REBELS DRIVEN OUT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 167, 11 April 1932, Page 8

REBELS DRIVEN OUT

Naval Mutiny in Ecuador

(Rec. April 10, 5.5 p.m.)

Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 9,

Government troops recaptured the fort at Punta Piedra on Saturday, driving out the rebels. Ildefonzo Mendoza, leader of the rebellion, is reported to have fled.

An earlier message from Guayaquil, via New York, stated that the Federal troops sent up on Thursday to Fort Punta Piedra, still in the hands of the rebels, were withdrawn <sh Friday and it appeared that the army was getting ready to blast the mutineers out with aeroplane bombs. General Leonidas Plaza Gutierrez, former President, whose reappearance in Ecuador was believed to have caused the rebellion, was on his way to Quito by rail on Friday. Meantime, the authorities ordered the port to be closed to all marine traffic in an effort to starve out. the mutinous navy, which seized Ecuador’s two gunboats on Thursday. This was to prevent a repetition of a raid when one of the warships darted out and captured the British tanker Buaro. The tanker reached the port, of Salinas on Friday. The captain explained that, the rebels stated that all they wanted was to have him tow the gunboat Cotopaxi .a short, distance, .as the gunboat’s engines were not functioning.