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FCG Internacional Thougth and Humanities Award  2010: RODRIGO BORJA CEVALLOS.

“For his  undoubted contributions to the world of thought and political ideas, as the author of a substantial written work culminated in his 'Enciclopedia de la Politica' and also as Democratic President of Ecuador from 1988 to 1992 in a period in which he applied his commitment to democracy, civil liberties, peace, human rights and the eradication of poverty. Respected intellectual, researcher, academic, lecturer and a brilliant speaker, Dr. Rodrigo Borja was known as "The President of the Peace".

During his term of office, began a strong diplomatic offensive to establish peace with Peru and also to put an end to territorial disputes with that country under the arbitration of the Pope John Paul II.

The Jury met in Valladolid, July 12, 2010 under the Presidency of Mr. Demetrio Madrid and  with Mr. Óscar Campillo acting as Secretary , was composed of Mr. Óscar Campillo Madrigal, General Director of RTVCYL; Mr. Ignacio Fernández Sobrino, Regional Director of Onda Cero and Antena 3 Televisión; Mr. Demetrio Madrid López, First President of the Junta de Castilla y León. Director and Chairman of the 2nd Session of the Advisory Council of Castilla y León; Mr. Jesús Núñez Velázquez, President of the University Alfonso X el Sabio; Mr. Enrique Ybarra e Ybarra, President of the Foundation Vocento.

Biography

Rodrigo Borja Cevallos
(June 19, 1933, Quito - Ecuador)

Doctor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Social Sciences at the Universidad Central del Ecuador. Specialist in Political Science.

Doctor Honoris Causa from the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of Buenos Aires, the Universidad de San Andrés de Bolivia, University of North Carolina at Asheville, USA; the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, National University of Santiago, Dominican Republic and Ricardo Palma University in Lima; Professor Emeritus at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, and Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Visiting Professor of The University of North Carolina in United States America.

President of Ecuador in the period 1988-1992

Legislature for several terms

Awarded the highest decorations in France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

Author of several books and essays, including the following:


"Historia de una Claudicación"
“Tratado de Derecho Político y Constitucional”
“Socialismo Democrático”
“La Etica del Poder”
“El Asilo Diplomático en América”
“La democracia en América Latina”
“Desarrollo del Derecho Constitucional Ecuatoriano”
“Derechos Humanos: una nueva perspectiva”
“Democracia y Populismo”
“La lucha de América Latina por la Democracia”
“Enciclopedia de la Política”
"Recovecos de la Historia"
"Sociedad, Cultura y Derecho"



His most important is "ENCICLOPEDIA DE LA POLITICA", Edit. Fondo de Cultura Economica in Mexico, which in its fourth edition will be over 7,500 pages.

Dr. Rodrigo Borja was the founder, ideologue and leader of the Partido Izquierda Democratica, with Social Democratic ideology, and one of the most modern mass parties and better organized in Latin America. He was also President of Ecuador in the period 1988-1992 and exercised power in an exemplary Republican manner, with absolute respect for the forces of opposition and human rights, to the point that after leaving the power he was joined with full honors to the Latin American Association of Human Rights (ALDHU), a fact probably with no precedents in the history of Latin American governments. In an act emblematic for his region, in the early days of his administration, Borja reached a mutual agreement with the urban guerrilla group "Alfaro Vive”, which, taken up arms for more than a decade, had committed countless acts of violence, and Borja obtained that his weapons were handed over to an international commission while its activists were reinserted in the democratic life, guaranteed by the government. That allowed giving four years of peace and social harmony to his country.

Borja was called also  the "President of Peace" because it reached the external peace with Peru, starting the negotiations that culminated in the signing of a peace agreement, and also  a rich inner peace.


His government had fruitful achievements. In the international field, inserted to Ecuador in the community of nations and also initiated diplomatic efforts to establish peace with Peru, after more than half century of wars and numerous border incidents. From the General Assembly of the United Nations, Borja "said Peace" to Peru and he proposed the arbitration of  the Pope John Paul II to end the territorial dispute between the two countries (1991). While he was governing, the first visit by a Peruvian leader to Ecuador happened to advance the peace process (1992) successfully completed a few years later after a long territorial dispute.

He spoke as spokesman for Latin America and the Caribbean in a series of international forums, such as the Summit of the Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade (1989), the Asociación Latinoamericana para la Integración (ALADI) in Montevideo (1990), the World Conference "Education for All" (Bangkok 1990). He attended the First Summit of Heads of State and Government at UUNN.


In the social sphere, Borja launched a big number of programs to benefit the poorest segments: 1.2 million school breakfast for children (in a population of 10 million inhabitants) that until that time were without food at the school ; Community Network Children attending day to 230,000 infants less than six years during the working days of their parents, the most important literacy campaign in the history of Ecuador; record rates of childhood immunization, 2.7 million hectares of land free of charge to arable farmers, incorporating also more than one million of them to the benefits of electricity and drinking water, the installation of the system of bilingual education for Indian sectors, comprehensive health system and the family doctor who treated 1.5 million patients poor in their own homes; system of credit to small business, mass credit for farmers and farm workers and many other programs in order to benefit the marginalized.


His economic policy, characterized by fiscal discipline, austerity in public spending and also by administrative honesty, led Ecuador  to unprecedented rates of growth: 5.4% annual GDP growth in 1992, tripling of the international monetary reserves, spectacular increase of exportations, annuall 16% increase in private investment in the economy, decreased to almost half the inflation rate received by the government.  All of this under a regime of peace, predictability and social harmony.

Not even his worst enemies have questioned the moral integrity of the president Borja and his government, who have made a clear contrast with what came later, what placed Ecuador among the most corrupt countries in Latin America.

After the government, Borja was devoted primarily to two activities: writing the last of his books (ENCICLOPEDIA DE LA POLITICA) and also speaker abroad.

In the past 10 years Borja has given about 180 lectures at academic centers, universities, international forums and cultural institutions in Latin America, Europe, United States and Asia, which means he has done more than one trip per month for this purpose. In Spain, he has been speaker at, between others, the Casa de America in Madrid, at the Centro Extremeño de Estudios y Cooperación con Iberoamérica (CEXECI), Columbus's house in Las Palmas, at the University of Las Palmas, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, at the University of Valencia, at Telefonica in  Madrid during the symposium on Guayasamín painting, at the University of La Rabida in Seville.