Lenín Moreno

Childhood

Moreno was born into a middle-class family in Nuevo Rocafuerte, a small town in the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Peruvian border. His father, Servio Tulio Moreno, was a teacher who promoted bilingual education and integrated schools for Indigenous children and mestizo children. His parents named him after their favorite authors; his father idolized Vladimir Lenin and his mother liked Voltaire, although an error in the civil registration turned his middle name into Boltaire.^[4][5] He moved to Quito with his family when he was 3 years old.^[6]

Education

Moreno studied in Quito at the Instituto Nacional Mejía (Mejia National Institute), the Colegio Nacional Sebastián Benalcázar (Sebastian Benalcazar National School), and the Universidad Central del Ecuador (Central University of Ecuador), where he earned a degree in Public Administration and was honored as the best graduate. He studied psychology.^[7]

Career

Moreno began his career in 1976 as the director of the Continental Professional Training Center. He went on to become Director of OMC Publigerencia Andina, sales manager of Satho and marketing manager of Zitro, all located in Ecuador. Then he moved to the public sector, taking an administrative post with the Minister of Government. He worked extensively in the public tourism industry. He founded the Chamber of Tourism of Pichincha, a province in Ecuador, and was Executive Director of the National Federation of Tourism Chambers and Executive Director of the Chamber of Tourism of Pichincha, between 1997 and 1999.

Politics and awards

Moreno has earned numerous awards while serving as vice president of Ecuador: the "Fray Jodoco Ricke" Award; the Order of the Sun of Peru in the rank of Grand Cross; and the Order of Merit to the Democracy, presented by the governments of Peru, Guatemala and Colombia, respectively. He was also recognized unanimously by the Council of the Metropolitan District of Quito on the order of Gran Collar Sebastian Benalcazar. He has received various Honoris Causa awards, from the Universidad de las Americas (University of the Americas), Universidad Tecnica del Norte del Ecuador (Technical University of Northern Ecuador) and the Universidad San Martin de Colombia (San Martin University of Colombia). He earned a Honoris Causa Masters, from the Business School (ESAE), Spain, on 25 November 2011.

Moreno was appointed as Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December 2013.^[8]

Eventa Foundation

After being shot, Moreno created the foundation "Eventa" to promote humor and joy as a way of life based on his personal experiences.

He is the author of numerous books on his theory of humor, including: Filosofía para la vida y el trabajo ("Philosophy for life and work"), Teoría y Práctica del Humor ("Theory and Practice of Comedy"), Ser Feliz es Fácil y Divertido ("Being Happy is Easy and Fun"), Los Mejores Chistes del Mundo ("World's Best Jokes"), Humor de los Famosos ("Humor of the Famous"), Trompabulario, Ríase, no sea enfermo ("Laugh, don’t be sick") and Cuentos no Ecológicos ("Non-Ecological Tales").^[9]

Switching sides and de-Correization

Within months of winning the election, Moreno, started moving away from his voting platform. thus, igniting a feud with ex-president Rafael Correa.

Later that same year, through a referendum^[16], President Moreno reversed several key legislation pieces passed by Correa´s administration, that targeted wealthy individuals and banks, also reversed a previous referendum allowing indefinite re-election, and efficiently blocking Correa´s future electoral bids, and established a Council (CPCCS-T) with Supra-Constitutional powers^[17] to "evaluate control authorities and judges", with the aim to remove what remains of Correa from the state.

Since the referendum that created the CPCCS-T (a supra constitutional council), it has been Moreno´s tool, alleging the removal of the remaining of ex-president Correa´s influence, to oust and handpick replacement for all control authorities, provincial judges, judicial council, National Electoral Council (CNE).^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

Foreign affairs

Moreno meets with US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon in 2018

In 2018, President Moreno made a statement about Julian Assange who has been given political asylum in Ecuador's London embassy since 2012. Moreno named conditions under which Assange could stay on in the embassy, including bringing down the level of security at the embassy and no Internet access.^[23] In an interview to Deutsche Welle, Moreno denied that external pressure from other countries had influenced this decision concerning the status of Assange.^[24]

Following a June 2018 visit by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who agreed with President Moreno to improve the US-Ecuador relations which were strained under the presidency of Rafael Correa. Ecuador launched a security effort with the United States, including buying weapons, radar sets, six helicopters and other equipment, as well as cooperation with the U.S. will include training and intelligence sharing.^[25]

In August 2018, Ecuador withdrew from ALBA, a regional bloc led by Venezuela, in a bid to further distance itself from that country’s socialist government and because Ecuador wants to be “independent” of organizations that are trying to impose “specific views” on Latin America’s social and political issues.^[26]