President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, in his fourth term, was ousted by Ecuador's military in November 1961 after only fourteen months in office. New sales taxes imposed to raise desperately needed revenue sparked a general strike, demonstrations, and riots in several major cities. Amid the growing chaos Velasco ordered the arrest of his own vice president and leading opponent, Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy, a move that opened the president to charges of violating the constitution.
The armed forces then deposed Velasco and installed Arosemena, his constitutional successor, as president; Velasco went into exile. The dataset dates the event November 8 while several sources date Arosemena's accession to November 7. Arosemena's insistence on maintaining relations with Cuba soon became the dominant political issue, part of the military rebelled in March 1962, and the armed forces deposed Arosemena in turn on July 11, 1963.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, deposed by the military after fourteen months of his fourth term and sent into exile; he was not physically harmed and later won the presidency a fifth time in 1968.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra (deposed president)
Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy (vice president installed as constitutional successor)
Sources
A series of new sales taxes sparked a general strike and riots in several major cities; amid growing chaos Velasco ordered the arrest of his vice president, opening himself to charges of violating the constitution, and on November 8, after only fourteen months in office, Velasco was ousted by the military and replaced by Vice President Arosemena, his constitutional successor and leading opponent.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, History of Ecuador (1960-1979), drawing on the Library of Congress country studyopen source ↗
Velasco Ibarra, elected president for the fourth time in 1960, was ousted in a military coup dated November 7, 1961; across his five presidencies he completed a full term only once, being removed by military force in the other four.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Jose Maria Velasco Ibarraopen source ↗
By 1961, with the currency in a slump and consumers heavily taxed, the air force revolted and sent Velasco into exile, ending Ecuador's unprecedented streak of elected governments; Vice President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy assumed the presidency on 7 November 1961.
After President Velasco Ibarra declined to break relations with Cuba, the CIA began efforts against him; in November 1961 Velasco was overthrown in a military coup and replaced by his vice president Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy, against whom the same destabilizing tactics were later adopted before his own overthrow on July 11, 1963.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, United States involvement in regime change in Latin Americaopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Date discrepancy: the dataset uses 1961-11-08 (matching the country study account of the ouster) while other sources date Arosemena's accession to November 7; the transition spanned those two days. Arc link: Arosemena, installed here, was himself deposed on July 11, 1963, an event later in this dataset.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, deposed by the military after fourteen months of his fourth term and sent into exile; he was not physically harmed and later won the presidency a fifth time in 1968..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →