Beleaguered Bullfighter

The wealthy, hell-to-breakfast sons of the late strong man President Leonidas Plaza of Ecuador were whooping it up last week. Reared to fast horses and bullfighting, habituated to settling disputes with gunpowder, the Plazas each in turn had taken violent exception to the way Ecuador was being run. Galo, the eldest, defied Quito's Police Minister. Captain Leonidas, the second brother, paced a Garcia Moreno cell, restive from a year's political imprisonment for leading an armed revolt protesting the Peru-Ecuador border settlement (TIME, Aug. 17). Lieut. Jose Maria ("Pepe"), the youngest, refused to return to political confinement after attending his uncle's funeral, barricaded himself in Galo's house and dared authorities to come & get him.

Handsome Pepe, wed in 1942 at San Diego to blonde Mignon Summers, onetime Powers model, aroused President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Rio's ire early this year. Enthusiastically, the six-foot novillero of the bull ring and artillery lieutenant (V.M.I.-educated, Fort Sill-trained) had started to stump Ecuador in opposition to administration candidates for Congress. Opening at Riobamba, Pepe and cohorts were moving on to Ambato when a platoon of corabineros popped up and arrested them. Given 24 hours to get out of Ecuador, stubborn Pepe balked and a 40-soldier escort literally carried him over the border into Colombia. On March 5 he strode into Quito's central police headquarters, demanded a trial. Instead he was whisked off to the village calaboose at Guaranda. On May 23 President Arroyo del Rio ordered the disconsolate Pepe released for three days to attend the funeral of a Chilean uncle, distinguished Dr. Victor Eastman Cox.

The funeral over, Pepe commissioned Galo, once Minister of Defense, to break the news to Police Minister Dr. Aurelio Aguilar Vasquez that Pepe did not plan to return to the clink. Pepe had not asked for leave, had not been notified of his release by proper authorities, had refused use of a Government car. Now he was comfortably situated in Galo's roomy residence. To the astonished Minister Galo added: "We are ready to repel any attempt on the part of the authorities to break into my house. I only request that I be notified ahead of time so that I can evacuate my wife and young children."

The Minister sought legal counsel. The judiciary, he found, had no authority to issue an order permitting Galo's property to be trespassed on, unless Pepe had already been tried and found guilty of a crime. Such was not the case. So the Minister did the next best thing. He dispatched a detachment of police to wait for Pepe to come outside.

Within the residential bastion, Pepe grinned and settled down for a long siege. He planned to remain out of circulation until Aug. 10, when Congress convenes. At that time the President's dictatorial powers for maintaining the status quo will automatically expire. Congress, he hoped, will save him from Police Minister Aguilar, from President Arroyo del Rio and from confinement at Guaranda. Said he: "I did not pledge my word to return. . . . They even refused to clean my cell lest I should have someone to talk to."

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