HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Rosalía Arteaga Serrano (born 5 December 1956) is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 39th
president of Ecuador The president of Ecuador (), officially called the constitutional president of the Republic of Ecuador (), serves as the head of state and head of government of Ecuador. It is the highest political office in the country as the head of the exec ...
for two days in 1997 from 9 to 11 February. She previously served as the 40th
vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
under President
Abdalá Bucaram Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz ( ; ; born 4 February 1952) is an Ecuadorian politician and lawyer who was the 38th president of Ecuador from 1996 until his removal from office in 1997. As president, Bucaram was nicknamed "El Loco Que Ama" ("The Madm ...
from 1996 until his removal from office 1997, a role she subsequently retained under President Fabián Alarcón after stepping down from the presidency until March 1998. She is the country's first ever female head of state. Arteaga announced her intention to stand for
secretary-general of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
in the 2021 selection, though incumbent
António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...
was ultimately appointed to a second term in office.


Early life and education

Arteaga was born in
Cuenca, Ecuador Cuenca, officially Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca, is an Ecuadorian city, head of the Cuenca Canton, canton of the same name and capital of the Azuay Province, province of Azuay, as well as its largest and most populated city. It is crossed by t ...
and attended the University of Cuenca.


Political career


First Vice Presidency (1996-1997)

Arteaga became vice president in 1996, following the election of
Abdalá Bucaram Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz ( ; ; born 4 February 1952) is an Ecuadorian politician and lawyer who was the 38th president of Ecuador from 1996 until his removal from office in 1997. As president, Bucaram was nicknamed "El Loco Que Ama" ("The Madm ...
as president. However, the first frictions between Bucaram and Arteaga became evident after just a month of being in power: when Bucaram traveled to the 10th Rio Group Summit in
Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...
(
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
) in September 1996, he did not entrust her with power. Their problems were never overcome throughout the short-lived Bucaram administration.


Brief Presidency and Second Vice Presidency (1997-1998)

On 6 February 1997, President Bucaram was declared unfit to govern by
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
. Arteaga and congressional leader Fabián Alarcón became locked in a dispute over who should succeed Bucaram since the constitution was vague on the issue. Initially, Alarcón was sworn in with the support of Congress. On 9 February, however, Arteaga, who had insisted that as Vice President she should become president, was sworn in instead as Ecuador's first female president. Two days later, however, on 11 February, with the support of Congress and the army, Alarcón was sworn in again, and Arteaga resigned as president and reverted to her post as vice president. The political forces in Parliament and, notably, the lack of a constitutional norm on vice presidential succession, eliminated by errors of codification during the Durán-Ballén era, did not allow Arteaga to succeed Bucaram. Before Bucaram's dismissal, Arteaga had denounced that a
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
was being planned from Congress by Alarcón. Consequently, the antipathy between Arteaga, who earlier claimed for herself the Presidency, and Alarcón became immediately evident. Because of this, the first decrees of Alarcón as interim president were to remove the coordination of the social front from the Vice Presidency. Later, Arteaga was also impeded from managing the Nuevo Rumbo Cultural program, the remodeling of the Sucre National Theater, and the committee for the construction of new airports as Alarcón's delegate at the National Development Council (CONADE). Finally, she was stripped of her representation in the National Security Council. In the 14 months that Arteaga was part of the Alarcón government, the Vice Presidency lost functions within the state structure and as a development planning body. Her role was, for all purposes, limited to solemnizing inaugurations, processing orders, and sponsoring social events. Moreover, like Bucaram before him, of the eight trips outside abroad that Alarcón made, in five of them Vice President Arteaga was not entrusted with power. Arteaga continued to clash with Alarcón and took any opportunity, when interviewed by international journalists and correspondents or when abroad, to denounce the unconstitutionality of the Alarcón government. She denounced that Ecuador was experiencing a '' de facto'' regime, also earning the antipathy of the military in the process. Finally, when, as she put it, it became "an absurd o continuebeing Vice President," she resigned from her post as vice president in March 1998. She then ran for president in the
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
that were held in May 1998 and finished fifth, receiving only 5% of the vote.


Post-presidency

Arteaga was secretary-general of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization until 2007 and is a member of the editorial board of the
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
. She continues to receive a lifetime pension from the Ecuadorian government of $48,690 annually. With the support of "Forward", a civil society organization, Arteaga announced her intention to seek the position of
secretary-general of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
in the 2021 selection. However, incumbent
António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...
was successfully appointed to a second consecutive term as Secretary-General. Arteaga holds several leadership roles at philanthropic and social justice foundations, including President of the Foundation for the Integration and Development of Latin America, Founder of the Rosalia Arteaga Glocal Women Foundation, and Honorary Academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED).https://LatinAmericanReports latinamericareports.com/interview-with-horasis-speaker-rosalia-arteaga-forbes/8539/


Notes


References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Arteaga, Rosalia 1956 births Living people Alfarista Radical Front politicians Ecuadorian people of Basque descent Women presidents in South America People from Cuenca, Ecuador Presidents of Ecuador Vice presidents of Ecuador Women government ministers of Ecuador Education ministers of Ecuador Women vice presidents in South America 20th-century Ecuadorian women politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian women politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian politicians 20th-century Ecuadorian politicians First women presidents 20th-century women presidents