A Brief History
On February 15, 1972, in what is surely one of the most frustrating political events in history, the President of Ecuador, José María Velasco Ibarra, was ousted by a military coup, incredibly, the fourth time such a coup took place out of the five times Ibarra was president!
Digging Deeper
A lawyer born in 1893, Ibarra became involved in politics in the 1930s, eventually rising to the presidency of Ecuador in 1934, a post he regained in 1944, 1952, 1960, and 1968. His unceremonious oustings occurred in 1935, 1947, 1961, and 1972. In 1956, Ibarra left power not due to military pressure, but because his term had expired.
A populist without a political party, Ibarra was booted in 1972 without violence, and lived until 1979, shortly after his wife died from falling out of a bus in Buenos Aires! His presidencies were marked by considerable infrastructure improvement, including airports, highways, hospitals, bridges, canals, and schools, and he earned the gratitude of workers by enacting a law that required workers to get days off each week.
Note: In the Spanish fashion, this Ecuadorian president may be referred to as Velasco.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Who is your favorite president?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Ayala Mora, Enrique. José María Velasco Ibarra. Una antología de sus textos. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2000.
Insight Guides. Insight Guides Ecuador & Galápagos: Travel Guide with eBook. Insight Guides, 2024.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile of Salvador Allende and José María Velasco Ibarra, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Chile license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
