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  4. Document 1012

822.01/100: Telegram

The Ambassador in Ecuador (Scotten) to the Secretary of State

Quito, June 1, 1944—2 p.m.
[Received 5:47 p.m.]

546. The legal aspects of the new Government appear to be as follows: Velasco Ibarra is in no sense a constitutional president although he has been put into power by the will of the vast majority of the population. His announcement that a Constituent Assembly will meet on August 10 means that delegates to this Assembly will be elected between now and that date. The Assembly itself will draw up a constitution for the Republic and will itself elect a President of the Republic who will of course be Velasco Ibarra.

Until the Assembly meets, Velasco Ibarra in a legal sense could be termed either a dictator or a provisional president with no basis under the law for holding power.

Velasco Ibarra has announced that the 196 [1906] Constitution under which the Arroyo administration operated, will remain in force until the Assembly meets except in so far as it contradicts the aims of the revolution.

Scotten