Background
José María Velasco Ibarra was born on 19 March 1893 in Quito, Ecuador.
government official politician president
José María Velasco Ibarra was born on 19 March 1893 in Quito, Ecuador.
He was educated in the country and received a law degree. This served him well during his various periods of exile, in which he served as a law professor in various Latin American countries.
Velasco Ibarra became chief executive for the first time as provisional president after a military coup in 1934. He remained in office for only a year; another military movement deposed him and drove him into exile in Colombia.
In 1944 Velasco Ibarra returned to Ecuador in the wake of a border conflict with Peru which had resulted in the loss of most of the Ecuadorian Amazonian region to its neighbor. Liberal President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Rio, who had presided over that disaster, was highly unpopular, and Velasco Ibarra soon became the head of a coalition of Conservatives, Socialists, Communists, and dissident Liberals which organized a successful coup in May 1944. Velasco Ibarra became provisional president once again.
A new constituent assembly elected Velasco Ibarra constitutional president. Although he had first governed with a cabinet with representatives of all the parties that had helped bring him to power, he soon dispensed with all parties except the Conservatives, and his regime became a dictatorship. He was overthrown again in August 1947 and once more went into exile, this time in Argentina.
At the end of the term of Galo Plaza Lasso as elected constitutional president in 1948. Velasco Ibarra was elected president for the first time. This time, too, he served out his full constitutional term, and in 1956 he turned over his post to an elected successor.
In 1960, Velasco Ibarra returned from self-exile in Argentina to run for the presidency once more and was victorious. However, in November 1961 he was overthrown by a military coup and returned to exile in Argentina.
When a popular insurrection put an end to a military regime in March 1966. Velasco Ibarra returned home, and although virtually all existing parties opposed him, he triumphed in the elections of 1968. Once again. President Velasco Ibarra declared a dictatorship in mid-1970, and although he subsequently modified his strong-arm policies, he was once more overthrown by the armed forces in February 1972. For the last time, he went into exile in Argentina.
Throughout his long career, José Mariá Velasco Ibarra had no clearly defined ideology. At one time or another, he allied himself with virtually every party and group in Ecuadorian politics. His various administrations were marked by bureaucratk/incompetence and corruption. However, his oratorical ability, personal charisma, and ability to portray himself as the champion of the humble Ecuadorian citizen allowed him to return from apparent defeat on (our separate occasions).