José MarÃa Velasco Ibarra
José María Velasco Ibarra ( born March 19, 1893 in Quito, † March 30, 1979 ibid ) was a five-time President of Ecuador. He is considered the dominant politicians of the country in the 20th century.
Velasco Ibarra made in Quito his secondary education, completed a study in Europe and elsewhere at the Sorbonne, and then launched his political career in the Ecuadorian government.
For 12 years he wrote under the pseudonym " Labriolle " a column in the largest daily newspaper in Quito, El Comercio. He turned against the corrupt politics of his home country and denounced electoral fraud. As a member of the Liberal he was first elected in 1930 to Congress, where he demonstrated political backbone: In 1932, he refused to support the dismissal of the conservative choice winner Neptalí Boniface, 1934, he drove his liberal comrades Juan de Dios Martínez Mera, the accused was that they had obtained the Presidency by election fraud, from office.
Velasco Ibarra won in 1934, supported by the Liberals and the Conservatives, the election and tried to reform the oligarchic structures. Because of the resistance of the Congress, he tried to rule dictatorially, but was overthrown after eleven months and had to go into exile.
1940 Velasco Ibarra stepped up to the elections, but lost due to fraud and went into exile again. While Ecuador suffered territorial losses after a Peruvian invasion, the people recalled the politician who was generally called " the great absentee ". On 28 May 1944, a popular uprising led to the overthrow of President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río, three days later the returned Ibarro Velasco was appointed president. His second reign was ended by a coup d'etat of Defense Carlos Mancheno Cajas.
As a 1952 political stability had returned, Velasco Ibarra won the elections again, this time against liberal and conservative candidates. His third term in office he fulfilled fully, the Constitution prohibited the immediate reelection and he had the power to give the Conservatives in 1956 Camilo Ponce Enríquez, who did everything to prevent a re-election, which was possible again in 1960.
Nevertheless Velasco Ibarra won the elections with a landslide victory true. At the beginning of his fourth term, he had the support of the left, but he lost because he was friendly to Castro's Cuba unyielding. The existing parties (Liberals and Conservatives) used these tensions, on 7 December 1961 was a coup in consequence of a military junta took power.
1968, after several interim governments, Velasco Ibarra won the elections again. However, as noted in his first term, dominated by his political opponents Congress blocked needed reforms. 1970, therefore, he took over at the urging of the Army all powers, dissolved the Congress and ruled authoritarian. After a failed coup attempt Velasco Ibarra became more and more a tool of the military, in 1972, finally brought him down.
His last years were spent Velasco Ibarra in exile in Argentina, before, already seriously ill, to the funeral of his wife returned in the spring of 1979 to Quito, where he age of 86 died on 30 March 1979.
Assessment
Velasco Ibarra's electoral successes were based on his understanding of the needs of the people and the country. Under his last term of office, oil production in Ecuador, with the cocoa crisis could be overcome began. Its economic and social reforms led undoubtedly to an improvement of the social structure of the country and its partisan appearance made it possible to weaken the old oligarchies. Ultimately, his failure is due to diplomatic weaknesses in dealing with the political camps in Ecuador.