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Alfredo Palacio

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Alfredo Palacio

Dr. Luis Alfredo Palacio González (born January 22 1939) is the current President of Ecuador. From January 15 2003 to April 20 2005 he served as vice president, after which he was appointed to the presidency when the Ecuadorian Congress removed President Lucio Gutiérrez from power following a week of growing unrest with his government.

Born in Guayaquil, Palacio is a physician by profession, specialising in cardiology. He studied in his home town and, later, at Cleveland, Ohio, doing residency at Case Western Reserve University, and St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. He later lectured in cardiology and public health at Guayaquil University's faculty of medicine.

Palacio was chosen as Lucio Gutiérrez's running mate in the 2002 election. It was a common sight during the campaign to see Gutiérrez, dressed in his army fatigues, accompanied by Palacios, wearing surgical scrubs. Palacio had previously served as the minister for health during the administration of Sixto Durán Ballén. Palacio maintains he is "not a politician" because he belongs to no political party, and he used this as an excuse to avoid getting lynched by a mob on April 20. Many of the ministers he chose are from the Izquierda Democrática.

One of Palacio's first proposals made as president was to hold a Constitutional Assembly to amend Ecuador's 1998 Constitution. For a period of several months prior to assuming office, he had been a critic of the Gutiérrez regime, saying that the country was "falling apart" and in need of "intensive care".

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