Camilo Ponce Enríquez
(Quito, 1912-1976) Ecuadorian politician, lawyer and leader of the conservative party.He was President of the Republic during the constitutional period of 1956-1960, the first conservative after 64 years of liberal, prosocialist and populist regimes.
Camilo Ponce Enríquez
After completing his first studies at the San Gabriel school, run by the Jesuits of Quito, Camilo Ponce Enríquez followed higher studies at the Central University of Ecuador in the same city, and complemented them at the University of Santiago de Chile, where in 1938 he obtained the title of lawyer.Later he also did a doctorate in law from the University of Southern (California).He was a founding member of the Ecuadorian Democratic Alliance (ADE).
He also founded the newspapers Democracia (1942) and El Heraldo (1945), and the journalistic company Unión Católica S.A.(1949).In 1952 he organized the Christian Social Movement, which would later become a political party.He held the chair of Constitutional Law at the Catholic University of Quito, and held the positions of deputy and senator for Pichincha, Minister of Public Works during the government of Mariano Suárez Veintimilla, Minister of Government with José María Velasco Ibarra (1953-1955) and President of the Republic from 1956 to 1960.
Elected in a very close campaign, in which he barely attracted a third of the votes, his government administration was characterized by a marked right-wing tint, although he did not demonstrate the rigor that many of his opponents foreshadowed.Trying to impose the legal norms with energy, he was harshly criticized and fought by the center-left parties, by the students and by the workers, but his mandate was carried out in an atmosphere of peace and respect for democracy.
He also stood out for carrying out numerous public works: he built the Palace of Congress, the Chancellery, the Insurance Fund, the Hotel Quito, the student residences of the Central and Catholic universities, the terminals of the airports of Quito and Guayaquil and the modern maritime terminal of this city; He was also lavish in the creation of educational centers throughout the republic, and went so far as to build some five hundred new schools throughout the country.
He was tireless in providing roads, paths, bridges and ports.His government was unable to face the economic crisis, which is why, by handing over the government to the fourth-time elected president Velasco Ibarra, it was delivering a time bomb that would soon explode.Camilo Ponce Enríquez was a man of great cultural, intellectual and humanistic personality.He left several written works, including two studies on the political ideas of Simón Bolívar and another entitled Genesis and the Fall of a Regime , on the historical trajectory of the Radical Liberal Party.
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