Jaime Nebot

infobox Mayor
name=Jaime José Nebot Saadi


birth_date=birth date and age|1946|10|22
birth_place=Guayaquil, Ecuador
party=Social Christian Party ("Partido Social Cristiano")
predecessor=León Febres-Cordero Rivadeneira
term=January 2000–present
office=Mayor of Guayaquil, Ecuador
office2=Governor of Guayas province
term2=1984–1988
office3=Member of Congress
term3=1990–1992

Jaime Nebot (born October 22, 1946) is an Ecuadorian politician. He currently serves as mayor of Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. He is affiliated to the Social Christian Party. He ran twice unsuccessfully for president of Ecuador. He is considered the protege of former president León Febres-Cordero. [cite web
url=http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/news/notisur/h96/notisur.19960223.html
title=NotiSur - Latin American Political Affairs
date=February 23, 1996
accessdate=2008-01-27
publisher= Latin America Data Base (LADB), Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico]

Background

Nebot was born to a prominent Guayaquil family. His father, Jaime Nebot Velasco, was a government minister during the administration of President José María Velasco Ibarra (1968-1972). [cite book
last=Martz
first=John D.
title=Politics and Petroleum in Ecuador
publisher=Transaction Publishers
year=1987
isbn=0878554505 p. 87.] His mother was Sulema Saadi, the daughter of a Lebanese immigrant who came to Ecuador after living in Brazil. [cite journal
author = Almeida, Mónica
year = 1996
month = July
title = Phoenicians of the Pacific: Lebanese and Other Middle Easterners in Ecuador
journal = The Americas
volume = 53
issue = 1
pages = 87–111
doi = 10.2307/1007475] Nebot was educated in various Catholic schools, including Colegio Cristóbal Colón in Guayaquil and Colegio San Gabriel in Quito. He has a law degree from Universidad Católica Santiago de Guayaquil.cite web
url=http://www.guayaquil.gov.ec/19.gye
title=Jaime Nebot: Trayectoria
accessdate=2008-01-27
publisher= M.I. Municipalidad de Guayaquil] He entered politics in 1984, when he was appointed governor of Guayas province (the district encompassing Guayaquil) by then-president León Febres-Cordero. [cite book
last=Gerlach
first=Allen
title=Indians, Oil, and Politics: A Recent History of Ecuador
publisher=Rowman & Littlefield
year=2003
isbn=0842051082 p. 82] During his tenure as governor he sent police on a three-day operation to evict more than 700 families who were squatting on private land in Guayaquil. [cite journal
author = Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos
year = 1987
month = January
title = Atropello a Pobladores
journal = Derechos del Pueblo
volume = 37
pages = 27
url=http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:MSk9wxjCJVgJ:cedhu.org/html/revista_37.pdf+nebot+gobernador+guayas+volantes&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=us] He was governor until 1988, when Febres-Cordero's administration ended.

Incident in congress

In 1990 Nebot ran for congress on the Social Christian Party slate and won a seat representing Guayas province. On August 31, 1990, while a parliamentary session was being broadcasted on TV, Nebot, visibly agitated, began shrieking hysterically at a fellow congressman, Víctor Granda of the Socialist Party. "Come here so I can urinate on you," Nebot shouted at Granda. "I can't just hit you. I have to urinate on you."cite news
first = Javier
last = Espinosa
title = Ven pa'mearte, insecto hijueputa
url = http://www.elmundo.es/papel/hemeroteca/1996/06/12/mundo/118424.html
publisher = El Mundo
date = June 12, 1996
accessdate = 2008-01-27] [cite web
url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kTg32ikDD0
title=Jaime Nebot en el congreso
accessdate=2008-01-27
publisher= YouTube video] Police had to stop Nebot from physically assaulting his opponent. The disagreement stemmed from Granda's alleged backroom dealings with members of other parties.

Presidential runs

In 1992 Nebot ran for president for the first time. Almost all of Nebot's support came from the coastal provinces, Guayas included. [cite news
title = Ecuador; Joining the crowd
pages = 44
publisher = The Economist
date = May 23, 1992] He placed second in the first round of elections held in May, getting 26 percent of the vote. [cite news
last = Fidler
first = Stephen
title = Ecuador's centre-right ahead in poll
pages = 5
publisher = Financial Times
date = May 18, 1992] He lost the July runoff against Sixto Durán Ballén. Durán Ballén beat Nebot by a 13 point margin. [cite news
last = Brooke
first = James
title = U.S.-Trained Conservative Is Elected Ecuador President
pages = A4
publisher = New York Times
date = July 6, 1992]

He ran for president a second time in 1996. Nebot ran on a privatization of public services platform. Opponents claimed that his business-friendly approach would enrich his friends in the Guayaquil business community. [cite news
last = Fidler
first = Stephen
title = Survey of Ecuador
pages = 27
publisher = Financial Times
date = July 27, 1995] Nebot, supported by large agricultural businesses from the coast, spoke at home of more social services. Abroad, he spoke to investors of public payroll cuts.cite news
last = Colitt
first = Raymond
coauthors = Sarita Kendall
title = Ecuadorean poll leader polishes style
pages = 6
publisher = Financial Times
date = May 17, 1995] His campaign slogan was "People First." [cite news
last = Escobar
first = Gabriel
title = Free Market Is No Sacred Cow in Ecuadorean Election
pages = A23
publisher = Washington Post
date = March 31, 1996]

After placing first in the first round held in May, Nebot ran against populist Abdalá Bucaram in the July runoff. Bucaram succeeded in portraying Nebot as a member of the ruling class, thereby denying him support from the working class. Bucaram's negative campaign struck a chord among many poor voters. For example, when a line in Bucaram's TV ads mentioned the "evil oligarchy," the ads also showed a photo of Nebot with the caption "well pampered rich kid." Nebot "evoked strong feelings of rejection in many who preferred any other candidate."cite journal
author = De la Torre, Carlos
year = 1999
month = June
title = Neopopulism in Contemporary Ecuador: The Case of Bucaram's Use of the Mass Media
journal = International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
volume = 12
issue = 4
pages = 555–571
doi = 10.1023/A:1025986009032] Nebot, for his part, ran as calm figure, elegantly dressed and always smiling. Nebot was also harmed by an untimely remark from his party boss and political mentor, León Febres-Cordero, who said on TV that Bucaram "was the candidate of pimps, prostitutes, and marijuana users." [cite news
last = Adams
first = David
title = Ecuador's El Loco in poll battle with Antichrist
publisher = The Times
date = July 6, 1996] This further alienated Nebot from some voters.

Bucaram won 54 percent of the vote, Nebot 45 percent. [cite news
last = Escobar
first = Gabriel
title = Ecuadoran Populist Wins Presidential Vote
pages = A8
publisher = Washington Post
date = July 7, 1996] After losing the election, Nebot became active in the opposition against Bucaram. In January 1997, Nebot called for the removal of Bucaram from office, arguing that Bucaram was insane. [cite news
title = Ecuador
pages = A21
publisher = Miami Herald
date = January 30, 1997] The following month, after a two-day general strike led by the opposition, congress threw Bucaram out of office.cite news
last = Escobar
first = Gabriel
title = Ecuadoran Leader Fights to Retain Power
pages = A1
publisher = Washington Post
date = February 8, 1997] Bucaram fled Ecuador and found asylum in Panama. After Bucaram's overthrow, Nebot, at the head of Social Christian Party slate, won a seat in an assembly that redrafted Ecuador's constitution. [cite news
last = Newsome
first = Justine
title = Ecuador votes for reform
pages = 7
publisher = Financial Times
date = December 2, 1997] In the 1998 election, Nebot rejected the Social Christian Party's nomination for the presidency and ran for congress instead. [cite news
last = Newsome
first = Justine
title = Technocrat to stand for Ecuador presidency
pages = 6
publisher = Financial Times
date = February 26, 1998] He won a congressional seat and held it until 2000, when he ran for mayor of Guayaquil.

Tenure as mayor

In 2000 Nebot was elected mayor of Guayaquil. He was reelected in 2004 for another four-year term. He made public works the focus of his administration. He started an urban-renewal program to gentrify blighted areas of Guayaquil's center. [cite web
url=http://www.nytimes.com/global/guayaquil/one.html
title=Guayaquil: A new page in the evolution of a city
accessdate=2008-01-27
publisher= New York Times Special Advertising Section] In 2006, Nebot inaugurated Metrovía, a mass-transit system based on dedicated lanes for public buses. Metrovía was an effort to decongest Guayaquil's notoriously bad traffic. [cite web
url=http://www.nytimes.com/global/guayaquil/one.html
title=Guayaquil: Metrovia clears the air
accessdate=2008-01-27
publisher= New York Times Special Advertising Section]

Nebot tried to tackle crime, one of Guayaquil's persistent ills. In 2002, Nebot hired former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton to help draft an anti-crime strategy.cite journal
author = Swanson, Kate
year = 2007
month = September
title = Revanchist Urbanism Heads South: The Regulation of Indigenous Beggars and Street Vendors in Ecuador
journal = Antipode
volume = 39
issue = 4
pages = 708–728
url = http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00548.x?cookieSet=1
doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00548.x] Bratton was instrumental in former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's effort to reduce crime in the 1990s. Guayaquil's new anti-crime strategy includes tough penalties for individuals caught begging or selling on the streets of the gentrified areas. They can be imprisoned for up to seven days, or be subject to fines of up to $500 dollars.

Nebot built a shopping promenade along the west bank of the Guayas River, in the center of Guayaquil. Dubbed Malecón 2000, the promenade "is monitored by heavily armed police who individually assess who can enter the gated grounds and who cannot. Within the regenerated area, there are now at least 52 police-operated video cameras running 24 hours a day. This municipal gaze is not only concerned with crime control; rather, a key function of the cameras is to monitor the regenerated areas for the occupation of public space—particularly by informal workers."

Violence has played a role in the gentrification plan. In 2003, the media reported 10 cases of excessive police force, including the case of a 53-year-old man who was shot and injured during the eviction of a group of street vendors.

References

External links

* [http://www.guayaquil.gov.ec/19.gye Mayor's page on Guayaquil homepage (Spanish)]
* [http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/guayaquil_mayor.html CityMayors profile]