Abdalá Bucaram

Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz (born February 20, 1952 in Guayaquil , Ecuador ), lawyer and politician of Lebanese descent, was President of Ecuador from August 10, 1996 to February 6, 1997. He is the founder and most important leader of the populist Roldosist Party of Ecuador ( Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano , PRE). From 1997 to 2017 he was in exile in Panama , from which he only returned to Ecuador for a few days in April 2005 before he fled the country again. In 2017 he returned to Ecuador after receiving support from President Lenin Moreno .

Origin and career

Bucaram's grandparents had come to Ambato from Lebanon in the 1920s and later relocated to Guayaquil. Abdalá is the nephew of long-time MP and populist leader Assad Bucaram and brother-in-law of President Jaime Roldós (1979–1981), who died in an accident . This made him a member of a powerful political family in Guayaquil.

He himself had to drop out of medical school and instead studied law in Guayaquil. He took part in continental athletics competitions and studied sport in Berlin in 1972 with a five-month scholarship from the federal government . At the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 he was the flag bearer for his country, but could not take part in the athletics competitions due to injury. In the 1970s he held the Ecuadorian record over 100 meters with 10.3 seconds. Until 1981 he worked, among other things, as a sports teacher at various schools in Guayaquil.

Since his youth, Bucaram was an active member of the Concentración de Fuerzas Populares (CFP) party, whose founder and leading politician was his uncle Asaad Bucaram. After Jaime Roldós was elected president of the CFP in 1979, he appointed his brother-in-law Abdalá Bucaram as general manager of the Guayas Province Police (1979/80).

Way into politics

After the death of his brother-in-law, incumbent President Jaime Roldós, and his sister in a plane crash on May 24, 1981, Bucaram argued that they had fallen victim to a conspiracy . He founded the populist “roldosist” party PRE in 1982 and was elected mayor of Guayaquil in 1984 as its candidate. With foul remarks and eccentric views, he was able to win over the urban lower classes in particular. At the same time, his sometimes unpredictable behavior earned him the nickname El Loco (the crazy one). Bucaram cultivated the associated reputation.

During his tenure, he was charged twice with lese majesty . On the one hand because he insulted President León Febres Cordero , on the other hand because he described the national armed forces as “useful for nothing more than spending money”.

After he was sentenced to four days in prison the first time, he feared a higher sentence in the second trial and fled to Panama in September 1985, where he stayed until August 1987. He returned after the National Congress granted him amnesty and the Panamanian police released him from custody. Bucaram claims to have been the victim of an intrigue by the dictator Noriega police in Panama , who blamed him with cocaine . From July 1988 to December 1990 he was again in exile in Panama, this time because an investigation into embezzlement of funds from the city treasury of Guayaquil was started. The allegations were later dropped by the Guayas Supreme Court.

Presidency

Bucaram ran for the PRE in presidential elections in 1988 and 1992, finishing second and third, respectively. In 1988 he lost 46 to 54 percent in the second ballot to Rodrigo Borja . In his third attempt on July 7, 1996, he prevailed against Jaime Nebot from the Christian Social Party ( Partido Social Cristiano , PSC) in the second ballot and took office on August 10.

Contrary to his populist election campaign, he relied on a liberal government program, initiated the privatization of state-owned companies and social security and tried to weaken the unions . At the same time he practiced clear nepotism and a pronounced clientele policy for rich entrepreneurs. He quickly lost popular favor. When he wanted to abolish state subsidies for electricity and gas in early 1997 and accusations of corruption increased, mass demonstrations, blockades and work stoppages broke out across the country.

Under pressure from the protests, the Ecuadorian National Congress deposed Bucaram on February 6, 1997. He was President of the country for 186 days and 31 minutes. His successor was Fabián Alarcón Rivera , who had previously been parliamentary chairman , and for a short time Rosalía Arteaga , Bucaram's vice-president.

During his tenure as president, Bucaram was elected president of the leading Ecuadorian football club Barcelona SC Guayaquil in 1997. In this position he made headlines when he announced that he would sign Diego Maradona . However, his overthrow as president prevented him from carrying out this project.

Exile and brief return

Bucaram fled to Panama again on February 11, 1997. He stated that from there he wanted to fight against the “civil dictatorship” that had deposed him. In Ecuador, charges and investigative proceedings against him for corruption and embezzlement increased, which is why Bucaram remained in exile.

After President Lucio Gutiérrez lost important parts of his support within a few months after being sworn in in 2003, he sought contact with Bucarams PRE for new support. In December 2004, Gutierrez 'voted PSP , Bucarams PRE and the populist PRIAN of Alvaro Noboa in the National Congress for the dissolution and replacement of the Supreme Court.

This measure, which was generally classified as unconstitutional, meant that the new de facto Supreme Court was filled with Bucaram sympathetic judges. On March 31, 2005, the new chairman, Guillermo Castro, who was close to Bucaram, declared the proceedings against Bucaram to be annulled and the arrest warrant that had been in effect up until then to be repealed. Although the constitutionality of both the occupation of the Supreme Court and the cancellation of the proceedings by Castro were controversial, Bucaram returned to Guayaquil on the night of April 2. At a rally that evening he thanked Gutiérrez and Castro for making it possible for him to return. The events surrounding the replacement of the Supreme Court and the return of Bucaram to Ecuador triggered a serious national crisis, during which President Gutiérrez declared a state of emergency in Quito for 19 hours on April 15 and dissolved the Supreme Court by decree. On April 20, the Ecuadorian parliament deposed Gutiérrez and the military withdrew his support. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ecuador issued a new arrest warrant for Bucaram. He fled across the land border to Peru on April 22nd and came back to Panama via Lima by plane.

Remarks

1. ↑ The Diccionario Biográfico del Ecuador (Volume 5) by Rudolfo Pérez Pimentel states that Bucaram was born on February 4th. When he was registered, February 20 was given as his date of birth in order to avoid a penalty for reporting too late.
2. ↑ Ecuador's Olympic participation in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
3. ↑ Bucaram era Jefe de Estado cuando dirigía a Barcelona ( Memento of February 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), El Universo (Guayaquil) of February 7, 2007.

literature

• Rudolfo Pérez Pimentel, Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz , In. Diccionario Biográfico del Ecuador , Volume V, Guayaquil 1987-, p. 55.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sixto Durán Ballén	President of Ecuador 1996 - 1997	Fabián Alarcón