Galo Plaza | |
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Galo Plaza in 1951
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4th Secretary General of the Organization of American States | |
In office 1968–1975 |
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Preceded by | José A. Mora |
Succeeded by | Alejandro Orfila |
President of Ecuador | |
In office September 1, 1948 – August 31, 1952 |
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Preceded by | Carlos Julio Arosemena |
Succeeded by | José María Velasco |
Personal details | |
Born |
Galo Lincoln Plaza Lasso de la Vega February 17, 1906 New York City, New York, United States |
Died | January 22, 1987 Quito, Ecuador |
(aged 80)
Nationality | Ecuadorian |
Political party | National Democratic Civic Movement (1947–1987) |
Other political affiliations |
Radical Liberal Party (1930–1947) |
Spouse(s) | Rosario Pallares (1911-1999) |
Alma mater |
University of Maryland University of California, Berkeley Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University |
Religion | Catholic |
Galo Lincoln Plaza Lasso de la Vega (February 17, 1906 – January 28, 1987) was an Ecuadorian politician and statesman who served as President of Ecuador from 1948 to 1952 and Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1968 to 1975. He is the son of former Ecuadorian President Leonidas Plaza.
Plaza was born in New York City in 1906 at the Marlton House during the exile of his father, the general and ex-president Leónidas Plaza; his mother was Avelina Lasso Ascásubi. He studied agriculture at the University of Maryland, economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
In 1938, Plaza was appointed the Minister of War of Ecuador. In 1940, he founded the Colegio Americano de Quito. In 1944, he was appointed as Ecuador's Ambassador to the U.S. In 1948, after forming a liberal political group in Ecuador, he was elected President of Ecuador.
Galo Plaza differed from previous Ecuadorian presidents. The son of former President Leónidas Plaza, he had been born in the United States, where he also attended several universities. His ties to the United States grew even closer as a result of serving there as ambassador under President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río. These links, as Pike points out, "rendered him vulnerable to charges by Velasco Ibarra and other demagogic opponents of being the lackey of U.S. imperialism."