ECUADOR: Abused Power

The Provisional President of Ecuador, stern-lipped Federico Páez suddenly announced his resignation last week, prepared to leave for the U. S. Since 1935 a tight little military group has ruled Ecuador. In September of that year they booted out Dr. Antonio Pons and replaced him with Páez as dictator. Last week, without leaving the saddle, the army coterie boosted into the Provisional Presidency War Minister Alberto Enríquez, who modestly admitted “the duties are too heavy for my shoulders.” Showing no signs of this weakness, he dissolved the National Assembly, announced that he had assumed “supreme power . . . in the name of the National Army.” At week’s end he inaugurated a “national political purge” to punish those who have “abused power.” This led observers to think that the military junta had sacrificed ousted President Páez as a scapegoat to divert attention from Ecuador’s internal unrest.