Gustavo Pareja

Gustavo Pareja Cisneros (born 10 January 1947) is an Ecuadorian politician. He was the Mayor of Otavalo upon defeating the incumbent Mario Conejo in the 2014 mayoral election. He won the election with 10% more votes than Conejo. Previously, he served as the 8th Provincial Prefect of Imbabura Province from 1997 through 2009.

During his tenure as mayor, Pareja Cisneros stressed the urbanization and modernization of Otavalo such as the establishment of national parks, commercializing the region and expanding transportation across the city.

Cisneros was elected to a minor political post in the Imbabura Province during the 1994 sectional elections as a member of the Democratic Left.

Surprisingly, in the 2004 elections, he was re-elected as Provincial Prefect as a member of the Institutional Renewal Party of National Action under the influence of Álvaro Noboa.

Cisneros was not a candidate in the 2009 elections for Provincial Prefect. Instead, he focused on his candidacy for Mayor of Otavalo. He refused to rule out a second bid, so in the 2014 sectional elections, he announced his candidacy for Mayor of Otavalo once again. Pareja Cisneros ended up defeating the incumbent Conejo by a margin on 10% of the vote. He was sworn-in as Mayor on 16 May 2014.

During his tenure as mayor, Cisneros sought to urbanize Otavalo and to expand the cities commercial centers. In a 2018 interview, Cisneros confirmed plans to expand the cities stadiums under the projected cost of US$1,400,000 and viewed the expansion as "nearly impossible, but doable". When Vice President of Ecuador Lenín Moreno won the election, Cisneros worked with the President-elect to bring "dialogue of peace to the nation" while stressing the importance of urbanizing the nation such as the inclusion of national parks.

Pareja Cisneros opted from running for re-election and left office in May 2019.