Enrique Eduardo Daníes Rincones, who began his civil engineering career in Cleveland and left a legacy of civic infrastructure that significantly enhanced the growth of his native Colombia, has died. The past vice president of ASCE’s Colombian chapter was 95.
Daníes Rincones, P.E., M.ASCE, began in Cleveland, where he earned his professional engineering license while working for the international construction and engineering firm McDowell/Wellman. He earned degrees in civil and mechanical engineering from Fenn College (now Cleveland State) and Louisiana State University.
The International Basic Economy Corporation, a U.S. company focused on building the economies of developing countries as well as establishing competitive businesses through nationals, hired Rincones to return to Colombia. He served as general manager of an IBEC subsidiary, Metalibec, a metalworking company he eventually acquired. Under his leadership, Metalibec grew and established offices in the three largest cities of Colombia.
In Colombia, Daníes Rincones is also remembered for a legacy of public service, political and business achievements. At points during his career he was Colombian minister of communications, governor of the department of La Guajira, where he was born, and the first president of the state-owned company Carbones de Colombia (Carbocol), which under his leadership Colombia accelerated its coal development with the first shipment from the Cerrejón Zona Central mine.
Appointed department of La Guajira governor in 1985, he developed programs to refinance debt and create investments, enabling the advancement and completion of regional water and sewer projects. Daníes Rincones also established plans for the development of fishing, agriculture, and tourism in collaboration with the then-just-established Wayuu indigenous peoples’ reservation. In the capital of Riohacha, he promoted urban renewal plans for buildings, roads, and port facilities.
Daníes Rincones helped modernize Colombia’s telecommunications sector, including a project that connected 69 communities with telephone service for the first time.
His education included postgraduate courses at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Paris.
