Carlos Arroyo

Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río (27 November 1893 – 31 October 1969) was President of Ecuador from 1940 to 1944. He was a member of the Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party.

During his term, the country decisively lost the 1941 Ecuadorian–Peruvian War. Ecuador was forced to sign highly unfavorable peace terms at the 1942 Inter-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, renouncing 200,000 square kilometres of territory.

He engaged in repression against the political opposition. His use of dictatorial powers was supported by his supporters in parliament. A popular revolt led to his ousting.

Arroyo was President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1922 to 1923, and President of the Senate in 1935 and from February 1939 to August 1940. He won the 1940 Ecuadorian presidential election, where he benefitted from electoral fraud.