ECUADOR: Exile at Home

Before the eyes of diplomats, generals and other men of distinction gathered in Quito's ornate Sucre National Theater last week, Manhattan-born Galo Plaza Lasso took off his yellow, blue and red presidential sash. For the first time since 1924, a constitutionally elected President of Ecuador had served out his full four-year term and was passing the emblem of office to a constitutionally elected successor. The sash had fitted husky ex-Athlete (University of California) Plaza a lot better than it fitted bony Scholar (international law, political theory) Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, Ecuador's new chief executive.

There was sharp contrast, too, in the two men's speeches. Plaza spoke briefly, sat down smiling. Velasco soon wiped the genial smile off Plaza's face. In a rasping 14,000-word oration, he declared that he was taking over "a country in very bad shape," and directly or indirectly accused Plaza & Co. of corruption and incompetence. He called for price controls, public works, aid to agriculture, and virtually unlimited authority for himself.

Velasco's speech was enough to stir disquieting memories. His ill-timed, ungracious attack on Plaza's administration and his naked demand for special power sounded like the crotchety, irascible, impatient Velasco of old. In two earlier terms as President (1934-35, 1944-47), Velasco swung bewilderingly between left & right, flouted constitutions, railed unceasingly at "politicos with mouse minds" who "put banana peels in my way." He got the permanent nickname el loco (the loony), and finally made so many enemies that he was driven from office and packed into exile both times.

But distance seems to lend enchantment to Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. When he returned from exile again last March, vivas filled the air. In June's four-candidate presidential election, he won a clear plurality: 43% of the total vote.

Now some recent Velasquistas have already begun to wonder whether Velasco's third term will fall into the old, familiar, President-dictator-exile pattern. Apparently President Velasco himself has thought about it. "If by any chance I should be deposed again before I finish my third term," he said not long ago, "I am sure the people of Ecuador will elect me a fourth time."