Luis Alberto Costales

He spent the last eight months of his life in this city, under the care of his family and friends. He died on February 1, 2006.

In mid-2005, Luis Alberto Costales fell seriously ill, a victim of incurable lung cancer. In July of that year, the Benjamin Carrión House of Ecuadorian Culture of Chimborazo published his book Sobre el Pomo de la Tierra, for which he received tributes from several institutions and cultural bodies in the city.

In 1993 he won first prize in poetry awarded by the Institute of Modern Arts, Quito.

In 1988 Costales was appointed Provincial Director of Region 5 of the Social Security Institute of Ecuador (IESS), a post which brought great responsibility, for a period of three years. In the same year he founded the cultural group Ateneo José María Román of Chimborazo, at the request of his close friend and National President Dr Guillermo Bossano. In 1991, he was elected alternate deputy for the Democratic Left Party in the Province of Chimborazo. However, his most important position was to chair the Chimborazo Patriotic Board, a group that examined the border disputes with Perú. Costales travelled to Tiwintza canton in order to encourage the troops stationed there.

When the Liberal Party was dissolved, following the signing of the "Pacto Morderé", the Democratic Left party was born, at first as an independent movement. In the year 1970 the first convention of this movement was held in the city of Quito. Luis Alberto Costales became its first National President. By 1986 this party had become became the leading political power in Ecuador and raised Dr. Rodrigo Borja Cevallos to the Presidency of the Republic.

He was elected councillor of the Riobamba Canton in 1962, and in 1963 was appointed councillor of Chimborazo Province. In the same year he also served as Chairman of that body, a position that years later would be occupied by his first son Luis Eduardo Terán. Later, around 1967, he served as presidential campaign manager for his close friend Dr Andrew F. Córdova, who was fondly called "Lluro Cordova".

In the political field, about the year 1959, he entered the ranks of the Radical Liberal Party, and was the Provincial Director for a period of eight consecutive years. Around 1960 he served as presidential campaign manager for Don Galo Plaza Lasso.

In 1945 he entered the Central University of Ecuador, in the city of Quito, joining the faculty of International Studies (Diplomacy), in which he was appointed Vice President of the Student Association. In 1950 he was awarded the first Inter-University Declaration of Human Rights Prize. Together with other young rebels of the time, including Abraham Romero Cabrera, he founded the Ecuadorian Nationalist Revolutionary Action movement (ARNE).

In 1932 he began study at the Simon Bolivar School of Riobamba. The following year he entered the St Thomas the Apostle School (STAR) in Riobamba. His secondary education took place in the San Felipe Neri School of the same city, run by the Jesuits.

Luis Alberto Costales Cazar (Riobamba, December 24, 1926 – Riobamba, February 1, 2006) was an Ecuadorian poet, philosopher, teacher, speaker, historian, farmer and politician.