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LA RECONFORMA

_{| January–June 1969 | Quito, Quito Canton, Pichincha, Ecuador |}

Closing on a year into his fifth presidential tenure, José María Velasco Ibarra is a wealthily popular Quiteño Conservative statesman well-regarded throughout Latin America. Despite the great many reforms and infrastructural works provided throughout his first four presidencies, Velasco's current administration has yet to prove itself above populist idealism. Difficulties emerged early on in the term, with Velasco managing less than a plurality of one-third of the popular vote, with his fledgling Federacion Nacional Velasquista (FNV), falling short in both congressional houses. Velasco attempted to form a coalition with a handful of other minor political groups, though consensus in a working foundation for such was not reached.

Above politics, the fifth presidential term of José María Velasco Ibarra is widely contrasted with the previous administration which in minimal time-frame bore rapid widescale infrastructural, economic and civic development cornerstoned by the most recent March 1967 Texaco Petroleum deal brokered after oil struck at Lago Agrio Well #1 in the northeast Oriente during the two-year tenure of Otto Arosemena. The public embraced the deal, viewing it as a 'good luck' blessing in favor of the country having been restored to constitutional rule. Approaching nearly the same time in-office as Arosemena's short yet successful term, Velasco's presidency is considered unorganized and fragile, alleged with an astonishing 'revolving door' of cabinet ministers and frivolous mismanagement of public funds. In November 1968, met with substantial public outcry, Velasco decreed a new set of tax statutes which placed near total control over foreign commerce exchange in the hands of the state, worsened by a controversial statute raising import tarrifs to egregious proportion. The measures, rumored as a prod against the United States, did manage to win Velasco a particular level of infamy both potentially detrimental and beneficial.

Shortly after the tax decrees, in December 1968, the U.S. suspended all military aid and arms sales to Ecuador under the auspices of unpaid restitution to the captains of seized U.S. fishing vessels which contest and violate Ecuador's 200-mile maritime territorial limit, most notably in a 1963 incident, though this limit remains unrecognized by the rest of the world with the exception of Peru and Chile. Regardless of the officially published reasonings, the general public quickly casted blame upon Velasco, who is already viewed within a scope of unpopularity over his 'shock tactic' economic policies which only prove to meddle the livelihoods of everyday people. In June 1969, Velasco's vice-president, Jorge Zavala Baquerizo, a Guayaquileño Liberal, called for a motion of no confidence in the current administration. Though the action of the vice-president greatly aided in reducing Velasco's political assets, he still maintained one crucial ally, his nephew and Minister of Defense, General Jorge Acosta Velasco, who effectively rotated the military's high command to retain loyal officers in key positions and prevent uprisings. Since, the public have become increasingly aware the level of corruption and nepotism propping up the Velasquista government.

As executive inaction erodes the already turbulent relationship between the state and the masses, rumors of a presidential autogolpe made rounds across the country, striking fear that the constitution would yet again be defuncted. Coupled with the sudden major economic shift and a record of aggressive diplomacy with the United States, Velasco is detested by more than 3/4 of the military, isolating the overwhelming minority of loyalists. The only factor keeping the anti-Velasquista oppositionists within the military at bay was their Defense Minister, the President's nephew, linchpin and successor of the Velasquista political movement. Left with few options, Velasco's enemies plot in silence.

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