So that young people can read the testimony of those who lived before the dollarization decreed by President Mahuad, I dare to write these memories. Such an important decision was not a measure to stay in power, but an urgent and mandatory need for the survival of Ecuador.

In my opinion, the crisis of the monetary system began in 1981, when the dollar exceeded the exchange rate of 30 sucres. It was a kind of psychological barrier that was broken by the facts. At that time, President Roldós faced the opposition Congress chaired by Assad Bucaram, who said that he brought him to power and that Roldós did not even consult with him about the name of the cabinet, nor did he appoint any of his relatives as ministers.

Congress had the power to raise the minimum wage at the time. Bucaram had no idea about public finances and according to historian Simón Espinosa, in his book Presidents of Ecuador, he “doubled salaries to four thousand sucres” without taking into account that the state was the largest employer in Ecuador. It was a demagogic and hostile decision by the president. Many businessmen and people had debts in dollars and did not know what to do. On the same day from those so critical, I received two inquiries from friends: one told me that his little industry did not allow him the margin to pay more than five or six sucres on the dollar, and that he was bankrupt. Another asked me about a property he bought in Miami that he couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage on. Sell, was my opinion, because we don’t know when this devaluation process will stop. It was an ominous decline that only stopped when the sucre was replaced by the dollar.

In the late 1990s, it was heartwarming to see people queuing up in front of exchange offices to buy a one or two dollar bill because it was a way to save some money. The cost of living was increasing every day. The poor and those from the middle class lived in despair because there was not enough money, it was leaking.

Nature and corruption were very powerful factors. El Niño in 1997 was destructive. Roads and buildings were lost, the rains destroyed everything. Peasants and merchants did not pay the banks. It was discovered that the loans were given to friends and “relatives” who also failed to repay them. There have been cases where those who got huge loans were declared bad. Many banks went bankrupt, but their owners emigrated abroad with their wealth. The dollar reached thirty thousand sucres. The country was sinking into a rotten swamp of corruption and bad governance. The last two years of the last century made us feel as if we had been wiped out by war.

Dollarization saved us. During the government of Gustavo Noboa, things normalized, people got used to the new currency. Inflation was reduced, businesses prospered again and people had a future. An exit from dollarization, even a shrewd one, would be a stupid and fatal mistake. Let’s support its retention, without misleading alternatives. (OR)