15th President of Ecuador
This article is about the former president of Ecuador. For the city in Ecuador named for him, see
Duran, Ecuador
.
In this
Spanish name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Alfaro
and the second or maternal family name is
Delgado
.
Jose Eloy Alfaro Delgado
(25 June 1842 ? 28 January 1912) often referred to as "The Old Warrior," was an
Ecuadorian
politician who served as the
President of Ecuador
from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911. Eloy Alfaro emerged as the leader of the Liberal Party and became a driving force for fairness, justice and liberty. He became one of the strongest opponents of the pro-
Catholic
conservative President
Gabriel Garcia Moreno
(1821?1875). The "
Viejo Luchador"
(in Spanish) played a central role in the
Liberal Revolution of 1895
and fought against conservatism for almost 30 years.
Alfaro's major political legacies are considered to be strengthened
national unity
, securing the integrity of Ecuador's borders, and the increased
secularization
of the country. Alfaro led the
modernization
of Ecuadorian society through the introduction of new ideas, education, and systems of
public transport
and communication, including the engineering feat of the Transandino Railway linking
Guayaquil
with
Quito
. Alfaro's effigy appeared on the Ecuadorian 50-cent coin from the 2000 issue, and the
Ecuadorian Army
's
military college
bears his name, as have two ships of the
Ecuadorian Navy
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Rebellious youth
[
edit
]
Alfaro was born in
Montecristi
,
Manabi
, on 25 June 1842. His father was don Manuel Alfaro y Gonzalez, a Spanish Republican native of
Cervera del Rio Alhama
,
La Rioja, Spain
who arrived in Ecuador as a political exile; his mother was dona Maria Natividad Delgado Lopez.
Alfaro received his primary education in his place of birth. After graduation he dedicated himself to helping his father with his business negotiations. During his youth he aligned himself with anticlerical liberalism, a doctrine later embodied in the
Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party
. He fought against Presidents Garcia Moreno, Borrero, Veintemilla and Camano, and as a result he is traditionally known as the "Viejo Luchador" (Old Warrior). Eloy Alfaro experienced many serious difficulties in the various campaigns he initiated against the conservative Ecuadorian governments. He spent his fortune, acquired with the help of his Panamanian wife, Ana Paredes Arosemena, in those battles. Nine children were born of their marriage: Bolivar, Esmeraldas, Colombia, Colon, Bolivar(2), Ana Maria, America, Olmedo, and Colon Eloy; Rafael was born out of wedlock.
From a very early age Alfaro participated in acts of rebellion. He almost lost his life in the disastrous naval battle of Alajuela when he tried to disembark in Ecuador with a troop of revolutionaries and was defeated by Conservative Government forces. When his ship sank, he saved himself from drowning by clinging to a barrel. He participated in the battles of
Montecristi
, San Mateo,
Esmeraldas
,
Guayaquil
,
Jaramijo
,
Gatazo
,
Cuenca
, and
Chasqui
.
Alfaro was a model father and was magnanimous with friends and the destitute. He supported various liberals, such as the writer
Juan Montalvo
, to whom he offered monetary assistance. Once in power, he glorified the memory of Montalvo as a great teacher and an example to the Ecuadorian people. Even though Alfaro was not very well-educated, through force of character he was able to overcome this fault and impress others with his clear intelligence. During his exile, he travelled Central America and was granted the rank of "General de Division" by the Nicaraguan Congress.
First presidency (1895?1901)
[
edit
]
Alfaro, head of the
Radical Liberals
, was the leader of the
Ecuadorian Liberal Revolution
, carrying out a struggle that he waged from his youth in the 1860s until 1895 when the
liberals
finally took power in a
coup d'etat
. In this uprising, he deposed President
Vicente Lucio Salazar
and declared himself a
dictator
on 5 June 1895 and was later named
constitutional president
from 17 January 1897 until 1 September 1901. The principal accomplishment of his first government was the introduction of the principle of
secularism
. Many public buildings in Quito including the
Instituto Nacional Mejia
and the first purpose build siege of the
National Polytechnic School
were commissioned in his administration to French architects.
Second presidency (1906?1911)
[
edit
]
After initially supporting, but later coming to oppose, his successor, in 1906 he led another revolt, deposing elected President
Lizardo Garcia
, being declared supreme dictator by the army and continuing in office until 12 August 1911.
[1]
During this second presidency he enacted a number of changes, among them
freedom of speech
and the legalization of
civil marriage
and divorce. He constructed numerous public schools and inaugurated the right to a free and secular education. What is considered to be his greatest public work during this period was the completion of the Ferrocarril Transandino (Trans-Andean Railroad) connecting
Guayaquil
to
Quito
. Consistent with his anticlericalism, he suppressed the influence of the Catholic Church while in office.
[2]
He seized much property of the Church, expelled religious orders and prohibited the establishment of any new monasteries or convents.
[1]
[3]
His attempts to secularize Ecuadorian society were opposed by the Archbishop of Quito
Federico Gonzalez Suarez
.
[4]
In 1911, he was removed from office by his former supporters. In 1911 he tried to strike a blow at the State in an attempt to return to power. He was captured near Guayaquil and sent to Quito on the railroad he had constructed. After he left office, during the administration of
Emilio Estrada
Carmona, Alfaro was severely critical of the government and his followers soon began to organize a series of military insurrections. Alfaro was exiled to Panama during the interim government of
Carlos Freile Zaldumbide
. He returned to Ecuador on 4 January 1912, and attempted another coup but was defeated, arrested and jailed by General
Leonidas Plaza
.
Assassination
[
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]
On 28 January 1912, a group of pro-Catholic soldiers whose motto was "Muerte al indio Alfaro" (death to the Indian Alfaro), supported by a mob, broke into the prison where Alfaro and his colleagues were detained
[2]
and dragged them along the cobbled streets of the city center. They were all dead when the horde arrived at the esplanade of
El Ejido
(city gardens)
[5]
in the northern outskirts of town. The crowd finally burnt the corpses in the area where the present day park of
El Ejido
is located.
[6]
(A monument was erected in the 1960s at the site.) Days later, Alfaro's remains were buried in Quito, in secret. They were transported to Guayaquil and deposited in a mausoleum there at some time in the 1940s. On the initiative of President
Rafael Correa
(in office from 2007 ? 2017), some of the ashes of Eloy Alfaro were exhumed and re-interred with honors in the city of
Montecristi
, seat of the 2008
National Constitutional Convention
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
New International Encyclopedia, Volume 7
, p. 461, Dodd, Mead & Co. 1915
- ^
a
b
Roos, Wilma and Omer Van Renterghem,
Ecuador: a guide to the people, politics and culture
, p. 14, Interlink Books 2000
- ^
Jedin, Hubert, Roger Aubert, and John Dolan
History of the Church, Vol. IX, The Church in the industrial age
, p. 133, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1981
- ^
Domenico, Roy P. and Mark Y. Hanley,
Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics
, p. 244, 2006 Greenwood Publishing
- ^
"Biografia de Eloy Alfaro"
. biografiasyvidas.com.
- ^
"Quito parks"
. in-quito.com.
External links
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