Ecuador Leader Seized, Freed for Jailed Officer

Air force troopers seized President Leon Febres Cordero in a bloody uprising Friday but released him 12 hours later in exchange for the freedom of a jailed rebel general.

Newspapers reported at least two men killed and eight others wounded during the abduction at the country’s largest air base as about 20 rebel paratroopers opened fire on the civilian president and his 10 bodyguards as they arrived for a ceremony.

The president was not seriously hurt.

Flown to Base

Yielding to a rebel demand, Febres Cordero ordered air force Gen. Frank Vargas Pazos, who twice tried to overthrow him last year, released from an army prison and flown to the air base at Taura, 15 miles from this Pacific port city.

Then the president, his defense minister, the navy and air force commanders and about two dozen other hostages were freed and put on a bus from the air base, which apparently remained under rebel control.

The Venezuelan government had offered earlier to fly Vargas from the base to diplomatic asylum if the rebels would release the president.

In a statement read on television during captivity, the president said he opted “to avoid further bloodshed between Ecuadoreans” and promised to take no action against his captors.

Blood-Stained Shirt

“I am taking this decision in honor of the peace that ought to reign in the country and to maintain a democratic system,” he said.

Later, wearing a white shirt stained with blood on the right sleeve, Febres Cordero arrived in Guayaquil and waved to several hundred supporters standing in the rain outside a regional government headquarters.

The president’s brother, Nicolas, said the blood came from a wounded bodyguard who fell on top of Febres Cordero to protect him.

The president, looking exhausted, told a group of reporters, relatives, friends and aides inside the government building that he suffered only bruises on his neck and right cheek when he dove to the base runway during the shooting.

‘Born Again’

“Today I was born again,” Febres Cordero said in brief remarks inside the government building. “Because of your support, I won. Because of you, I was not overthrown.”

It was the most serious military rebellion since Ecuador returned to democratic government in 1979 after seven years of armed forces rule. The target of the uprising is one of the most conservative of South America’s chiefs of state and a staunch ally of the Reagan Administration.

The government asserted that the rest of the armed forces remained loyal to the president.

The rebellion grew out of two mutinies staged within three days last March by Gen. Vargas in a dispute with the defense minister at the time. He was in jail awaiting trial on charges arising from his unsuccessful rebellion attempts.

However, the rebels supporting Vargas insisted in several messages that they did not intend to overthrow the 55-year-old elected president but only to win Gen. Vargas’ freedom.

The president’s release climaxed a day of tension that began when rebel paratroopers surrounded Febres Cordero and his party as they alighted from a plane at Taura air base, where the president had come to receive a medal.

The paratroopers battled briefly with presidential bodyguards and took the presidential group prisoner, including Gen. Medardo Salazar Navas, the current defense minister in Febres Cordero’s Cabinet. They also seized Gen. Jorge Andrade, the air force chief of staff, and presidential adviser Alex Ripalda.

At a press conference earlier in Quito, the capital, Vice President Blasco M. Penaherrera said the order to free Vargas came from the president.

Order Transmitted

“It is an order I am transmitting to Gen. Edison Garzon, and it is being carried out,” the vice president said. Garzon is the highest army authority in the Quito district, which includes the garrison where Vargas was detained.

Penaherrera said the kidnaping of Febres Cordero was “lamentable and painful, but democracy will come out of it all right.”

A few hours earlier, Febres Cordero, speaking on a radio hookup from the air base chapel where he and Salazar were held, urged the nation to be calm and told military commanders loyal to him not to move any troops without orders from him or from Salazar.

“I ask the Ecuadorean people to be calm,” the president said in the broadcast. He spoke calmly and assured the nation he was not injured. He also said that Salazar was not wounded in the gunfire that accompanied their capture.

Sole Demand Told

The president was allowed to speak on the radio hookup after the leader of the insurrection, Col. Patricio Gonzalez, announced that the sole demand of the president’s kidnapers was freedom for Vargas, 52.

It was not known how many air force troops were involved with Gonzalez in Friday’s abduction of the president, but it was believed to be a small group.

Ecuadorean news reporter Hector Rodriguez, who was wounded in Friday morning’s incident, said the action against the president apparently was well planned.

“Somebody yelled, ‘Everybody down!’ and shots rang out,” Rodriguez said. He added that five of the wounded were presidential bodyguards.

A communique distributed by the presidential press secretariat in the capital said that “except for the attitude of a reduced group,” there was no other activity in the country challenging the established constitutional order.

‘Firm Decision’

“The executive branch, as well as the legislative and judicial branches and the institutions of the state maintain the firm decision to support the country’s democratic system,” it said.

During the day, Vice President Penaherrera met in emergency session with the armed forces high command at the Defense Ministry.

Andres Vallejo, president of Ecuador’s unicameral congress, and Supreme Court President German Carrion issued statements declaring their unconditional support for the rule of law.

Osvaldo Hurtado, a Christian Democrat and Febres Cordero’s predecessor in the presidency, demanded “the immediate freedom of the president, to preserve the democratic system.”

Guards at the Palace of Government in Quito were dressed in combat gear, but there was no movement of military vehicles in the capital or any unusual display of military presence.

Shops Close Early

A crowd gathered in a plaza in front of the palace after the first reports of Febres Cordero’s abduction but was dispersed by police. Some shops and businesses in the center of Quito closed early.

The insurrection was deplored in Washington where White House spokesman Albert R. Brashear said: “The administration is deeply disturbed by the developments that threaten constitutional and democratic rule in Ecuador. We strongly urge that the democratically elected president of Ecuador be immediately released and unconditionally allowed to resume his constitutional duties.”

Febres Cordero, an engineer by profession and leader of the center-right Social Christian Party, began his four-year term in August, 1984.

Last March, Vargas, who was then chief of the Joint Forces Command as well as air force commander, demanded the firing of the defense minister serving at that time in Febres Cordero’s Cabinet and the commander of the army, both of whom he accused of corruption. The president sided with the two men and dismissed Vargas, who thereupon seized control of a small air base on the coast.

Charismatic, Popular

After several days of talks he surrendered, but then rebelled once more, with the support of about 200 officers and troops, at the Quito air base where he was being held. Vargas, who is described as charismatic and popular with his troops, charged that Febres Cordero had gone back on his word to put the then-defense minister and the army commander on trial.

The president sent army troops and tanks into the Quito base and retook it after a brief fight in which several soldiers were killed.

In September, Febres Cordero vetoed a congressional measure that would have granted amnesty to Vargas.

Vargas’ rebellion was the most serious threat to the government since civilian rule returned to Ecuador in 1979 after seven years of military dictatorship.

Febres Cordero has emphasized private enterprise and pursued free market policies.