ECUADOR: Violence in Three Stages

ECUADOR Violence in Three Stages

The hatred of a young army recruit for his martinet captain in the dusty Pacific town garrison of Portoviejo caused the rioting that put Ecuador under martial law and killed at least 37 people.

Reprimanded by his commanding officer, Draftee José García Macías, 20, shot at him four times. When the officer Captain Galo Quevedo dropped to the ground, García concluded he had killed the captain and committed suicide. The officer arose unharmed. But next day when Quevedo went to García’s funeral, the mourners turned into a mob chased him to the officers’ club, besieged him with guns handed them by draftees. After an eight-hour battle, Quevedo staggered out, clothes aflame. He was shot down and his body was dragged through the streets. Six died that day, including two high-school students.

Three days later, Guayaquil high-school and university students went out on strike in solidarity with the Portoviejo victims, only to run into tough cops who thwacked them with sabers, then used guns. They fought the police for five bloody hours, until the army moved in, fired the police chief, sent the cops back to barracks. Toll: six more killed.

Unleashed, the chain reaction of violence had one more stage to go. Next day. Guayaquil’s slum dwellers, bitter over their poverty amidst Ecuador’s growing prosperity (TIME. Feb. 23). came out looting, burning, battling soldiers for another night before martial law and exhaustion put an end to the outbreak that resentful Draftee García unwittingly touched off.