Gustavo Pareja Cisneros (born 10 January 1947) is an Ecuadorian politician. He was the Mayor of Otavalo upon defeating the incumbent Mario Conejo in the 2014 mayoral election. He won the election with 10% more votes than Conejo. Previously, he served as the 8th Provincial Prefect of

Imbabura Province Imbabura () is a Provinces of Ecuador, province located in the Andes of northern Ecuador. The capital is Ibarra, Ecuador, Ibarra. The people of the province speak Spanish, and a large portion of the population also speak the Imbaburan Kichwa va ...

from 1997 through 2009. During his tenure as mayor, Pareja Cisneros stressed the urbanization and modernization of Otavalo such as the establishment of national parks, commercializing the region and expanding transportation across the city. He decided not to run for re-election in 2019 and instead unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Nation Assembly in Otavalo.

Early life

Pareja Cisneros was born on 10 January 1947 in Otavalo in the

. His father was a carpenter and his mother was a housewife. He studied at the

Central University of Ecuador The Central University of Ecuador () is a national university located in Quito, Ecuador. It is the oldest and largest university in the country, and one of the oldest universities in the Americas. The enrollment at the university is over 10,000 ...

, where he majored in political science and sociology. Cisneros was elected to a minor political post in the Imbabura Province during the 1994 sectional elections as a member of the Democratic Left.

Provincial Prefect of Imbabura Province (1997–2009)

In 1997, Cisneros became the Provincial Prefect of

replacing the outgoing

Luis Mejía Montesdeoca Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

. His administration focused on infrastructure improvement, creating a stronger athletic program, and building better relationships with citizens. During the 2000 elections, Cisneros was re-elected. However, in 2003, his approval ratings began to drop due to strong conservative opposition in Imbabura. Surprisingly, in the 2004 elections, he was re-elected as Provincial Prefect as a member of the

Institutional Renewal Party of National Action The Institutional Renewal Party of National Action (, PRIAN) was a centre-right, populist political Party in Ecuador. At the legislative elections on 20 October 2002, the Party won 10 out of 100 seats. Its presidential candidate Álvaro Noboa, ...

under the influence of

Álvaro Noboa Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón (born November 21, 1950) is an Ecuadorian businessman and politician. He is the father of the incumbent president, Daniel Noboa. Noboa has been actively involved in politics as a perennial candidate, unsuccessf ...

. Cisneros was not a candidate in the 2009 elections for Provincial Prefect. Instead, he focused on his candidacy for Mayor of Otavalo.

Mayor of Otavalo (2014–2019)

For the 2009 political sectional elections, Pareja Cisneros announced his intentions to run as Mayor of Otavalo, but was narrowly defeated by Mario Conejo. He refused to rule out a second bid, so in the 2014 sectional elections, he announced his candidacy for Mayor of Otavalo once again. Pareja Cisneros ended up defeating the incumbent Conejo by a margin on 10% of the vote. He was sworn-in as Mayor on 16 May 2014. During his tenure as mayor, Cisneros sought to urbanize Otavalo and to expand the cities commercial centers. In a 2018 interview, Cisneros confirmed plans to expand the cities stadiums under the projected cost of

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

$1,400,000 and viewed the expansion as "nearly impossible, but doable". Cisneros also called for an expansion of the automobile industry in Otavalo and for the modernization of airports in nearby Otavalo. A critic of animal shelters, Pareja Cisneros signed legislation that would increase maintenance while promoting humane methods to shelter and capture stray animals in Otavalo. In the 2017 general election, Cisneros endorsed

Guillermo Lasso Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza (; born 16 November 1955) is an Ecuadorian businessman, banker and politician who served as the 47th president of Ecuador from 2021 to 2023. He was the country's first conservative president in nearly tw ...

's bid for the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

. When

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 ...

Lenín Moreno Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garcés (; born 19 March 1953) is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 46th president of Ecuador from 2017 to 2021. He was also vice president from 2007 to 2013, serving under President Rafael Correa. He was nominat ...

won the election, Cisneros worked with the President-elect to bring "dialogue of peace to the nation" while stressing the importance of urbanizing the nation such as the inclusion of national parks. In July 2018, Cisneros criticized his predecessor Conejo saying he "let down the citizens of Otavalo" with accusations of corruption. Pareja Cisneros opted from running for re-election and left office in May 2019.

Post-mayoralty

During the

2021 elections 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

as a member of the newly founded party the Constructive Movement Party.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pareja Cisneros, Gustavo 1947 births Living people Mayors of places in Ecuador People from Otavalo (city)