View source for Rosalía Arteaga

{{Short description|Ecuadorian politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{more footnotes|date=June 2017}}
{{family name hatnote|Arteaga|Serrano|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Rosalía Arteaga
| image               = Conversatorio Mujeres en Negociaciones Internacionales (46589651644) (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Arteaga in 2019
| order               = 39th
| office              = President of Ecuador
| term_start          = 9 February 1997
| term_end            = 11 February 1997
| predecessor         = [[Abdalá Bucaram]]
| successor           = [[Fabián Alarcón]]
| office1             = [[Vice President of Ecuador]]
| president1          = Abdalá Bucaram
| term_start1         = 10 August 1996
| term_end1           = 6 February 1997
| predecessor1        = Eduardo Peña
| president2          = Fabián Alarcón
| term_start2         = 11 February 1997
| term_end2           = 30 March 1998
| successor2          = [[Pedro Aguayo Cubillo]]
| birth_name          = Lupe Rosalía Arteaga Serrano
| birth_date          = {{birth date and age|1956|12|5|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Cuenca, Ecuador|Cuenca]], [[Azuay Province|Azuay]], Ecuador
| residence           = [[Quito]], Ecuador
| death_date          =
| death_place         =
| party               = Independent Movement for an Authentic Republic {{small|(1995–2001)}}
| otherparty          = [[Alfarista Radical Front]] {{small|(before 1995)}}
| spouse              = Pedro Fernández de Córdova Álvarez {{small|(divorced)}}
| education           = [[Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador]]<br />[[University of Cuenca]]
| occupation          = {{hlist|Lawyer|politician|writer}}
}}
'''Rosalía Arteaga Serrano''' (born 5 December 1956) is an [[Ecuador]]ian politician who served as the country's first female head of state as acting president for a few days in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosalia Arteaga {{!}} Biography & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rosalia-Arteaga |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>
Arteaga announced her intention to stand for [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|secretary-general of the United Nations]] in the [[2021 United Nations Secretary-General selection|2021 selection]], though incumbent [[António Guterres]] was ultimately appointed to a second term in office.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=von Hammerstein |first=Leonie |date=May 8, 2021 |title=Could Rosalia Arteaga become the first woman to lead the UN? {{!}} DW {{!}} 08.05.2021 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/could-rosalia-arteaga-become-the-first-woman-to-lead-the-un/a-57466320 |access-date=2022-06-24 |website=DW |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Arteaga was born in [[Cuenca, Ecuador]] and attended the [[University of Cuenca]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=24 October 2021 |title=Aniversario de la "Universidad de Cuenca" - Diario El Mercurio |url=https://elmercurio.com.ec/2021/10/24/aniversario-de-la-universidad-de-cuenca/ |access-date=2022-06-24 |website=El Mercurio |language=es}}</ref>
==Political career==
===First Vice Presidency (1996-1997)===
Arteaga became vice president in 1996, following the election of [[Abdalá Bucaram]] as president.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/10/VICEPRESIDENTES-EN-LA-HISTORIA-2013.pdf|title=Vicepresidentes en la historia|website=vicepresidencia.gob.ec|access-date=25 November 2017}}</ref> However, the first frictions between Bucaram and Arteaga became evident after just a month of being in power: when Bucaram traveled to the 10th [[Rio Group]] Summit in [[Cochabamba]] ([[Bolivia]]) in September 1996, he did not entrust her with power. Their problems were never overcome throughout the short-lived Bucaram administration.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://hoy.tawsa.com/noticias-ecuador/los-personajes-del-alarconato-488.html | title=Los Personajes del Alarconato }}</ref>
===Brief Presidency and Second Vice Presidency (1997-1998)===
On 6 February 1997, President Bucaram was declared unfit to govern by [[National Congress (Ecuador)|Congress]]. Arteaga and congressional leader [[Fabián Alarcón]] became locked in a dispute over who should succeed Bucaram since the constitution was vague on the issue. Initially, Alarcón was sworn in with the support of Congress. On 9 February, however, Arteaga, who had insisted that as Vice President she should become president, was sworn in instead as Ecuador's first female president. Two days later, however, on 11 February, with the support of Congress and the army, Alarcón was sworn in again, and Arteaga resigned as president and reverted to her post as vice president. The political forces in Parliament and, notably, the lack of a constitutional norm on vice presidential succession, eliminated by errors of [[Codification (law)|codification]] during the Durán-Ballén era, did not allow Arteaga to succeed Bucaram.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://hoy.tawsa.com/noticias-ecuador/los-personajes-del-alarconato-488.html | title=Los Personajes del Alarconato }}</ref>
Before Bucaram's dismissal, Arteaga had denounced that a [[coup d'état]] was being planned from Congress by Alarcón. Consequently, the antipathy between Arteaga, who earlier claimed for herself the Presidency, and Alarcón became immediately evident. Because of this, the first decrees of Alarcón as interim president were to remove the coordination of the social front from the Vice Presidency. Later, Artaga was also impeded from managing the Nuevo Rumbo Cultural program, the remodeling of the Sucre National Theater, and the committee for the construction of new airports as Alarcón's delegate at the National Development Council (CONADE). Finally, she was stripped of her representation in the National Security Council. In the 14 months that Arteaga was part of the Alarcón government, the Vice Presidency lost functions within the state structure and as a development planning body. Her role was, for all purposes, limited to solemnizing inaugurations, processing orders, and sponsoring social events. Moreover, like Bucaram before him, of the eight trips outside abroad that Alarcón made, in five of them Vice President Arteaga was not entrusted with power.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://hoy.tawsa.com/noticias-ecuador/los-personajes-del-alarconato-488.html | title=Los Personajes del Alarconato }}</ref>
Arteaga continued to clash with Alarcón and took any opportunity, when interviewed by international journalists and correspondents or when abroad, to denounce the unconstitutionality of the Alarcón government. She denounced that Ecuador was experiencing a ''[[de facto]]'' regime, also earning the antipathy of [[Armed Forces of Ecuador|the military]] in the process. Finally, when, as she put it, it became "an absurd [to continue] being Vice President," she resigned from her post as vice president in March 1998. She then ran for president in the [[1998 Ecuadorian general election|elections]] that were held in May 1998 but received only 3% of the vote or a fifth place.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://hoy.tawsa.com/noticias-ecuador/los-personajes-del-alarconato-488.html | title=Los Personajes del Alarconato }}</ref>
==Post-presidency==
Arteaga was secretary-general of the [[Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization]] until 2007 and is a member of the editorial board of the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]].<ref>[http://corporate.britannica.com/board/arteaga.html Encyclopædia Britannica – About the Editorial Board]</ref> She continues to receive a lifetime pension from the Ecuadorian government of $48.690 annually.
With the support of "Forward", a civil society organization, Arteaga announced her intention to seek the position of [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|secretary-general of the United Nations]] in the [[2021 United Nations Secretary-General selection|2021 selection]]. However, incumbent [[António Guterres]] was successfully appointed to a second consecutive term as Secretary-General.<ref name=":0" />
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Eduardo Peña]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Vice President of Ecuador]]|years=1996–1998}}
{{s-aft|after={{nowrap|[[Pedro Aguayo Cubillo]]}}}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Fabián Alarcón]]<br />{{small|Acting}}}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Ecuador]]|<br />{{small|Acting}}|years=1997}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Fabián Alarcón]]<br />{{small|Acting}}}}
{{s-end}}
{{Ecuadorian Presidents}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arteaga, Rosalia}}
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alfarista Radical Front politicians]]
[[Category:Ecuadorian people of Basque descent]]
[[Category:Women presidents in South America]]
[[Category:People from Cuenca, Ecuador]]
[[Category:Presidents of Ecuador]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of Ecuador]]
[[Category:Women government ministers of Ecuador]]
[[Category:Education ministers of Ecuador]]
[[Category:Women vice presidents in South America]]
[[Category:20th-century Ecuadorian  women politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Ecuadorian women politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Ecuadorian politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Ecuadorian politicians]]
[[Category:First women presidents in South America]]
[[Category:20th-century women presidents]]