Yearbook 1996
Ecuador. In January, President Sixto Durán Ballén declared the country in a state of mobilization and summoned troops to secure law and order in the face of the threat of actions by electricians against the privatization of parts of the state electricity industry. A transport workers’ strike in the capital Quito in March spread to other sectors before it was relieved, after the government agreed to compensate workers for wages lost when buses were taken out of service for service.
Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz of the Ecuadorian Roldosista Party (Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano, PRE) was elected president with 54.5% of the vote in the crucial second round in July. Bucaram was a former Olympic hurdler. He has distinguished himself for spectacular and unconventional performances and proudly bears the nickname “Madman”. At the same time, Ecuador got its first female vice president, Rosalia Arteaga. In the elections to the country’s House of Representatives, the right-wing Socialist Christian Party (Partido Social Cristiano, PSC) conquered 27 seats, PRE 19 and the center-left Party Democracy (Democracia Popular, DP) 12. The formerly dominant Socialist Democratic Left (Izquierda Democrática, ID) received only four mandates.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG: What does EC stand for? In the field of geography, this two letter acronym means Ecuador. Check this to see its other meanings in English and other 35 languages.
1809 Independence
With the restructuring under the leadership of the Bourbons in 1717, Ecuador became part of the Viceroy of Nueva Granada, consisting of the present Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. In 1809, Quito rebelled against the Spanish crown. In 1822, the rebels gained support when Simón Bolívar’s and Antonio José de Sucre’s armies invaded the country from Colombia. On May 24 of that year, Sucre defeated the Spaniards in a battle at Pichincha near Quito, thus securing Ecuador’s final detachment from Spain and allowing it to be included in Bolívar’s project for a Greater Colombia. However, the community became short-lived. In 1830, Ecuador withdrew from Greater Colombia and proclaimed itself the Republic of Ecuador.
A liberal revolution in 1895 led by Eloy Alfaro aroused hope among the peasants for a solution to the country’s land problems. The church property was taken over by the state, but the estates were not touched. Alfaro was assassinated in 1912 and the country was subject to British economic influence.
A military coup led by younger officers in 1925 ushered in a new reform period, but the regime did not survive the world crisis of 1930. A new unstable period began, with the president being replaced 23 times in the period 1925-48.
After a short-lived war with Peru in 1941, Ecuador had to abandon its territorial requirements in an extensive area of the Amazon. In 1942, the two countries signed a peace agreement in Rio de Janeiro with Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States as guarantors. The agreement establishes the border between the two countries, but a large part of it is unmarked and is in difficult to reach areas.
In 1944, a public revolt brought down President Carlos Arroyo. He was replaced by a populist government led by José María Velazco Ibarra made up of conservatives, communists and socialists. The collaboration was named Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance), but the Cold War made the alliance impossible and the left began to be persecuted. Following pressure from the United States, the government under the leadership of Carlos Arosemena in 1962 broke off relations with Cuba.
In the early 1970’s, banana, coffee and cocoa exports accounted for 80% of the country’s foreign exchange income. In 72, the country began to export oil, and this quickly became the cornerstone of the Ecuadorian economy. The same year, the political situation changed again. For the fourth time, populist leader Velasco Ibarra was removed by a military coup. The new government led by General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara reported the land to OPEC, the state took over 25% of the shares in the Texaco-Gulf oil company and decided stubbornly to defend its 200-mile fishing zone, which would otherwise be attacked by North American fishing boats. This triggered the so-called “tuna war”.
Population 1996
According to Countryaah.com, the population of Ecuador in 1996 was 11,455,093, ranking number 63 in the world. The population growth rate was 2.290% yearly, and the population density was 46.1234 people per km2.
