Sixto Durán Ballén

Early life

Ballén was born on July 14, 1921, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was born while his parents, Sixto Durán-Ballén Romero and Eugenia Cordovéz y Cayzedo, were on a diplomatic mission in the United States.

Ballén studied at San Jose La Salle College in Guayaquil. At first, Ballén pursued a career in architecture and went to study abroad at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Columbia University.

He married Josefina Villalobos in 1945.

Early political career

Durán was one of the founders of the Catholic Social Christian Party (PSC). Under the presidency of his party colleague Camilo Ponce Enríquez, he served as minister of public works from 1956 to 1960. Subsequently, he worked for the Inter-American Development Bank. He was elected Mayor of Quito in 1970 and re-elected in 1974.

In 1979 he ran as the PSC's presidential candidate, but was defeated by the populist Jaime Roldós Aguilera. In 1988 he ran again, but was eliminated in the first round, which he blamed on the tarnished image of León Febres Cordero's government.

1992 Ecuadorian presidential election

At the end of 1990 he publicly criticized the direction of the PSC in an open letter and, after a PSC faction succeeded in appointing Jaime Nebot as the its presidential candidate and national director during the 1991 internal elections (despite opinion polls reportedly giving him advantage over Nebot),

Ballén and his supporters left the party to form the more right-wing Republican Union Party. They subsequently entered into an alliance with the Conservative Party. Eventually, Durán defeated Nebot in the second round of the 1992 presidential election.

Tenure

Ballén was inaugurated president on August 10, 1992. At age 71, Ballén was the oldest person to have served as president. During his time as president, he actively pursued structural reform to modernize the Ecuadorian state and cut down wasteful bureaucratic spending. During his presidency, Ballén lowered the Ecuadorian inflation from 67% to 24%. The result was a significant reduction of government deficits and a thriving private sector. Durán-Ballén also led Ecuador into membership in the WTO, with negotiations being led by his subsecretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricio Izurieta Mora-Bowen. The admission to the WTO had a significant impact on the nation's political institutions and export competitiveness.

During his presidency, there was criticism towards Ballén's economic policies. Many analysts agree that all these actions carried out under his economic plan meant the prelude to almost absolute insolvency to which the country would arrive in 1998 with an external debt of 16.4 billion dollars. He also faced harsh criticism when he eliminated the External Credit Committee in 1995 and was accused of abuse and subjection to public indebtedness. In response to the corruption allegations against him, Ballén called for a second popular referendum to allow reforms as per modernization of the state, which were largely rejected.

Ballén faced challenges while attempting to secure the modernization of the Ecuadorian economy from the World Bank. The World Bank insistent on the privatization of public services which resulted in the reduction of jobs, the elimination of alleged subsidies and the profitability of the Ecuadorian state management.

In 1995, Ballén proved to be one of Ecuador's most successful war-time leaders when his determined leadership united a divided country under the theme Ni un paso atras which means "not a single step backwards" during the Cenepa War with Peru. His last years as president, he focused on the resolution of the Cenepa War with President of Peru Alberto Fujimori. The war ended with both nations withdrawing troops on December 28, 1995, a few months before Ballén left office.

On August 10, 1996, Ballén was succeeded by Abdalá Bucaram. Upon leaving office, Ballén was praised by the public opinion, while his economic policies and his involvement in the Cenepa War, caused his presidency to have mixed opinions from scholars.

Post–presidency (1996–2016)

Following his presidency, Ballen was elected deputy for the Pichincha Province in 1998. Between 2001 and 2003, he served as an ambassador to the Court of St. James in London.

In 2005, he wrote an autobiography titled A mi manera... Los años de Carondelet and edited by the publisher of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. In 2006, he appeared as a candidate for the Andean Parliament for the Christian Democratic Union, but was not elected.

Death

Ballen died in his sleep at his home in Northern Quito on the night of November 15, 2016, from natural causes at the age of 95. He is survived by his wife Josefina and their eight children.

His state funeral was held on the following day on November 16 at Quito's city hall. His funeral procession later conclude at a religious service at the Cathedral of Quito. The incumbent president, Rafael Correa attended the funeral and declared three days of national mourning. Former president Gustavo Noboa and Ballén's first vice president, Alberto Dahik, were also those in attendance. His remains were later buried in a vault at the Church of Santa Teresita in Quito.

Legacy

Ballen's term in office was also characterized by a continued political stalemate with a Congress led by his former party. It spearheaded many of the corruption allegations against his administration and members of his family, accused of illicit enrichment, in cases such as "Flores y Miel" ("Flowers and Honey"). The impeachment of his Vice President Alberto Dahik, for allegedly using public funds illicitly, further weakened his stance.