Lenín Moreno

Childhood

Moreno was born into a middle-class family in Nuevo Rocafuerte, a small town in the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Peruvian border. His father, Servio Tulio Moreno, was a teacher who promoted bilingual education and integrated schools for Indigenous children and mestizo children. Lenín Moreno was greatly influenced by his father’s example. He got his first name from his father, a professor who idolised Vladimir Lenin.

Education

Moreno studied in Quito at the Instituto Nacional Mejía (Mejia National Institute), the Colegio Nacional Sebastián Benalcázar (Sebastian Benalcazar National School), and the Universidad Central del Ecuador (Central University of Ecuador), where he earned a degree in Public Administration and was honored as the best graduate. He studied psychology.

Career

Moreno began his career in 1976 as the director of the Continental Professional Training Center. He went on to become Director of OMC Publigerencia Andina, sales manager of Satho and marketing manager of Zitro, all located in Ecuador. Then he moved to the public sector, taking an administrative post with the Minister of Government. He worked extensively in the public tourism industry. He founded the Chamber of Tourism of Pichincha, a province in Ecuador, and was Executive Director of the National Federation of Tourism Chambers and Executive Director of the Chamber of Tourism of Pichincha, between 1997 and 1999.

Shooting

On 3 January 1998, two young men approached Moreno in a grocery store parking lot in Quito and told him they wanted his car and his money. He freely gave them his wallet and keys, but one of the men shot him in the back anyway. They left Moreno paralyzed, unable to walk. In the first years following the shooting, Moreno was bedridden with intractable pain. When doctors were unable to suggest a workable course of action, Moreno turned to laughter therapy, which he had read about. Although his doctors were skeptical, within four years of the shooting Moreno felt well enough to move about in a wheelchair and continue his work as a public servant.

Politics and awards

Moreno has earned numerous awards while serving as vice president of Ecuador: the "Fray Jodoco Ricke" Award; the Order of the Sun of Peru in the rank of Grand Cross; and the Order of Merit to the Democracy, presented by the governments of Peru, Guatemala and Colombia, respectively. He was also recognized unanimously by the Council of the Metropolitan District of Quito on the order of Gran Collar Sebastian Benalcazar. He has received various Honoris Causa awards, from the Universidad de las Americas (University of the Americas), Universidad Tecnica del Norte del Ecuador (Technical University of Northern Ecuador) and the Universidad San Martin de Colombia (San Martin University of Colombia). He earned a Honoris Causa Masters, from the Business School (ESAE), Spain, on 25 November 2011.

Moreno was appointed as Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December 2013.

Eventa

After being shot, Moreno created the foundation "Eventa" to promote humor and joy as a way of life based on his personal experiences.

He is the author of numerous books on his theory of humor, including: Filosofía para la vida y el trabajo ("Philosophy for life and work"), Teoría y Práctica del Humor ("Theory and Practice of Comedy"), Ser Feliz es Fácil y Divertido ("Being Happy is Easy and Fun"), Los Mejores Chistes del Mundo ("World's Best Jokes"), Humor de los Famosos ("Humor of the Famous"), Trompabulario, Ríase, no sea enfermo ("Laugh, don’t be sick") and Cuentos no Ecológicos ("Non-Ecological Tales").

Vice Presidency

During his first year in the office of Vice President, Moreno investigated the state of disabled people in Ecuador. At the time he government’s entire budget for disabled services was approximately 100,000 U.S. dollars. Moreno increased the budget for disabled people more than fifty-fold. The state currently assists over 600,000 disabled Ecuadorians, and provides housing and income for 15,000 people and prostheses for another 4,000.

He also founded the Manuela Espejo Solidarity Mission for the Disabled, which offers rehab, technical help, and psychological support to thousands of disabled Ecuadorians. Between 2009 and 2010 the Solidarity Mission visited over 1.2 million homes around the country and interviewed nearly 300,000 disabled people to find out what needs were most pressing. Many of those people received free medical checkups. And now the Solidarity Mission is spreading to Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador and Colombia.

Moreno left the vice presidency on 24 May 2013 and was succeeded by Jorge Glas. He was the first vice president to complete his term since 1992.

Nobel Nomination

In 2012 a group of Ecuadorians living in Norway pushed Moreno’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Their efforts were backed by Assemblyman Celso Maldonado, Vice President of the People with Disabilities Commission of the National Assembly, who formally nominated Moreno. His advocates praise the “Ecuador sin barreras” (Ecuador without Barriers) projects, the government policies he has promoted in favor of the rights of people with disabilities, the Manuela Espejo Solidarity Mission, the Joaquin Gallegos Lara Stipends and Neonatal Screening, and other helpful work. The prize was expected in October, 2012; however, while he had wide international support with 180 countries supporting his nomination to the Nobel Peace Prize, that award was given to The European Union.

Nominated to the presidency of Ecuador

On 1 October 2016, Moreno was nominated as a candidate for the 2017 presidential election at the conference of Alianza País. The statement was made by President Rafael Correa.

In the 19 February election, Moreno took 39.3 percent of the vote, just a few percentage points short of outright victory. He needed to either win 50 percent of the first-round vote or take 40 percent of the vote and be at least 10 percent ahead of the runner-up to win. He will face Guillermo Lasso in the 2 April runoff.