Spellbinder's Return

"Give me a balcony in each town ind I shall take possession of Ecuador," Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra once cried from exile. Last week, having harangued the country from balconies all over Ecuador, Velasco Ibarra was elected President to succeed U.S.-educated Galo Plaza Lasso.

Velasco's victory, against two major contenders, was a startling upset. With the Liberal-Radical Party split in two and President Plaza playing a meticulous hands-off role, all the odds favored the

Conservatives' Candidate Ruperto Alarcon Falconi.

But Ecuadorian voters showed the same distrust for the nation's two historic parties as they did four years ago when Galo Plaza swept into office as a coalition candidate. They put their faith in Velasco's spellbinding personal appeal; humble people flocked to him. Explained a market woman: "Taita [Papa] Velasco understands the poor because he is poor." Velasco owns little property, lives austerely. He describes his policy as "neo-liberalism," which he fancies as a kind of "third position" between the "extremes" of capitalism and Communism.*

A lanky, cantankerous law professor, Velasco Ibarra at 59 is the stormiest figure in Ecuadorian politics. In two terms as President (1934-35, 1944-47), he floundered left and right, created a crisis every week, turned against his backers, made himself dictator and got booted out by the army. He showed a sure sense for the common touch. Once, tearing his trousers climbing into the rickety presidential limousine, he rejected the idea of getting another car, saying: "We will mend the pants, repair the car, and build a school with the cost of a new car." He was wildly erratic: when a minor official complained about a cabinet minister, Velasco fired the minister on the spot and gave the job to the complainer. "Ecuador," Velasco concluded, "is a very difficult country to govern."

* A position that closely resembles Peronism. During the campaign the Argentine Ambassador in Quito, Cesar Salvador Mazzetti, so clearly showed his support of Velasco that Plaza declared the diplomat persona non grata for meddling in Ecuadorian politics, and packed him off to Buenos Aires.

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