I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Dora de Ampuero 97
We had organized seminars and workshops to discuss the more important issues affecting
the Ecuadorian society, such as constitutional reforms, free trade, the moral basis of
capitalism, reforms to social security, property rights, government and corruption, democracy
and liberty. IEEP has a monthly publication to spread liberal ideas among business people,
academia, journalists and students. Our institute is part of the International Freedom
Network and the Fundacion Internacional para la libertad. In 2001, I was elected a member
of the Mont Pelerin Society.
When I returned to Ecuador we did not find people who believe in liberal ideas. No
other liberal think tank existed in our country. The liberal concept was associated with the
traditional liberal party which is really a social democrat party. At the beginning it was
very difficult to attract 20 persons to attend a seminar; now we have had 500 participants.
A similar number of people receive our publications.
It is difficult to influence decision makers. Progress in the battle for the ideas is one
step after another. Your gains are very small, and the frustrations are great when you try
to change collectivist ideas. One of our significant contributions was to participate in a
campaign to officially adopt the dollar of the United States as a substitute for our local
currency for over a century, the sucre. Ecuadorians had lost all confidence in the sucre.
The banking system was in crisis. The government had frozen all savings and deposits.
The sucre was devaluated 289 percent in the period between 1998 and 2000. A small
group of economists and IEEP proposed dollarization as a policy to stop the monetary
crisis. In a desperate decision, President Mahuad decreed dollarization in January 2000
to stop the political and economic debacle. IEEP asked Kurt Schuler, a well-known
economist and classmate of mine at GMU, to come to Ecuador to give a seminar on how
to implement dollarization in Ecuador and also to carry out a study to give the technical
support necessary for establishing the new monetary system. After three years of dollarization,
all the economic indicators are positive. The economy is growing at the highest
rate in Latin America.
Besides Kurt Schuler, another classmate from the GMU days, Dr. Lydia Ortega, has
done several studies about the cost of government for us and spent a period as a visiting
scholar at the IEEP.
Reflecting back after all that has transpired since my first class with Dr. Lavoie to my
present work at the institute, the fact that I became a liberal without any planning catalyzed
a series of unintended consequences that have been extremely beneficial to myself, my
family and my country.
Dora de Ampuero is executive director of the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economia Politica, Guayaquil,
Ecuador.