Junior Officers Revolt1 In Ecuador

Northern Advocate, 2 September 1947, Page 5

Junior Officers Revolt 1 In Ecuador

(1 p.m.) QUITO (Ecuador), Sept. 1. Junior army officers today seized control of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city and chief seaport, in a spreading counter-revolt against Colonel Carlos Mancheno, the new dictatorPresident, who himself took power from the constitutional Government nine days ago. . The garrison at Tulcan seized that city, also the army air base near the Colombian frontier, and sent planes to drop leaflets over Quito, the capital, rejecting Mancheno’s Government. The situation was confused throughout the provinces as the counter-revolt spread. , , . , In the first hours the rebels seized Rio Bamba, Ecuador’s fourth city, and the towns of Ambato and Guaranda. BOTH CLAIM VICTORY Both the Government and the rebels claimed victory in the first real clash at Ambato, which is on the QuitoGuayaquil railway, 60 miles south of the capital. Mancheno’s forces' claimed that they contacted the rebels at Yambo. near Ambato, defeated them in skirmishes, and then entered Ambato. The rebels, however, said they won, which would mean that they have possession of the main north-south railway at a key point midway between Quito and Guayaquil. A communique issued by junior officers who took control in Guayaquil said they would support President Jose Maria Valasco Ibarra.' whom Mancheno exiled on August 23. Senior officers were disarmed. The revolt is Conservative inspired^. The Government is seeking to arrest the Conservative leader (Dr Mariano Suarez Veintimilia), who served as Vice-President and President of the Congress during the regime of President Ibarra.