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 QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Alfredo Palacio, Ecuador's vice president who assumed the presidency, is a heart surgeon fond of medical metaphors that he frequently used to describe ousted leader Lucio Gutierrez as a disease afflicting the nation.
Palacio, 66, became Ecuador's 11th president since the country's return to democracy in 1979. He first entered public office when he served as health minister during the 1992-1996 government of President Sixto Duran Ballen.
He avoided politics after that, until Gutierrez asked him to be his running-mate in the 2002 presidential campaign.
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