A copper-cheeked sentry fired one shot into the night air. Then the guard stood aside, and a delegation of army officers strode into Quito's gloomy presidential palace. Inside, brusque Colonel Carlos Mancheno, Minister of Defense, told President José Mariá Velasco Ibarra that the army had finally turned against him.
For once in his voluble life, the ex-law professor, whom Ecuadorians - call "El Loco," said nothing. He resigned his powers to Colonel Mancheno and flew off in an army trimotored Junkers to Colombia and exile. It was a time for Velasco to say: "This...
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