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Presidential Succession in Ecuador, 1830-1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Georg Maier
Georg Maier*
Affiliation:
Department of Government and Public Affairs, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois
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Extract

An article by Professors Richard B. Gray and Frederick R. Kirwin entitled “Presidential Succession in Chile: 1817-1966” and subsequent correspondence with one of the coauthors encouraged me to write a similar study on Ecuador. In researching the available material on the subject I can well appreciate the reasons for the great lack of comparative data on the Latin American presidency and the need for additional studies on this subject.

Of the few sources available on Ecuador's presidents no two provide exactly the same information. This pertains to biographical data as well as to time served in the executive office. There is even disagreement as to who served at a given time. Some of these discrepancies are the result of the turbulent events of the first three decades of Ecuador's republican history during which the country attempted to make strides toward the establishment of a national identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 13 , Issue 3-4 , October 1971 , pp. 475 - 509
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1971

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References

1 Gray, Richard B. and Kirwin, Frederick R., “Presidential Succession in Chile: 1817-1966,” Journal of Inter-American Studies 11 (1969): 144-59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 See Blanksten, George I., Ecuador Constitutions and Caudillos (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), p. 10 Google Scholar; or Yépez, Manuel A., Capítulos-Apuntes Varios: 1830-1942 (Quito: Talleres Gráficos Nacionales, 1945), p. 403.Google Scholar

3 Trabucco, Federico E., Síntesis Histórica de la República del Ecuador (Quito: Editorial Santo Domingo, 1968), pp. 13, 690.Google Scholar

4 Gray, “Presidential Succession,” p. 145.

5 The four-man military junta that ruled the country between 1963 and 1966 may serve as an example. Ramón Castro Jijón was considered the titular head and Marcos Gándara Enríquez the most influential and powerful. Publicly, however, great stress was placed by the four men on their desire to be considered of an equal status.

6 B\ariksten, Ecuador Constitutions, pp. 21,23,28, 60, 161.

7 Peterson, Phyllis, “Brazil, Revolution or Reaction,” in Needier, Martin C., Political Systems of Latin America, 2nd ed. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1970), p. 525.Google Scholar

8 Maier, Georg, The Ecuadorian Presidential Election of June 2, 1968: An Analysis (Washington: Institute for the Comparative Study of Political Systems 1969), p. 6.Google Scholar

9 Troncoso, Julio C., Odio y Sangre (Quito: Editorial “Fray Jodoco Ricke,” 1959), pp. 98–99.Google Scholar

10 Maier, The Ecuadorian Presidential Election, p. 63.

11 Edelman, Alexander T., Latin American Government and Politics, rev. ed. (Homewood, II.: The Dorsey Press, 1969), p. 387.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., p. 388.

13 The dates of Ecuador's constitutions are: 1830,1835, 1843,1845, 1851,1852, 1861, 1869, 1878, 1884, 1897, 1906, 1929, 1945, 1946, and 1967.

14 Edelman, Latin American Government, pp. 385-87.

15 Maier, The Ecuadorian Presidential Election, p. 60.

16 Yépez, Capítulos-Apuntes Varios, p. 343.

17 Troncoso, Odio y Sangre, pp. 89-91.

18 Gray, Presidential Succession in Chile, p. 149.

19 “Se salvó la Constitución? Fue constitucional el nuevo Mandatario? O es que los hechos son superiores a las constituciones, en cuyo caso se podrá deducir la deficiencia del ya envejecido derecho constitucional?” See Alfonso Rumazo González, Gobernantes del Ecuador (Quito: Editorial Bolívar, 1932), p. 240.Google Scholar

20 The year 1901 is used because Eloy Alfaro terminated his term of office, which had begun in 1895, in that year.

21 Troncoso, Odio y Sangre, pp. 39-40.

22 Idem.

23 Diezcanseco, Alfredo Pareja, “Teoría y Práctica del Conductor Conducido,” Combate 4 no. 20 (1962): 9–23.Google Scholar

24 In the 1939 presidential election campaign, the liberal candidate, Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Rio affirmed that the hour of “political orgy” was over in Ecuador. See Maier, The Ecuadorian Presidential Election, p. 25.