Jaime Roldós Aguilera (November 5, 1940 – May 24, 1981) was an Ecuadorian politician who was the 33rd President of Ecuador from August 10, 1979 until his death on May 24, 1981. In his short tenure, he became known for his firm stance on human rights, which led to clashes with other Latin American governments and poor relations with Ronald Reagan's United States administration.
Elected at the age of 38, he is the first democratically elected president after a decade of military dictatorship. He restored constitutional order and encouraged free elections. His foreign policy focused on defending human rights, even at the expense of economic or military interests. On the economic and social front, he raised the minimum wage, strengthened workers' rights, promoted literacy programs, and improved access to healthcare.
On Sunday 24 May 1981, a plane in which he was travelling crashed, killing all passengers including Roldós and his wife. Controversy surrounds the circumstances of the crash, including the absence of a black box. Multiple investigations were carried out at the time, and in 2015-16, but no definite cause was determined.
Roldós was born in Guayaquil on 5 November 1940. He attended high school at the Vicente Rocafuerte National School. He studied law and social sciences at the University of Guayaquil. He was an excellent student and won many awards, medals and scholarships. He served in the National Congress from 1968 until 1970.
At the age of 37, he ran for president on a populist platform. As the party theoretician, Roldós had originally meant to be a replacement candidate for Assad Bucaram, the populist leader of his Concentration of Popular Forces party. The outgoing military junta barred Bucaram from the presidential election, which, according to political observers, he surely would have won. In his place, the CFP fielded Roldós under the slogan “Roldós in the Presidency, Bucaram in power.” Marta, Roldós wife, was Bucaram's niece. In the first round, he received the greatest number of votes, but not the 50% plus one needed to avoid a runoff.
In December 1978, during the nine-month interval between the first and second rounds of the election, an alleged plot to assassinate him, supposedly by eight Americans (who were later charged with archeologic relics trafficking) was reportedly foiled by the military government. On 18 June 1979, Roldós' house in Guayaquil was machine-gunned by unknown assailants.
He won the second round of elections against Sixto Durán Ballén, an architect and experienced politician who was the co-founder of the conservative Social Christian Party and former Mayor of Quito. Roldós assumed office on 10 August 1979 in a ceremony attended by several world dignitaries, among them American Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (with First Lady Rosalynn Carter accompanying) and Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez.
President of Ecuador (1979-1981)
On October 10, 1979, Roldós signed a decree reducing the workweek to 42 hours. On November 2, 1979, he issued another decree doubling the minimum wage to 4,000 sucres per month. ($160 in 1979 US dollars). On March 8, 1980, he established the National Development Plan. On April 15, 1980, he established a committee of notables to seek a solution to the power struggle in the National Congress, which was presided over by his former mentor Assad Bucaram. He clashed with Congress. His social policies were not well received by certain business sectors. Acts of espionage, threats, and sabotage were reported, increasing the sense of instability during his administration.
He named 1981 the "year of advances". In late January and early February 1981, there were border skirmishes with Peru, in the Cordillera del Cóndor. Clashes occurred in the regions of Paquisha, Mayaycu, and Machinatza. With great skill and diplomacy, he left the territorial dispute to arbitration by the Organization of American States.
Roldós's most important accomplishment was his policy supporting human rights, in an era when most Latin American countries were under military dictatorships. In September 1980, Roldós met with the democratically elected presidents of the Andean region (Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru) and proposed signing a Charter of Conduct, in which the principles of universal justice and human rights were reaffirmed, signalling that the protection of human rights was a more important principle than non-intervention. His stance on human rights led him to clash with fellow Latin American leaders: in one instance at a summit in Colombia, El Salvador's José Napoleón Duarte (the US-backed president who came to power after the coup that set off the Salvadoran Civil War) mocked Roldós for being young and inexperienced. Roldós answered: “I may be inexperienced, but my government perches on a mountain of popular votes, while yours is perched on a mountain of corpses.”
On Sunday, 24 May 1981, a Beechcraft Super King Air carrying the president and his entourage to a military ceremony in honor of the fallen in the short war with Peru crashed into Huairapungo Hill, near the town of Guachanamá, in the Celica Canton of Loja Province. The crash, at 2360 meters over sea level (7800 ft.), left no survivors. Killed along with the president were First Lady Martha Bucaram, the Minister of Defense Marco Subía Martinez and his wife, two aides-de-camp, a flight attendant, and both pilots. The bodies were reportedly burned beyond recognition.
Investigation and controversies
The controversy about the cause of the crash began immediately when the Accident Investigation Committee (Junta Investigadora de Accidentes, JIA) of the Ecuadorian Air Force attributed the crash to navigational pilot error. According to the 60-page report released in early June 1981, 45-year-old pilot Marco Andrade, a colonel with 4,265 hours of flying experience, began an instrument-controlled descent over cloud-shrouded mountains five minutes earlier than expected due to a miscalculated position. The inquiry was aided by the plane manufacturer's representatives, who, after examining the wreckage, ruled out sabotage through a mid-air explosion.
The report said that contributing factors were Roldós' haste to arrive at the border town of Macará and the pilot's fatigue; the pilot was also the president's military aide-de-camp. Andrade had reportedly stood beside Roldós for three hours during the Atahualpa Stadium military ceremony before the flight. The report criticized Andrade's dual role as military aide and pilot, noting he had been on duty since 6:30 a.m. on the day of the accident, accompanying Roldós on his hectic schedule. It also noted that Col. Andrade and the co-pilot, Lt. Enrique Romo, had flown the Quito-Macará route five days earlier in the same aircraft to familiarize with the route. However, they were apparently trying to cut short the final leg owing to the president's tight schedule.
There were also rumors that the Colombian M-19 leftist guerrilla, or other enemies of Roldós, were involved in the crash, but these accounts were dispelled by authorities.
Arosemena inquiry (first investigation)
A parliamentary commission was formed months later, led by then-MP and former President Otto Arosemena, following pressure from the families of the victims and political groups allied with the president. It found contradictions and inconsistencies in the JIA report but could not reach definitive conclusions, especially since the aircraft purchased by the Air Force to operate as a VIP transport lacked black box equipment. A team from the Zurich Police also conducted an investigation and concluded that the plane's motors were shut down when it crashed into the mountain. This opinion, which contradicted the Air Force Report, was not investigated further by the Ecuadorian government.