On July 11, 1963 the chiefs of Ecuador's three armed services announced the ouster of President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy and the formation of a military junta, in what the US embassy and CIA both described as a near bloodless coup; the president and Vice President Reinaldo Varea were sent into exile. The junta's proclamation, issued at 3:30 pm, declared its objectives to be crushing communism, ending terrorism, and carrying out constitutional, social, and economic reforms. The immediate spark was a banquet the night before at the presidential palace honoring an American shipping executive, at which a visibly drunk Arosemena declared that the American government was exploiting Ecuador and Latin America; the deeper causes were military dissatisfaction with his perceived softness toward communists and Cuba and worry over the coming election.
The junta, chaired by navy commander Ramon Castro Jijon, was the first institutional intervention of Ecuador's military in politics since 1937; it outlawed the Communist Party, severed relations with Cuba, and ruled until it was itself forced out in 1966.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy, deposed on July 11, 1963 and exiled along with Vice President Reinaldo Varea; he was not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy (deposed president, exiled)
Ramon Castro Jijon (navy commander, junta chairman and head of state 1963 to 1966)
Luis Cabrera Sevilla (army commander, junta member)
Guillermo Freile Posso (air force commander, junta member)
Marcos Gandara Enriquez (colonel and armed forces senator, junta member)
Sources
The US embassy's emergency cable of July 11, 1963 reported that pressure building in the military for Arosemena's replacement culminated that day in the announcement by the chiefs of the three armed services of his ouster and the formation of a military junta, naming Castro Jijon, Cabrera Sevilla, Freile Posso, Gandara Enriquez, and subsecretary of defense Colonel Santiago Morochz, with a 3:30 pm proclamation stating the objectives of crushing communism, ending terrorism, and carrying out constitutional, structural, social, and economic reforms.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volumes X, XI, XII Microfiche Supplement, Document 107 (Telegram 17 from Quito)open source ↗
The same embassy cable recorded the triggering incident: at a banquet the night before honoring Admiral Wilfred McNeil of the Grace Lines, the president, most noticeably drunk, said in an impromptu speech that he liked the American public but that the American government was exploiting Ecuador and Latin America, shocking the official guests before he staggered from the table.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volumes X, XI, XII Microfiche Supplement, Document 107 (Telegram 17 from Quito)open source ↗
On July 11, 1963 the military staged a near bloodless coup that overthrew the government and exiled both President Arosemena and Vice President Varea, establishing a junta led by Ramon Castro Jijon that ruled until it was overthrown in 1966; motives included dissatisfaction with Arosemena's perceived over friendliness with communists, concern over the candidates in the upcoming election, and his criticism of US foreign policy.
The movement that overthrew Arosemena was the first institutional intrusion of the Ecuadorian military into politics since the coup of October 23, 1937; the junta announced that the armed forces had a responsibility to promote new socioeconomic structures, suppressed leftist critics, purged Arosemena supporters, and implemented agrarian and tax reforms that eventually alienated its supporters. A CIA history describes the coup as near bloodless and notes the junta moved to outlaw the Communist Party and sever ties with Cuba, with the agency playing a role in creating the conditions that encouraged the overthrow.
SOURCE REVIEWEDEncyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (via Encyclopedia.com), Castro Jijon, Ramon; and Grey Dynamics, CIA Activity in South Americaopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Composition discrepancy: the July 11 embassy cable names a five-man junta including Colonel Morochz, while the standard accounts describe the governing Military Junta of 1963 as the four members Castro Jijon, Gandara, Cabrera Sevilla, and Freile Posso; the record preserves both. Claims about the CIA's role in fostering coup conditions come from a secondary intelligence history and are recorded as such. Arc links: Arosemena had himself come to power when the military deposed Velasco Ibarra in November 1961, already enriched; the junta installed here fell in March 1966.
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 Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy, deposed on July 11, 1963 and exiled along with Vice President Reinaldo Varea; he was not physically harmed..
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
“U.S. Recognizes the Junta As Ecuador’s Government,” August 1, 1963
Chicago Tribune
“New Junta Outlaws Ecuador Red Party,” July 13, 1963
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 →