Ecuador

Architectural remains of ancient civilizations dating back thousands of years, and probably related to the Maya civilization of Central America, have been discovered in Ecuador. Neither these civilizations nor the later Inca civilization left written records of their cultures. Inca civilization was centered in and around Cuzco and the Lake Titicaca area in Peru. The Inca dominated the Native American tribes of Ecuador and provided the major military obstacles to the early Spanish invaders. Spanish Rule The Spanish first landed on the coast of what is now Ecuador in 1526, led by Bartolomé Ruiz. Spanish conquistadores under Francisco Pizarro invaded the country in 1532 and two years later were in control of the area. Pizarro, acting in the name of the Spanish crown, appointed his brother Gonzalo governor of Quito on December 1, 1540. A short time later Francisco Pizarro was assassinated, and Gonzalo Pizarro led a rebellion against Spain. His independent rule lasted until April 9, 1548, when forces of the Crown defeated his army at Jaquijaguana and he was executed. Colonial Ecuador was at first a territory directly under the rule of the viceroyalty of Peru, one of the two major administrative divisions of 16th-century Spanish America. In 1563 Quito, as Ecuador was then called, became a presidency, or a judicial district of the viceroyalty. From 1717 to 1723 the Quito presidency was under the authority of the viceroyalty of New Granada in Bogotá, but it was then returned to the authority of the viceroy of Peru until 1739, when it reverted to New Granada. The first revolt of the colonists against Spain took place in 1809, but the republican forces, led by General Antonio José de Sucre, chief lieutenant of Simón Bolívar, did not win final victory until 1822. Ecuador became the Department of the South, part of the confederacy known as the Republic of Colombia, or Great Colombia, which also included Venezuela, Panama, and Colombia. Independence In 1830 Ecuador gained independence under its present name. The first president, General Juan José Flores, was a hero of the wars for independence, and represented the archconservatives in the city of Quito. In 1833 a civil war broke out between the conservatives of Quito and the liberal elements of Guayaquil. It was the first of a long series of revolutions between the two factions, which resulted in the subsequent rise of three outstanding dictators in Ecuadorian history: Flores; Gabriel García Moreno, former leader of the Conservative Party; and the revolutionist and political leader Eloy Alfaro. During the second period of rule by President Alfaro (1907-1911), a new, more liberal constitution was introduced. Ecuador followed the United States into World War II (1939-1945) against the Axis powers. At home, the end of the war coincided with a waning of liberal influence. In 1944 the liberal president Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río, formerly president of the Chamber of Deputies, was forced from office and replaced by former President José María Velasco Ibarra, who had held office in 1934 and 1935 and who was supported by the conservative faction. In 1945 Ecuador became a charter member of the United Nations. A new constitution, promulgated on December 31, 1945, remained in force until 1967. In 1947 Velasco was deposed by a military group that was almost immediately ousted by counterrevolutionaries; the latter installed Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola as provisional president. Galo Plaza Lasso, a former ambassador to the United States, was elected president in June 1948. In early 1948 Ecuador attended the ninth Inter-American Conference in Bogotá, Colombia, and became a signatory of the charter of the Organization of American States. A long-standing border dispute with Peru, which had been revived in 1941, cropped up again in 1950. Both times the issue was submitted to arbitration. Most of the disputed area had been awarded to Peru in 1944, and no boundaries were changed following the 1950 incident. (In 1960, reviving the dispute, Ecuador unilaterally nullified the 1944 settlement.) Political Instability In 1952 Velasco, this time the candidate of a coalition of left- and right-wing groups, was chosen president for the third time, holding office until 1956. In the presidential elections that year, the conservative candidate Camilo Ponce Enríquez won a close victory over a liberal candidate. Velasco ran as an independent candidate in the elections of 1960. Sharply critical of the conservative economic policies of the Ponce government, he promised widespread reforms and was elected by a wide margin in June. Lacking any well-defined program, however, he did not last long; he was forced to resign in November 1961. Shortly before, he had signed the charter of the Alliance for Progress, a document providing for extensive U.S. aid to signatories over a 10-year period. Velasco's successor, Vice President Carlos Arosemena Monroy, did not enjoy a long tenure either. He was overthrown in July 1963 by a military junta, which implemented economic and social reforms in a series of decrees, including one for agrarian reform. In 1964 the junta submitted a 10-year national development plan to the Alliance for Progress commission, thus opening the way for negotiation of loans to finance development projects. It soon, however, faced mounting demands for a return to constitutional government, and after two weeks of rioting in July 1965 it installed a cabinet more acceptable to the opposition, but political unrest continued. In March 1966 violent antigovernment demonstrations that provoked harsh retaliation triggered a countrywide upheaval. The junta was then forced out. An interim government held power until November of that year, when a newly elected constituent assembly chose Otto Arosemena Gómez to head the state. His government survived a difficult initial period of widespread opposition, and in May 1967 a new constitution was promulgated. In the first elections under the new charter, in June 1968, Velasco was once more the winner. His fifth administration, however, was no more successful than the previous ones. He assumed dictatorial powers in 1970 in order to counter dwindling support, but in February 1972 he was once again overthrown by the military. The leader of the coup, General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara, chief of the army, then assumed the presidency. A New Prosperity Among the first acts of the new regime was establishment of a five-year economic plan, stressing agriculture, housing, and industry. In August 1972 the first exports of petroleum were made from new fields developed and operated by U.S. companies. This made Ecuador, at the time, the second largest exporter of petroleum in Latin America, after Venezuela. Oil revenues provided Ecuador with badly needed foreign exchange and investment funds but also spurred inflation and increased the gap between rich and poor. President Rodríguez was replaced by Admiral Alfredo Poveda Burbano in 1976; he ruled at the head of a three-man junta. In the following years inflationary pressures were somewhat alleviated. A referendum on a new constitution and subsequent presidential elections were held in 1978, and a runoff between the two top presidential candidates followed in April 1979. Later that year Jaime Roldós Aguilera was installed as president, and the new constitution took effect. An outbreak of border fighting with Peru was ended by international arbitration in March 1981. Two months later Roldós was killed in a plane crash; his brother León Roldós Aguilera then was named vice president, as former vice president Osvaldo Hurtado Larrea succeeded to the presidency. In May 1984 a conservative businessman, León Febres Cordero Rivadeneira, won the presidency in a runoff election against a left-wing opponent. The Febres Cordero government had to put down repeated military rebellions, including a January 1987 uprising in which the president was seized and beaten. Rodrigo Borja Cevallos of the Democratic Left became president after winning a runoff election in May 1988. Succeeding him as president in August 1992 was Sixto Durán Bellén, who was born and educated in the United States. Durán's government instituted privatization measures, resulting in the breakup of Petroecuador, the state-owned oil company. Other measures included land-reform efforts requiring that unused land be sold rather than given to poor farmers, a policy that provoked massive protests. In 1994 congressional elections resulted in increased opposition to Durán's conservative policies, but in a plebiscite held the same year, voters approved most of Durán's proposed constitutional reforms. In 1995, however, voters rejected a number of proposed reforms, including privatization of the country's health and social security systems and a restructuring of the presidential, congressional, and judicial powers. Loyalty to Durán's government had waned earlier that year following a scandal in which Ecuador's Supreme Court gathered enough evidence to arrest the country's then-Vice President Alberto Dahik Garzoni on charges of embezzlement. Dahik resigned his post and fled to Costa Rica to seek political asylum. The Chamber of Representatives elected former Education Minister Eduardo Peña to the vacant seat. Also in early 1995 Ecuador became involved in skirmishes with Peru in the border region claimed by both countries. Fighting lasted for almost two months until a cease-fire was signed. Tension remained, however, and increased in January 1996 when Ecuador purchased new fighter planes from Israel. In March 1996 power workers threatened to suspend maintenance of the country's power facilities after Durán vetoed a measure to privatize the power industry. In July voters elected Abdalá Bucaram, a populist, as president. Bucaram, who received much of his support from the poorer members of society, campaigned against corruption and opposed the tight fiscal policies that were being implemented in many Latin American countries. However, after the elections, Bucaram retreated from his populist campaign position and introduced austere measures designed to curb Ecuador's rampant inflation. This cost him much of his support among the poor, a problem that was compounded by charges that he had engaged in nepotism and corruption. Within six months Bucaram's administration was widely unpopular. Up to two million citizens took part in a general strike in February 1997, with more than ten thousand surrounding the Congress building and calling for impeachment proceedings. On February 6 the Congress voted to remove Bucaram for "mental incapacity." Congress voted to replace Bucaram with Fabián Alarcón, president of the Congress, but Alarcón's succession to the presidency was challenged by Bucaram and by Vice President Rosalía Arteaga Serrano, who claimed the right, as vice president, to succeed Bucaram. A compromise allowed Arteaga to serve briefly as interim president, but she stepped aside following a second vote by Congress on February 11, in which it became apparent that Alarcón had enough support to assume the presidency by amending the constitution. During the early months of his term, Alarcón seemed unable to establish definite policies for dealing with public corruption and a failing economy.