Gabriel García Moreno

Gabriel Gregorio Fernando José María García Moreno y Morán de Butrón, Duke of the Holy Faith (pontifical), Knight with the Collar of the Order of Pope Pius IX, was an Ecuadorian politician who twice served as President of Ecuador and was assassinated during his second term, after being elected to a third. He is noted for his conservatism, Catholic religious perspective and rivalry with liberal strongman Eloy Alfaro. Under his administration, Ecuador became a leader in science and higher education within Latin America. In addition to the advances in education and science, he was noted for economically and agriculturally advancing the country, as well as for his staunch opposition to corruption, even giving his own salary to charity. However, a contemporary account from a consortium of London publishers, The Annual Register for 1875, reports, "the deceased President was a ruler more feared than loved in the Republic whose destinies he had guided for nearly fifteen years, having governed it rather as a military dictator than as the head authority of a Liberal Constitution.”