Velasco Ibarra, José María

born March 19, 1893, Quito, Ecuador

died March 30, 1979, Quito

lawyer, major political figure in Ecuador from the 1930s to the '70s, and five times president of Ecuador.

Velasco Ibarra was born into a wealthy family and educated in Quito and Paris. He held various public posts before being elected president as the Conservative Party's candidate in 1933, assuming office in 1934. His economic-development plans, which included the proposed division of large landed estates, failed to win the support of Congress, and he responded by assuming dictatorial powers, imprisoning opposition leaders, and censoring the press. He was deposed in 1935 by army leaders after 11 months in office and went into exile in Colombia until 1944, when he returned to Ecuador at the head of a multiparty coalition to take over the presidency from Carlos Arroyo, who resigned under popular pressure. Economic difficulties and repressive policies caused his liberal supporters to desert him, and again he was forced into exile in 1947. This time he went to Argentina.

He returned to Ecuador and was elected president in 1952 and served his only full four-year term. During this term he reorganized the diplomatic corps and supported price controls, public works, and aid to agriculture and industry. Elected for a fourth time, in 1960, he promised land reform and higher wages. He was deposed again in 1961, reelected to his last term in 1968, and proclaimed a military-backed dictatorship two years later, but he was deposed by the military in 1972 before his term expired. He spent most of the remainder of his life in exile in Argentina, returning a month before he died.

Velasco Ibarra wrote several books on statecraft and in 1952 described himself as a neoliberal representing a “third position between capitalism and communism.”