When he donned Ecuador's presidential sash in November 1961. Carlos Julio Arosemena's chances of wearing it long seemed woefully slim. Of his country's last 20 Presidents, only three served full terms. He himself was the playboy offspring of a rich Guayaquil banker, and rode into the vice-presidency in 1960 on the coattails of President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. He got the top job after Velasco Ibarra proved powerless to curb runaway inflation and left-led strikes, and was turned out by the military. Once in office, Arosemena baffled his countrymen by his politics,...
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