Jaime Roldós Aguilera
Encyclopedia
Jaime Roldós Aguilera was President of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 from 10 August 1979 to 24 May 1981. In his short tenure, he became known for his firm stance on human rights. His death in a plane crash gave rise to speculation of involvement by the United States government in the accident.

Early life and career

Roldós was born in Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...

 on November 5, 1940. He attended high school at the Vicente Rocafuerte National School. He studied law and social sciences at the University of Guayaquil
University of Guayaquil
The University of Guayaquil , known colloquially as the Estatal, is a public university located in Guayaquil, Guayas Province, Ecuador. It is the oldest university in the city and has the largest student body. It also operates six extension universities throughout the country.-External links:* ,...

. He was an excellent student and won many awards, medals and scholarships.

At the age of 37, he ran for president on a populist platform. In the first round, he received the greatest number of votes, but not the 50% plus one needed to avoid a runoff. He won the second round of elections against Sixto Durán Ballén, and assumed office on August 10, 1979.

Presidency

On October 11, 1979, Roldós signed a decree reducing the workweek to 40 hours. On November 1, 1979, he issued another decree doubling the minimum wage, to 4,000 sucres
Ecuadorian sucre
The sucre was the currency of Ecuador between 1884 and 2000. Its ISO code was ECS and it was subdivided into 10 decimos or 100 centavos. The sucre was named after Antonio José de Sucre.-History:...

 per month. ($160 in 1979 US dollars). On March 8, 1980, he established the National Development Plan. On April 15, 1980 he established a committee of notables to search for a solution for the power struggle in the National Congress, presided over by his former mentor Assad Bucaram
Assad Bucaram
Assad Bucaram Elmhalin was a Ecuadorian politician of Lebanese descent, he occupied positions as city Councilor and later of Mayor of Guayaquil...

.

He named 1981 the "year of advances". In late January and early February 1981, there were border skirmishes with Peru, in the Cordillera del Cóndor
Cordillera del Cóndor
The Cordillera del Condor is a range in Ecuador and Peru....

. Clashes occurred in the regions of Paquisha, Mayaycu, and Machinatza. With great skill and diplomacy he left the territorial dispute to the arbitration by the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

.

Roldós's most important accomplishment was his policy in support of human rights, in an era in which most Latin American countries were military dictatorships. In September 1980, Roldós met with the democratically elected presidents of the Andean region (Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru), proposed the signing of a Charter of Conduct, in which the principles of universal justice and human rights were re-affirmed, signaling protection of human rights as a more important principle than non-intervention.

This policy was questioned by American conservatives, who considered it an excuse to justify Soviet meddling in the region, especially in Central America. They condemned the "Roldós doctrine", as they did that of Panamanian Omar Torrijos
Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981...

, who also died in a plane crash several months later. As a result of the election of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 on November 4, 1980, these conservatives had the opportunity to make this opposition clear, leading to international tensions. In January 1981, Roldós declined an invitation to Reagan's inauguration because of their differences on the subject of human rights. He also tightened links with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the Frente Democrático in El Salvador, which opposed the military regime in that country.

Death

On May 24, 1981, a plane carrying the President, Minister of Defense, assistants and their spouses crashed into the Huairapungo Mountain, in Celica Canton of Loja Province
Loja Province
Loja Province is one of 24 provinces in Ecuador and shares its southern border on the west by El Oro Province, on the north by El Azuay, and on the east by Zamora-Chinchipe. Founded on its present site in 1548 by Captain Alonso de Mercadillo the site had been previously moved and rebuilt from La...

. The crash left no survivors: killed along with the president were First Lady Martha Bucaram, Minister of Defense Marco Subía Martínez and his wife, as well as two aide-de-camps and three other passengers.

The controversy about the cause of the crash began immediately, when the Accident Investigation Committee (Junta Investigadora de Accidentes, JIA) of the Ecuadorian Air Force attributed the crash to pilot error, supposedly caused by an overloading with cargo. The parliamentary commission formed months after, after pressure from the families of the victims and political groups allied with the president, found contradictions and inconsistencies in the JIA report, but could not reach definitive conclusions especially since the aircraft that was purchased by the Air Force to operate as a VIP transport lacked the Flight Data Recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...

 equipment (Black Box). The Zurich Police, who also conducted an investigation, concluded that the plane's motors were shut down when the plane crashed into the mountain. This expert opinion, which contradicted the Air Force Report, was not investigated further by the Ecuadorian government.

The American author and activist John Perkins, in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is a book written by John Perkins and published in 2004. It provides Perkins' account of his career with consulting firm Chas. T. Main in Boston. Before employment with the firm, he interviewed for a job with the National Security Agency...

, concludes that Roldós was assassinated, allegedly by a bomb located in a tape recorder, because his plan to reorganize the hydrocarbon sector would have threatened U.S. interests. Roldós had entered into a pact with neighboring Colombia and Peru, a pact which US President Reagan saw as a tilt toward the Soviet Union. Just months after Roldós died, another Latin American leader who had been at odds with U.S. interests in the control of the Panama Canal, Panama's Omar Torrijos
Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981...

, died in what was allegedly just a plane crash, which also is widely perceived to have been a CIA-conducted assassination, again according to John Perkins.

Legacy

After Roldós's death, the National Congress named Roldós's brother, León Roldós, as Vice President of Ecuador for the remainder of what would have been Jaime Roldós's term. León Roldós was later a candidate for president in 1992, 2002, and 2006. Jaime Roldós's daughter, Martha Roldós Bucaram, was a presidential candidate in the 2009 elections. Jaime Roldós's son, Santiago Roldós Bucaram, is a journalist and playwright. Jaime Roldós's brother-in-law, Abdalá Bucaram
Abdalá Bucaram
Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortíz is an Ecuadorian politician and lawyer who briefly occupied the Presidency of Ecuador...

, founded the populist Ecuadorian Roldosist Party
Ecuadorian Roldosist Party
The Ecuadorian Roldosist Party is a centre-left populist political party in Ecuador.At the legislative elections, 20 October 2002, the party won 15 out of 100 seats. Its candidate Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz won 11.9 % of the vote in the presidential elections of the same day, coming in 6th place...

 and was elected president of Ecuador. He governed from August 1996 to February 1997, when he was removed by the National Congress on the grounds of "mental incapacity". Martha Roldós has said that the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party has corrupted her father's ideals.

Jaime Roldós's most important legacy was his support for human rights. The Roldós Doctrine holds that the international community's concern for a country's internal human rights situation is not a violation of the country's sovereignty.

Footnotes

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