John Perkins - The New York Times - La Muerta de Jaime Roldos 2013 -
Ecuador for many many years had been ruled by pro-US dictators. Often relatively brutal. Then it was decided that they were going to have a truly democratic election. Jaime Roldos ran for office and his main goal, he said, as President would be to make sure that Ecuador’s resources were used to help the people. And he won. Overwhelming. By more votes than anyone had won anything else in Ecuador. And he began to implement these policies to make sure that the profits from oil went to help the people. Well, we didn’t like that in the United States. I was sent down as one of several economic hit-men to change Roldos. To corrupt him. To bring him around. To let him know, you know, OK, you can get very rich, you and your family, if you play our game. But if you continue to try to keep these policies you’ve promised, you’re going to go. He wouldn’t listen. He was assassinated. As soon as the place crashed, the whole area was condoned off, the only people allowed in were the United States military from a nearby base and some Ecuadorean military. When the investigation was launched, two of the key witnesses died in car accidents before they got the chance to testify. A lot of very very strange things went on around the assassination of Jaime Roldos. I like most people who have really looked at this case have absolutely no doubt that it was an assassination. Of course, in my position as an Economic Hit-man, I was always expecting something to Jaime, whether it be a coup or an assassination, I wasn’t sure, but that he would be taken down because he was not being corrupted. He would not allow himself to be corrupted the way we wanted to corrupt him. John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, economist for Chas T Main Inc
Ecuadorian Leader Dies in Plane Crash: President Jaime Roldos Aguilera was killed today when an Air Force plane carrying him crashed in the Andes near Ecuador’s southern border with Peru, the Presidential Palace announced. He was 40 years old. The New York Times article 25th May 1941
The Ecuadorian military decided to call elections in 1978. They had been in power since ’72. During the first years a group of nationalist military led by a general known as La Bombita nationalised the oil that the transnational corporations had just discovered in the Amazon and received with military honours. La Muerta de Jaime Roldos, 2013
Very soon the confrontations with the extreme right-wing military began … Bombita was over thrown in January 1976. ibid.
The disputes within the armed forces were so great that the power of the dictatorship was worn out quickly, and it did not take long for them to call elections … Those same soldiers decided to veto the candidacy of Assad Bucaram. ibid.
The CSP launched the candidacy of Jaime Roldos, a 37-year-old lawyer. ibid.
The right denounced that Roldos had committed fraud and that elections should be annulled. ibid.
Abdon Calderon Munoz was murdered, a politician who openly denounced the corruption of the military, and who had announced his support for the candidacy of Roldos. ibid.
That [student] massacre went unpunished, but that day an entire generation became politically aware. ibid.
Roldos announced that he would call a plebiscite so that the people would authorise him to dissolve the legislative chamber and call new elections. ibid.
The plane in which the president and his wife Marta were travelling crashed. ibid.
A new generation governs the country and dreams of changing it. ibid.