Eloy Alfaro (25 June 1842-28 January 1912) was President of Ecuador from 5 June 1895 to 31 August 1901 (succeeding Vicente Lucio Salazar and preceding Leonidas Plaza) and from 16 January 1906 to 12 August 1911 (succeeding Lizardo Garcia and preceding Carlos Freile Zaldumbide).
Biography[]
Eloy Alfaro was born in Montecristi, Ecuador in 1842, the son of a businessman, and he became an anticlericalist at a young age and joined the Liberal Party. Alfaro was nicknamed the "Old Warrior" for fighting against Presidents Gabriel Garcia Moreno, Antonio Borrero, Ignacio de Veintemilla, and José Plácido Caamaño, spending his fortune in those battles. He founded the Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party in 1878 and led a liberal revolution in 1895, deposing President Vicente Lucio Salazar and declaring himself a dictator. He introduced the principle of secularism, secured the integrity of Ecuador's borders, revolutionized the country's educational and communications systems, and built a railway from Guayaquil to Quito. He was removed from office by his former supporters in 1911 and was imprisoned after a failed coup attempt against Leonidas Plaza in January 1912. He was dragged out of the prison and murdered by Catholic soldiers on 28 January 1912.