José Eloy Alfaro Delgado (25 June 1842 – 28 January 1912) often referred to as "The Old Warrior," was an Ecuadorian politician who served as the President of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911.

Alfaro's major political legacies are considered to be strengthened national unity, securing the integrity of Ecuador's borders, and the increased secularization of the country.

Alfaro led the modernization of Ecuadorian society through the introduction of new ideas, education, and systems of public transport and communication, including the engineering feat of the Transandino Railway linking Guayaquil with Quito.

His father was don Manuel Alfaro y González, a Spanish Republican native of Cervera del Río Alhama, La Rioja, Spain who arrived in Ecuador as a political exile; his mother was doña María Natividad Delgado López.

He almost lost his life in the disastrous naval battle of Alajuela when he tried to disembark in Ecuador with a troop of revolutionaries and was defeated by Conservative Government forces.

After initially supporting, but later coming to oppose, his successor, in 1906 he led another revolt, deposing elected President Lizardo García, being declared supreme dictator by the army and continuing in office until 12 August 1911.

What is considered to be his greatest public work during this period was the completion of the Ferrocarril Transandino (Trans-Andean Railroad) connecting Guayaquil to Quito.

After he left office, during the administration of Emilio Estrada Carmona, Alfaro was severely critical of the government and his followers soon began to organize a series of military insurrections.

On the initiative of President Rafael Correa (in office from 2007 – 2017), some of the ashes of Eloy Alfaro were exhumed and re-interred with honors in the city of Montecristi, seat of the 2008 National Constitutional Convention.