Guillermo Lasso
Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza is an Ecuadorian businessman and politician, and president-elect of Ecuador. He was one of the candidates in the 2021 general election, defeating Andres Araus. He ran for president in 2013 and 2017.
In the 2017 election, he entered the decisive stage with the then Vice President Linin Moreno but lost the election at a slight disadvantage.
| Guillermo Lasso | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| President of Ecuador | |||
| Took office May 24, 2021 | |||
| vice-president | Alfredo Potrero Vega | ||
| Take over | Linin Moreno | ||
| Super minister of economy | |||
| Term of office : August 17, 1999-September 24, 1999 | |||
| president | Hair Mahwad | ||
| predecessor | Job creation | ||
| Succession | Post abolition | ||
| Governor of Guayas Province | |||
| Term of office : August 10, 1998-August 17, 1999 | |||
| predecessor | Rafael Guerrero Valenzuela | ||
| Succession | Benjamin Rosales Valenzuela | ||
| personal information | |||
| Born | Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza November 16, 1955 GuayaquilEcuador | ||
| political party | Create Opportunity Party | ||
| spouse | Maria de Lourdes | ||
| Children | 5 | ||
| website | Official website | ||
Russo briefly served as Minister of Economy during the presidency of Hamill Mahwad in 1999. He served as Governor of Guayas Province from 1998 to 1999.
In addition to his political career, Russo is a banker and previously served as the CEO of Guayaquil Bank.
As a person who considers himself a liberal, his public agenda includes classical liberal views such as defending the division of power to restrict government and fundamental rights. He also expressed support for tax cuts and is an advocate of the free market.
Bussiness career of Guillermo Lasso
In the 1990s, the Coca-Cola Company went bankrupt in Ecuador, and Russo was appointed as the head of operations in the region.
In this position, Lasso’s task is to reorganize the company to restore financial health. Since then, he has served as a member of the board of directors of Coca-Cola Company and Mavesa Company and served as the chairman of the board of directors of the Guayas Transportation Committee and a member of the board of directors of Andes Development Corporation.
In 1994, Russo became the CEO of Guayaquil Bank. During his tenure, he founded the Barrio Bank Project, a community banking initiative to attract local shopkeepers as economic partners of the World Bank in planning and strategy. The Inter-American Development Bank considers the project to be an advancement in the penetration strategy of primary banks.
In 2012, he resigned as CEO. Lasso is also the founder of the Barrio Foundation.
The career of Guillermo Lasso
In 1970, at the age of 15, he got his first job - part-time - at the Guayaquil Stock Exchange and then at Casa Möeller MartÃnez, as a collection assistant.
In 1972, at the age of 16, he began to work at the financial company Cofiec and then at Finance in Quito. His first company was Constructora Alfa y Omega, founded with his older brother Enrique Lasso in 1978 when he was 23 years old. 19
In 1977, at the age of 22, he began working as a manager in the ProCrédito company, which represented in Ecuador the financial company Fe Crédito founded in Panama by his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera. These two companies merged and led to the creation of Finansur in 1980 where he served as executive vice president.
He was subsequently appointed CEO of Finance in 1984 when he was 29 years old. After the merger of Finansur with Banco de Guayaquil in 1989, he held the Executive Vice Presidency and General Management of the bank.
In addition, he was president of the Association of Financial Companies Ecuador, from 1987 to 1988.
Guayaquil Bank
In 1994, he was appointed executive president of Banco Guayaquil, and in that same year, he was appointed as a member of the Monetary Board in the representation of the national private banks since he served as president of the Association of Private Banks of Ecuador, from 1993 to 1997.
On May 30, 1997, Ana Lucia Armijos, President of the Monetary Board, is accused without warrant prison Carlos Solorzano, president of the Supreme Court for alleged illegalities in the delivery of a loan subordinated to the Ortega Group, of the Continental Bank; although all the possible culprits were definitively dismissed.
On May 7, 2012, he announced on his Twitter account that he was no longer presiding over the board of directors of Banco Guayaquil, of which he is one of its main shareholders, to dedicate himself to the Fundación del Barrio.
Other companies
In 1984, he passed through the national subsidiary of Coca-Cola, where he was appointed vice president to implement a rehabilitation process for the company.
In 1989 he was in charge of the acquisition of the company Mavesa, a representative in Ecuador of the Japanese truck factory Hino.
In 1999, amid the Ecuadorian financial crisis, it decided to sell it to capitalize on Banco Guayaquil and comply with the new Ecuadorian legislation that forced banks not to have other companies. He got it in May 2001 for $ 10 million.
In 2017, a report from the Superintendency of Banks of Panama, accessed by the Argentine portal Página 12, revealed that Guillermo Lasso is associated with 49 offshore companies in tax havens and accumulated between 1999 and 2000 a wealth of 30 million dollars.
Private foundations
Public foundations are chairman of the board or part of the following private foundations: Fundación Ecuador Libre, 32 Foundation Barrio, Technical Center Montepiedra Labor, and the Latin American Board of Georgetown University.
From 2002 to 2007, he was president of the Terrestrial Terminal Foundation, in charge of the reconstruction of the Guayaquil Terrestrial Terminal. He was in this honorary position from the beginning until the delivery of the work.
He was also a member of the board of directors of the Andean Development Corporation and head of the Malecón 2000 Foundation.
The political career of Guillermo Lasso
In 1998, Lasso was appointed governor of Guayas Province, during which time the national government carried out large-scale privatization of public companies and industries.
In 1999, Ecuador experienced an economic collapse, and Lasso was temporarily appointed as the newly established "Super Minister of Economy", replacing the resigned Anna Lucia Amigos. As Minister of Finance, he served under President Hamir Mahwad and was responsible for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to obtain economic support. He also shouldered the task of coordinating government policies in response to the national economic crisis.
The presidential election won by Guillermo Lasso
2013
2017 In the 2013 general election, he was the presidential candidate of the "Creating Opportunity Party" he created. He ranked second with 22.68% of valid votes, losing to the current President Rafael Correa, who received more than twice this number of valid votes (57.17%). Through GLM, a trusted company named after Lasso’s initials, Lasso is the largest shareholder of Bank Guayaquil. He has served as executive president of Bank Guayaquil for more than 20 years.
2021 In early 2017, Russo launched his second presidential campaign, hoping to replace the current president Correa in the 2017 presidential election. He represents the conservative Opportunity Party. His campaign theme was "change", and he promised to create more than 1 million jobs in Ecuador.
Russo received 48.84% of the vote and lost to Linin Moreno.
After the election results were announced, Russo accused his opponent of election fraud, calling the incoming government "illegal." In February 2017, Russo stated in an interview with a British newspaper that if he wins the presidential election, he will "sincerely request" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London within 30 days.
Lasso will again run as a candidate in the 2021 general election.
In the first round of voting, Russo slightly fell behind the indigenous rights activist Jacques Perez Guatamber, but eventually won enough votes to win a second place by a narrow margin. Russo will face the socialist and Rafael Correa's ally Andrés Arauz. He defeated Arauz in the April runoff, and many news media have noticed the conservative tendencies of Ecuador's voters. Lasso’s victory was also seen as a victory for the country's free-market advocates.
Ecuador's presidential election
After winning in April 2021, Russo will assume the 47th President of Ecuador on May 24, 2021.
The political position of Guillermo Lasso
To paraphrase Guillermo Russo's own words, "Life makes him free." However, when asked if he agrees with the word, he replied that he does not put himself in any ideology, but believes in "good ideas." Similarly, when asked whether he was a leftist or a rightist, he also answered this question. His public agenda includes classic liberal views such as defending the division of power to restrict government and basic rights such as freedom of the press.
Guillermo Lasso claimed to be a silent admirer of the revolution of Jose Maria Aznar, a series of reforms implemented by the former prime minister of the Spanish government.
In terms of foreign trade, he said that he is in favor of expanding trade openings with Ecuador’s main partners, the United States, and the European Union so that domestic producers have more export opportunities. He also expressed support for tax cuts, lower national debt, and minimum wages, and announced goals to increase private sector productivity and employment.
Regarding the capital outflow tax, he believed that it was actually a capital income tax and promised that if he is elected president, at least nine taxes will be abolished. Russo was also accused of supporting the reduction of the minimum wage from $400 per month in 2020 to $120 per month.
However, this sentence ruined an interview he had received during the pandemic in March 2020. It is recommended that companies recruit unemployed poor single mothers so that they can at least get some income.
It also claimed to be the enemy of 21st-century socialism promoted by Venezuela and Cuba. The Ecuadorian chapters of these two countries recognized the civic revolution led by Rafael Correa.
Lasso called the Bolivarian League of America, the supranational organization, the "Third World Empire." In response to Guillermo Lasso’s criticism of the Ecuadorian government’s anti-capitalist speech and measures, President Correa and other officials and members of the Sovereign Fatherland Movement questioned him, portraying him as the one who ruled Ecuador before the ruling party came to power in 2007.
Representatives of political power pointed out that Russo’s taxation proposal is not responsible for the state budget.
In addition, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa claimed that Russo was also involved in the Ecuadorian financial crisis in 1999. Guillermo Lasso is a part-time employee of the main business association.
On the issue of abortion, he once stated in general terms that he “believes in life from the beginning of pregnancy, this is a principle that I will not change''. Regarding bullfighting and cockfighting, he said that although he does not have these hobbies, he does not want to impose his hobbies on others.
On other issues, such as same-sex marriage, he said that he supports allowing civil unions, but it is different from traditional marriages.
On the issue of immigration, he suggested that those with criminal records should be controlled, but the entry of foreigners for tourism, investment, or humanitarian reasons should be facilitated.
On the issue of drug legalization, he insisted that in the face of the failure of the war on drugs, a national debate is necessary to propose an alternative.
On the issue of environmental protection, he declared that he would keep the Amazon protected area from extracting oil.
Works by Guillermo Lasso
In 2011, Russo published the book "Letters to Children", which contains the experience he learned during his business career and made some suggestions for Ecuador's economic development.
In his view, Lasso discussed the need for greater sovereignty in certain areas of the national economy. This book advocates the Ecuadorian government formulate policies to create more economic opportunities for its citizens.
Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar stated shortly after publication that this book has important insights into what development needs. At the new book launch event, former Ecuadorian President Gustavo Novoya and politicians from other countries attended the event and expressed their support for the project.
After the book was published, Russo gave a policy speech and used the plan in the book as the basis for the presidential political campaign.
In 2012, he published the book "Another Ecuador Is Possible".
