Jaime Roldós Aguilera
(November 5, 1940 – May 24, 1981) was President of Ecuador from August 10, 1979 until his death on May 24, 1981. In his short tenure, he became known for his firm stance on human rights.
His death in a plane crash has given rise to accusations he was surreptitiously assassinated by the United States government. The Ecuadorian Roldosist Party is named after him.
On May 24, 1981, a Beechcraft Super King Air carrying the President, Minister of Defense, assistants and their spouses crashed into the Huairapungo Mountain, in Celica Canton of Loja Province. The crash left no survivors: killed along with the president were First Lady Martha Bucaram, Minister of Defense Marco Subía Martínez and his wife, as well as two aides-de-camps, one other passenger and both pilots.
The controversy about the cause of the crash began immediately, when the Accident Investigation Committee of the Ecuadorian Air Force attributed the crash to pilot error, supposedly caused by an overloading with cargo. The parliamentary commission formed months after, after pressure from the families of the victims and political groups allied with the president, found contradictions and inconsistencies in the JIA report, but could not reach definitive conclusions especially since the aircraft that was purchased by the Air Force to operate as a VIP transport lacked the Flight Data Recorder equipment (Black Box). The Zurich Police, who also conducted an investigation, concluded that the plane's motors were shut down when the plane crashed into the mountain. This opinion, which contradicted the Air Force Report, was not investigated further by the Ecuadorian government.
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