachano told AFP , from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso).
He added that Noboa “He overcame a difficult crisis (political and financial) and knew how to deliver to the next government a better country than he received.”
Ecuador is in mourning. From tomorrow, a national decree will be issued in memory of Gustavo Noboa, former President of the Republic. Delightful friend, respected Democrat, youth moral trainer, patriot. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. pic.twitter.com/jXLC9pwBDA
– Lenin Moreno (@Lenin) February 16, 2021
Dollarization, his legacy
Gutierrez was fired and won the presidential election to succeed his own
Noboa, but was ousted by Congress in 2005, in the midst of a popular revolt.
In March 2000, with Noboa at the helm of government, Ecuador adopted dollarization as a way out of a deep banking crisis, which left losses of more than $ 5 billion, and when rising prices threatened to convert. if in hyperinflation.
“It is his great legacy, he left the foundations of the dollarization that remains to this day,” Pachano stressed, adding that de Noboa “He was surprised by his low confrontability, different from the politicians of the time.”
Lawyer and former rector of the Catholic University of the port of Guayaquil (southwest), the former president was at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where on February 9 he underwent surgery due to a tumor cerebral.
In full recovery, Noboa – of good temper and kind – died of a heart attack, according to people close to him. Born on August 21, 1937, Noboa also served as governor of the province of Guayas, with its capital Guayaquil.
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political asylum
In August 2000 he managed to renegotiate a tranche of Ecuador’s external debt after a moratorium declared by Mahuad. This led to Noboa being accused of embezzling funds by the late former president (1984-1988) and in those days a right-wing legislator, León Febres Be.
Justice ordered his imprisonment and Noboa applied, in July 2003, for asylum in the Dominican Republic, where he then traveled to take refuge in his embassy in Quito. After two years he returned to the country, after being acquitted.
“An honest, responsible president who led the country right at very hard times,” his personal friend and former country vice president (1992-1995) Alberto Dahik wrote on Twitter. Joffre Campaign, his lawyer in the embezzlement trial, said on the same social network that “Ecuador loses one of its best men. Youth trainer, 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