Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garcés (b. 19 March 1953, in Nuevo Rocafuerte in the province of Orellana) is the vice president of Ecuador. He was inaugurated alongside President Rafael Correa, in 2007. His election was notable because as a paraplegic, Moreno is one of the world’s few disabled national leaders. This paralysis gave him unique insight into the needs and concerns of disabled people, especially those in Ecuador and other developing countries. Once in office, Moreno initiated important changes that improved the lives of disabled people throughout the country, and increasingly, in other countries too. For his work providing respect and dignity to handicapped people he has been nominated for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

Moreno was born into a middle class family in Nuevo Rocafuerte, a small town in the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Peruvian border. His father, Servio Tulio Moreno, was a professor who believed in public service and caring for those who were less fortunate. He worked hard to promote bilingual education and integration of schools in Nuevo Rocafuerte, so that Indiginous children and mestizo children would learn together, and understand something of each other’s cultures. Lenin Moreno was greatly influenced by his father’s example.

Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (6 April 1963) is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007. In December 2008, he declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it was odious debt contracted by corrupt and despotic prior regimes. He then pledged to fight creditors in international courts, and succeeded in reducing the price of the debt letters and continued paying all the debt. He brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009. To date, Correa’s administration has succeeded in reducing the high levels of poverty, indigence, and unemployment in Ecuador.

Correa's first term in office had been due to end on 15 January 2011, but the new approved constitution written by the new National Assembly mandated general elections for 26 April 2009. In that election, Rafael Correa won in the first round with 51.9% of votes counted. It was the first time since 1979 in which a representative was elected without having to face a second round. Consequently, Correa began a new term in office due to end on 10 August 2013, which could be extended by reelection until 2017.