Gustavo José Joaquín Noboa Bejarano (21 August 1937 – 16 February 2021) was an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 42nd

president of Ecuador The president of Ecuador (), officially called the constitutional president of the Republic of Ecuador (), serves as the head of state and head of government of Ecuador. It is the highest political office in the country as the head of the exec ...

from 22 January 2000 to 15 January 2003. Previously he served as the 42nd

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

under President

Jamil Mahuad Jorge Jamil Mahuad Witt (born 29 July 1949) is an Ecuadorian lawyer, academic and former politician who served the 41st president of Ecuador from 1998 until he was deposed in a coup in 2000. He previously served as the 17th mayor of Quito from ...

from 1998 until 2000. From 1983 until 1984, he also was the Governor of the province of Guayas. Born in

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

, Noboa's political career began when he was appointed Governor of the Guayas Province by President

Osvaldo Hurtado Luis Osvaldo Hurtado Larrea (born 26 June 1939) is an Ecuadorian author and politician who served as President of Ecuador from 24 May 1981 to 10 August 1984. Hurtado was born in Chambo, Chimborazo Province. During his studies at the Catholi ...

in 1983 where left the role the following year. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, Noboa was the running mate of

, where their ticket won and Noboa became vice president. On 21 January 2000, after growing discontent with the people of Ecuador, especially the Indigenous people of his handling of the severe

economic crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and ma ...

, Mahuad was ousted in a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

led by Colonel

Lucio Gutiérrez Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born 23 March 1957) is an Ecuadorian politician and former military officer who served as the 43rd president of Ecuador from 2003 until his impeachment in 2005. In 2023, he was elected to the National Assembly. ...

. Noboa eventually became president and was officially sworn in the following day. His government attempted to revive the country's economy. Noboa left office in January 2003 and was succeeded by Lucio Gutiérrez, the leader of the coup that deposed Mahuad. Shortly after leaving office, Noboa was convicted of charges and fled the country where he was given asylum in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. However, he was subsequently placed under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

in 2005, but was later lifted the following year.

Political career

Noboa was governor of

Guayas Province Guayas (, ) is a coastal Provinces of Ecuador, province in Ecuador. It is bordered to the west by Manabí Province, Manabí, Santa Elena Province, Ecuador, Santa Elena, and the Pacific Ocean (as the Gulf of Guayaquil); to the east by Los Ríos ...

from March 1983 to August 1984. In the 1998 presidential elections he was the running mate of

, who won. He was sworn in as

Vice President of Ecuador The vice president of Ecuador is the second highest political position in Ecuador. In many instances, the vice president succeeded the President of Ecuador, president in turbulent political situations. The last time was in 2005 after the resignat ...

on 10 August 1998.

Presidency (2000–2003)

On 21 January 2000, a military coup deposed Mahuad's government and the following day Noboa became

President of Ecuador The president of Ecuador (), officially called the constitutional president of the Republic of Ecuador (), serves as the head of state and head of government of Ecuador. It is the highest political office in the country as the head of the exec ...

in constitutional order. Noboa's presidency was marked by attempts to revive the Ecuadorian economy, which was in a recession at the time, including the freeing of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

400 million worth of assets frozen by the previous government. He left office in 2003 after

was elected president in the 2002 presidential election.

Post presidency

Noboa was accused of mishandling the country's

foreign debt A country's gross external debt (or foreign debt) is the liabilities that are owed to nonresidents by residents. The debtors can be governments, corporations or citizens. External debt may be denominated in domestic or foreign currency. It incl ...

by the former president,

León Febres Cordero León Esteban Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra (9 March 1931 – 15 December 2008), known in the Ecuadorian media as LFC or more simply Febres-Cordero, was an Ecuadorian politician who was the 35th President of Ecuador, serving a four-year term from ...

. After his term ended, accusations of irregularities in foreign debt negotiation that cost the country $9

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

dollars were levelled at the former president. He completely denied the charges and applied for

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

in the

, which was granted on 11 August 2003. The

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

case against him was annulled by an unconstitutional, yet functioning, Supreme Court on the grounds that the case was not initiated by a two-thirds congressional vote as the Constitution stipulates. However, he was placed under house arrest in May 2005 and Ecuador's Interior Minister planned to prosecute. On 16 March 2006, a Supreme Court judge lifted the detention order and charged Noboa with being an accessory after the fact.

Personal life

Noboa was born in

. He studied political and social sciences and obtained a Doctor in Law from the

University of Guayaquil The University of Guayaquil ( Spanish: ''Universidad de Guayaquil''), known colloquially as the ''Estatal'' (i.e., "the State niversity), is a public university in Guayaquil, Guayas Province, Ecuador. Estatal was founded in 1883. It is the ol ...

. He was chancellor of the University from 1986 until 1996 and also taught law there. Noboa died on 16 February 2021 after suffering a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

while in recovery from surgery for a

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

Jackson Memorial Hospital Jackson Memorial Hospital, also referred to as Jackson or abbreviated MJMH, is a non-profit, tertiary care hospital, and the primary teaching hospital of the University of Miami's School of Medicine. As of 2021, it is the largest hospital in t ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. He was 83.

References

External links

Biography by CIDOB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noboa, Gustavo 1937 births 2021 deaths Presidents of Ecuador Vice presidents of Ecuador Governors of Guayas Province Politicians from Guayaquil Christian Democratic Union (Ecuador) politicians Ecuadorian politicians convicted of crimes Heads of government who were later imprisoned Deaths from cancer in Florida 20th-century Ecuadorian politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian politicians