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Abdalá Bucaram

President of Ecuador from 1996 to 1997

Field	Value
name	Abdalá Bucaram
image	Abdalá Bucaram retrato oficial 1996.jpg
caption	Official portrait, 1996
order	38th
office	President of Ecuador
term_start	10 August 1996
term_end	6 February 1997
predecessor	Sixto Durán Ballén
successor	Fabián Alarcón (acting)
Rosalía Arteaga
vicepresident	Rosalía Arteaga
office2	Mayor of Guayaquil
term_start2	10 August 1984
term_end2	September 1985
predecessor2	Bolívar Cali Bajaña
successor2	Jorge Norero González
birth_name	Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz
birth_date
birth_place	Guayaquil, Ecuador
party	Independent (2014–2017; since 2021)
otherparty
alma_mater	University of Guayaquil
spouse

Rosalía Arteaga 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 Madman Who Loves", a nickname he championed).

Of Lebanese descent, Bucaram was born in Guayaquil and grew up playing sports where be became a gym teacher where he studied law in the University of Guayaquil. He later became the mayor of the town and began his political career. In 1988 and 1992, Bucaram unsuccessfully ran for president, having won in his third attempt in 1996. However, shortly after taking office, Bucaram was criticized for his bad attitude towards the press. He was also involved in several cases which eroded public support.

Bucaram was subsequently removed from office after being declared mentally unfit to rule by the National Congress on 6 February 1997. Fabián Alarcón, the president of the National Congress, became acting president. However, three days later on 9 February, Bucaram's vice president, Rosalía Arteaga, became president which caused a succession dispute with Alarcón on who should succeed Bucaram and thus, a political crisis. However, two days later on 11 February, Alarcón was reinstated as president with Arteaga retaking her previous role as vice president.

Bucaram visited multiple countries in Latin America in an attempt to gain support to regain the presidency. However, the moved failed and thus, he lived in exile in Panama under political asylum laws, then returned to Ecuador in 2017 when the charges against him expired. He started the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party, named after his brother in law Jaime Roldos.

Personal life

Born in Guayaquil, Bucaram is the son of Jacobo Bucaram Elmhalin, the son of Lebanese immigrants, and Rina Ortiz Caicedo. Bucaram was the nephew of the politician Assad Bucaram, who was the mayor of Guayaquil. His sister, Martha Bucaram, was married to former President Jaime Roldós Aguilera, both of whom were killed in a mysterious air crash. His older brother is engineer and politician Jacobo Bucaram.

He lived in Kennedy Norte, a neighborhood next to the José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport, prior to fleeing for Panama after the deposition of his government.

Sporting career

Bucaram grew up playing football in the streets of Guayaquil and later went on to become a successful athlete and earn a degree in physical education. He was also a hurdler. He was the flag bearer for Ecuador at the 1972 Summer Olympics but did not compete in the Games due to injury. He was the police chief of Guayas and the president of Barcelona Sporting Club, a football team from his hometown.

Early political career

While working as a gym teacher, Bucaram earned a law degree and soon began his political career.

He became the mayor of Guayaquil, and the founder and member of the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party (PRE). He then competed unsuccessfully for the presidency of Ecuador in 1988 and 1992.

Main article: 1996 Ecuadorian general election

In the 1996 Ecuadorian general election, Bucaram defeated Social Christian Party (PSC) candidate Jaime Nebot by winning in all but one of the 21 provinces, becoming the first to do so.

Presidency

Bucaram was president from 10 August 1996 to 6 February 1997. His cabinet was put together by Vice President Rosalia Arteaga. Shortly after taking office, the press criticized Bucaram for his behavior which was described as flamboyant and sometimes even rude. Within months, Bucaram was accused of embezzling millions of dollars of public funds. He was described as a "messianic personality and unconventional that attracted criticism from his critics and the media" by Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state news agency.

Impeachment

In February 1997, Bucaram was impeached by the National Congress because of concerns about his capacity to act in the office of the presidency. While the initial charge was for mental incapacity, the details of the impeachment specifically cited economic mismanagement, undignified behavior, deliberate oversight of crimes, and betrayal of campaign promises.

Life after impeachment

Bucaram received political asylum in Panama after several corruption charges were laid against him. He returned on Saturday, 2 April 2005, after the corruption charges were lifted the previous day. He stayed in Guayaquil for about two and a half weeks. The corruption charges against him were reinstated after Lucio Gutiérrez was forced to leave to avoid the charges.

On 1 December 2014, Bucaram's son Abdalá "Dalo" Bucarám Jr. renounced his seat in the Ecuadorian National Assembly.

On 3 June 2020, Attorney General Diana Salazar Méndez announced that a stock of 5,000 masks and 2,000 COVID-19 tests had been found at Bucaram's residence preventing their use in combatting a large outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was accused of several crimes including stealing from the Central Bank and Customs and mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic and barred from entering the United States. After he took office, Bucaram tried to reorganize the state which led to a culture of bribery and favoritism.

In August 2020, Bucaram was arrested and released at his home in Guayaquil as part of an organized crime investigation. The investigation centered on the murder of an Israeli citizen, Tomer Sheinman (also known as Shy Dahan), a few days earlier in the Guayaquil jail. Bucaram was implicated because an audio conversation between Bucaram and the murdered Sheinman (Dahan) was found. Sheinman (Dahan) was involved in trading medical supplies with Bucaram's son, Jacobo.

On 9 March 2022, the United States announced that, "due to his involvement in significant corruption, including misappropriation of public funds, accepting bribes, and interfering with public processes," Bucaram would be barred from entering the country.

As of December 2023, Bucaram has started to stream his political speeches in the video game Grand Theft Auto V on role-play servers, which he streams live on Twitch.tv.

References

"Abdalá Bucaram". Encyclopedia Britannica.
(22 November 2000). "Loco vs Bobo".
Gerlach, Allen. (2003-02-01). "Indians, Oil, and Politics: A Recent History of Ecuador". Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Conniff, Michael L.. (2012-07-31). "Populism in Latin America: Second Edition". University of Alabama Press.
"FamilySearch: Sign In".
"FamilySearch: Sign In".
"Abdalá Bucaram: "Agradezco a mis tres presidentes"".
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417093350/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/ECU/ Sports Reference]
[http://www.cidob.org/es/documentacion/biografias_lideres_politicos/america_del_sur/ecuador/abdala_bucaram_ortiz Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz] {{Webarchive. link. (21 December 2006 (Spanish))
Pérez Liñan, Aníbal S.. (2007). "Presidential impeachment and the new political instability in Latin America". Cambridge University Press.
(9 March 2022). "¿Por qué Estados Unidos le prohíbe la entrada a Abdalá Bucaram y su familia?: Estos fueron los casos de corrupción durante el mandato del expresidente que solo duró 6 meses".
"Quién es Abdalá Bucaram, el expresidente ecuatoriano detenido por delincuencia organizada". [[Anadolu Agency]].
Palamone, Gustavo. (2023-12-29). "Presidential Impeachment in Latin America: A Matter of Law or Politics?". Springer Nature.
(27 April 2017). "¿Quién es Adbalá Bucaram y por qué regresará a Ecuador tras 20 años de exilio?".
Zamora, Paúl. (1 December 2014). "Dalo Bucaram renunció a la Asamblea".
(3 June 2020). "En casa de expresidente Abdalá Bucaram se encontraron 5.000 mascarillas y otros insumos". El Telégrafo.
(7 March 2022). "A Pandemic Tragedy in Guayaquil".
Admin, Codigo Vidrio. (23 August 2020). "Los bailes y piruetas de Bucaram con el poder".
(13 August 2020). "Ex-Ecuadorian President Detained in New Criminal Probe".
(12 August 2020). "Expresidente de Ecuador Abdalá Bucaram es detenido para investigaciones".
(10 August 2020). "In the middle of a fraud and now murder scandal, Abdalá Bucaram announces his candidacy for President".
(11 August 2020). "Israelí asesinado dijo que conocía a Sonnenholzner y dos ministros más".
"Designation of Former Ecuadorian President Bucaram for Involvement in Significant Corruption".
(4 December 2023). "El expresidente Abdalá Bucaram hace su entrada a Twitch".

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