Rafael Espada

José Rafael Espada is a retired Guatemalan cardiothoracic surgeon and politician, born in Guatemala City on 14 January 1944. He took his doctorate at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and trained in general and thoracic surgery as a resident at Baylor College of Medicine, with further subspecialty training in France and at other institutions. In Houston, Texas, he worked at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center and as a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Baylor, was also board-certified in general surgery, and as a cardiac surgeon was best known for performing pulmonary thromboembolectomies. He travelled from Houston to Guatemala each month to treat underprivileged patients and raised money for a charity hospital there. After returning to Guatemala he took office as Vice President on 14 January 2008 under President Álvaro Colom, serving until 2012, and he ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2023 general election. His honours include honorary doctorates from the Universidad Francisco Marroquín.