July 11, 1963 - The army ousted Ecuador’s hard-drinking President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy (pictured with President Kennedy last July) today and sent him into exile. Leaders of the coup declared they had ousted Mr. Arosemena on charges that he was “frequently drunk, had stained the national honor, and sympathized with Communism.” A military spokesman said the President, long criticized for high living and inattention to duty, had disgraced himself last night by being intoxicated at a banquet attended by U.S. Ambassador Maurice M. Bernbaum and others, honoring Rear Adm. Wilfred J. McNeil, president of the Grace Line. Those present said Mr. Arosemena, heavily inebriated and swaying on his feet, had said: “The people of Ecuador and those of the United States enjoy cordial relations, but it exists only between the two peoples. The government of the U.S. exploits Latin America, and it exploits Ecuador.” An embarrassed hush fell upon the 70 dignitaries and wives seated at the banquet table. Today, with a show of troops and tanks, the military besieged the 44-year-old President in his palace. After a defiant holdout, Mr. Arosemena surrendered and was placed aboard a Panama-bound Ecuadorian Air Force Plane. A four-man military junta headed by a colonel was set up to rule the country.
