ECUADOR PLANNING SOCIAL REFORMS

QUITO, Ecuador, March 8—The new military Government of Ecuador has spent most of its first 22 days in office draft ing plans for economic and social change that imply an indefinite stay in power.

Its announced aims are to use newly found oil riches to build a self‐sustaining economy, to spread the new wealth more evenly through this small, backward country and to strengthen and re‐equip the armed forces.

Like the officer corps in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia in recent years, EcUadoes military leaders have apparently decided that the armed forces are best equipped to guide their country through time of planned change.

“If they make no grave mistakes, they can stay in for as long as they want,” a prominent civilian politician said in a private conversation.

Elections Canceled

The military took control of the government last Feb. 16, charging President Jose M. Velasco Ibarra with exploiting the people. Some observers said that the real reason for the coup was to prevent the election of a populist candidate in the June presidential election, which the new Government has canceled.

Since the coup the military Government has not drawn any protests or challenges from anyone but the former President. Instead, the Government, headed by Brig. Gen. Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, has been flooded with expressions of high expectations from all over Ecuador. Indian peasants in the Andes have asked politely for land, leftist students have asked for a chance to help, businessmen have expressed a cautious willingness to cooperate and the taxi drivers’ union on the tropical coast has asked for price controls on spare parts.

Even Assad Bucaram, the populist politician who was considered almost certain to become president until the election was canceled, wished the military well.

There are no known political prisoners, although the Government has arrested some civil servants suspected of corruption. There is no censorship and schools and universities have been reopened.

Making no policy announcements or legislative decrees that might upset the general air of goodwill, the armed forces have concentrated publicly on organizing their Government along lines similar to those adopted three years ago by Peruvian military officers. General Rodriguez has named to his Cabinet eight military officers, generally considered to be moderate men, and two professionally qualified civilians.

“There is no political tendency in our revolution and no ideology,” the President declared in a speech at the end of his second week in office. “There is nationalism, there is the fatherland at the beginning, the middle and the end, and there is a desire to serve the Ecuadorian people.”

But the pressures for sharper definition of the new Government could increase quickly, for Ecuador is on the verge of an economic upheaval brought on by oil.

‘No Ideology’

Sometime between next July and the end of the year a consortium of two United States oil companies, Texaco and Gulf, expects to begin pumping 250,000 barrels a day over the Andes in a pipeline from new oil fields in the Amazon jungle east of the mountains. The Government share, it is expected, will almost double current revenues of about $220million a year.

Expectations are high. There is hope in the cities for more jobs, more housing, more services, and, according..to a recent opinion poll, for quick social change toward economic equality. There is hope in the countryside, where more than half of the population of six million live at a near‐subsistence level, for more money and more schools. There is hope among the armed forces, where many young officers are reported to be admirers of Peru's radical military Government, for quick progress and rearmament.