Álvaro Noboa

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Álvaro Noboa

Álvaro Noboa Pontón (born November 1, 1950 in Guayaquil ) is an Ecuadorian politician and entrepreneur. He ran for president of his country in 1998, 2002 and 2006 and was defeated every time in the runoff election.

Origin and education

Noboa is the youngest son of the banana magnate Luis Noboa Naranjo and his wife Isabel Pontón, he had a brother and four sisters. His youngest sister died in 1999.

He attended the Salesian School Colegio La Salle in Guayaquil and the elite boarding school Le Rosey in Switzerland. He then studied law at the University of Guayaquil and took part in a management training course at the American Management Association in New York.

Entrepreneur

Noboa is considered to be the richest man in Ecuador, with real estate, industrial and commercial enterprises as well as heir to banana plantations and trading companies (the Bonita Banana brand belongs to Exportadora Noboa, SA ) to a billion dollar fortune . The Grupo Noboa group of companies controlled by Álvaro Noboa is a family business that was built by Álvaro's father. When he died in 1994, however, he did not bequeath his inheritance to Álvaro, but to his second wife. It was only after a long legal battle that, according to Forbes Magazine, cost 20 million dollars in legal fees, that Álvaro was able to gain control of Grupo Noboa . The group comprises 110 companies, including plantations, banks and mines. The banana plantations of Grupo Noboa cover 9% of the world market for bananas. Noboas also holds 7.58% of Chiquita .

Working conditions on Grupo Noboa plantations have been harshly criticized in reports from Human Rights Watch and the New York Times . In particular, the plantation operators were accused of child labor and the suppression of trade union rights.

In June 2007 it was announced that the Exportadora Noboa had been investigated since 2004 by the Commissioner for Competition of the European Union over possible price fixing with other major suppliers of bananas, including Dole , Chiquita and Del Monte . In the meantime, the suspicion has been confirmed so that competition proceedings will be initiated shortly. The chairman of the Ecuadorian banana exporters association, however, suspected a move by the European Union to get Ecuador to withdraw from a dispute settlement procedure before the World Trade Organization because of the EU external tariffs on bananas.

Politician

Noboa first appeared politically when President Abdalá Bucaram made him chairman of the Junta Monetaria in August 1996 , which oversaw the country's currency reserves and the central bank, among other things. Noboa lost the office in February 1997 after Bucaram's fall.

In the following presidential elections in 1998 Noboa ran as a presidential candidate for the Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano, which was founded and led by Bucaram . He was narrowly defeated in the runoff election to the Christian Democratic candidate Jamil Mahuad ( Democracia Popular ). After the election defeat, there were arguments between Noboa and Bucaram about their reasons, so that both then went their separate ways. Noboa also maintains the allegations that Mahuad won the election through electoral fraud in view of the narrow gap of 2.3 percent.

For the presidential elections in 2002 Noboa founded his own party, the Partido Renovador Institucional Acción Nacional (PRIAN), of which he became chairman and for which he ran as a presidential candidate. He lost again in the runoff election, this time to Lucio Gutiérrez , who led a coup in January 2001 that led to the overthrow of Mahuad.

In the elections on October 15, 2006 Noboa ran again as his party's presidential candidate and, after previously speculating about the withdrawal of his candidacy, surprisingly came first with 26.8 percent of the vote in the first ballot. In the runoff election of November 26, 2006, however, he was defeated by left-wing opponent Rafael Correa ( Movimiento PAÍS ). During the election campaign, Noboa presented himself as the god-sent savior of Ecuador; he performed with the Bible and large crosses. He promised extensive state housing programs that were classified as unrealistic (300,000 apartments annually). At the same time, however, he relied on liberal market policy and spoke out in favor of abolishing state energy subsidies, among other things.

In the parliamentary elections, which took place at the same time as the first round of the presidential election, Noboa's wife Annabella Azín was elected as the top candidate of the PRIAN in the province of Guayas with the most individual votes in the country, in which Noboa's party was the strongest parliamentary group at the beginning of the 2007-2011 legislative period.

In June 2007 Noboa was the top candidate on his party's national list for the Constituent Assembly of Ecuador , which was elected on September 30, 2007 . However, he soon lost his seat in the assembly because he let the deadline for disclosing his property pass. His wife was a member of the Constituent Assembly until it was dissolved.

At the following presidential elections on April 26, 2009 Noboa ran again, but with its worst result to date (11.4%) it was only third behind Correa (PAÍS), who was re-elected in the first round, and his predecessor Gutiérrez (PSP).

swell

  1. ^ Forbes Magazine, March 17, 2003 ( November 1, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Bananalink
  3. ^ Human Rights Watch
  4. ↑ Juan Forero, “In Ecuador's Banana Fields, Child Labor Is Key to Profits,” The New York Times , July 13, 2002.
  5. ↑ AFP / editorial department, UE ubica a Noboa en cartel bananero ( Memento of June 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), El Universo (Guayaquil), June 14, 2006 (Spanish); see also banana cartel to be smashed ( Memento from June 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), t-online.de
  6. ↑ Cf. Armin Schlegl, monthly report Ecuador 11/06 ( memento of October 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
  7. ↑ RedGlobe: Billionaire Loses Constituent Assembly Seat, Jan. 17, 2008

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Noboa, Álvaro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Álvaro Noboa Pontón (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ecuadorian entrepreneur and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Guayaquil