  POLITICAL SCIENCE “Carlos de la Torre’s insightful study of Latin American populism sheds important new light on populist practice, discourse, and ritual. His d excellent analysis of the complex,multi-faceted e l relationship between populist leaders and their a T heterogeneous set of followers is ‘must’reading o r r for students of populism.” e —Kurt Weyland,Vanderbilt University Populist Anew brand of populist politicians has risen to power in the late s and s. They have kept the Manichaean and p o moralistic populist discourse of their predecessors while pur- Seduction p suing different economic programs. The old nationalist and u l distributive policies of past populist regimes have been replaced i s by neoliberal policies that have privatized state enterprises,elim- t inated protective tariffs, and concentrated income. In Populist s in e Seduction in Latin America,Carlos de la Torre shows that populism d did not disappear,as expected,with the modernization of soci- u c Latin America ety.Combining the study of populist discourse with an analysis t of the social and political setting for the emergence and per- io sistence of populism,Professor de la Torre argues that the dura- n bility of populism is explained by the deficient incorporation i n The Ecuadorian Experience of the popular sectors into Latin American democracies. L a Carlos de la Torre is an associate professor of sociology at t Drew University,Madison,New Jersey.He has published exten- i n sively on populism,democracy,and racism in Latin America. A m Ohio University e r Carlos de la Torre Research in International Studies i c Latin America Series No. 32 a ISBN 0-89680-210-8 Cover illustration:La Seducción del populismo ,!7IA8J6-iacbaa! in América Latinaby Leoncio Sáenz Cover design by Emma Heinemann Ohio Populist Seduction in Latin America This series of publications on Africa,Latin America,and Southeast Asia is designed to present significant research,translation,and opinion to area specialists and to a wide community of persons interested in world affairs.The editor seeks manuscripts of quality on any subject and can generally make a decision regarding publication within three months of receipt of the original work.Production methods generally permit a work to appear within one year of acceptance.The editor works closely with authors to produce a high quality book.The series appears in a paperback format and is distrib- uted worldwide.For more information,contact the executive editor at Ohio University Press,Scott Quadrangle,University Terrace,Athens,Ohio . Executive editor: Gillian Berchowitz AREA CONSULTANTS Africa: Diane Ciekawy Latin America: Thomas Walker Southeast Asia: William H.Frederick The Ohio University Research in International Studies series is published for the Cen- ter for International Studies by the Ohio University Press.The views expressed in in- dividual volumes are those of the authors and should not be considered to represent the policies or beliefs of the Center for International Studies,the Ohio University Press,or Ohio University. Populist Seduction in Latin America The Ecuadorian Experience Carlos de la Torre Ohio University Center for International Studies Research in International Studies Latin America Series No.  Athens © by the Center for International Studies Ohio University Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved               The books in the Ohio University Research in International Studies Series are printed on acid-free paper ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Torre,Carlos de la. Populist seduction in Latin America : the Ecuadorian experience / Carlos de la Torre. p. cm.— (Research in international studies,Latin America series / Ohio University Center for International Studies ; no.) Includes bibliographical references (p.).  ---(pbk.: alk.paper) .Populism—Ecuador—History—th century..Ecuador—Politics and government—th century..Velasco Ibarra,José María,–..Bucaram Ortiz, Abdalá,– .Populism—Latin America—History—th century..Political culture—Ecuador..Political culture—Latin America.I.Title.II.Monographs in international studies.Latin America series no..  .  .—dc - Contents Preface vii Abbreviations xix Chapter  The Ambiguity of Latin American “Classical”Populism  Chapter  Velasquista Seduction  Chapter  Leader of the Poor or Repugnant Other? Abdalá Bucaram’s Populism  Chapter  The Continuing Populist Temptation  Conclusion  Notes  References  Index  v Preface Books tend to reflect,to a large extent,the obsessions and life histo- ries of their authors.This volume is a result of my ambiguous feelings toward,and intellectual fascination with,Latin American populism.I remember as a child how my family life was affected by the passions stirred by populist leader José María Velasco Ibarra.Some of my un- cles and aunts were passionate Velasquistas.They had supported the caudillo in his five presidencies (‒, ‒, ‒, ‒,and ‒),and longed for him during his exiles.My fa- ther, the late Carlos de la Torre Reyes, who was the editor of El tiempo,a Quito newspaper,was an opponent of Velasco.As a liberal, my father was committed to a struggle for fundamental democratic freedoms that were not always respected by the populist caudillo,and faced many attacks by Velasco’s supporters.For instance,El tiempo was at the forefront of the opposition against Velasco’s autogolpe (self-inflicted coup d’état) in . I remember watching how Ve- lasco’s nephew and minister of defense, Jorge Acosta Velasco, in- sulted and falsely accused my father on television and how my father’s office in El tiempowas vandalized by Velasquista crowds.In this climate of political instability and lack of rights for the opposi- tion,we were always ready to face my father’s imprisonment.Fortu- nately that never occurred. Reflections on the late s and early s also brings back memories of large crowds and collective action.I was impressed by the large crowds that Velasco attracted when giving public speeches. I also remember the traffic jams and the smell of tear gas left by police repression of student demonstrations against Velasco’s regime. Several years later,in ,as a student at the Graduate Faculty of vii  the New School for Social Research,I returned to Ecuador to define my dissertation topic. I was surprised by the passion aroused by Abdalá Bucaram,a new populist caudillo.In this election he faced Rodrigo Borja,a moderate Social Democrat.Most scholars and jour- nalists saw in Borja the promise of a social democratic modernity. After all,his party,Izquierda Democrática,was a modern political or- ganization with a clear ideological platform.Borja was committed to the respect of human and civil rights and the reconciliation of the na- tion after the authoritarian excesses of León Febres Cordero’s regime (‒). With the excuse of stopping “subversion,” Febres Cor- dero had abused the human rights of his opponents.Several guerrilla members,including some of my friends,had been tortured and killed by the government.Conflicts between the executive and congress and the judiciary had plagued Febres Cordero’s administration.He had also faced a military insurrection led by General Frank Vargas.After these years of political instability, most journalists and intellectuals saw the  elections as a contest between a modern party with a concrete ideology and program of modernization and democrati- zation and the populist politics of the past, represented by Abdalá Bucaram. Journalists and social scientists constructed Bucaram as the em- bodiment of the rabble and a charlatan who charmed ignorant masses. They argued that poverty and lack of education explained poor people’s support for Bucaram (Fernández and Ortiz ).He was seen as a corrupt demagogue and a danger to democracy.In spite of what the press and some academics were expressing,Bucaram’s populist movement was obviously more than manipulation. Only middle-class prejudices could reduce his followers to ignorant masses misled by a charlatan.When,out of curiosity,I attended some of Bucaram’s mass meetings, I was impressed. Bucaram drew on popular culture and humor to attack the well-established “white” elites and champion the dignity and self-worth of his supporters. During these mass meetings, Bucaram established a dialogue with viii  the audience.He focused on everyday life to politicize the humilia- tions of common mestizo Ecuadorians.He transformed the servants, the poor,and the excluded into the essence of the real Ecuadorian na- tion,and their bosses into effeminate antinational oligarchies.I was also terrified to see how this self-appointed messiah saw himself as the embodiment of the people’s will that stood above and beyond any democratic institution or procedure. The tensions and ambiguities between the authoritarian appropri- ation of the people’s will and the inclusion of previously excluded people into the political community that was so clearly revealed in Bucaram’s populism are what attracted me to the study of these phe- nomena.I wanted to understand how populist leaders appealed to those they led without assuming manipulation by leaders,irrational- ity of followers,or the reduction of populism to models of instrumen- tal rationality that explained politics by the exchange of votes for goods and services. I became determined to understand the com- plexities of populist seductions and explore the tensions between lib- eral democracies and populism. The study of populism is certainly puzzling. In Latin America, populism is generally viewed in negative terms.For most it implies an abnormality,an anomaly,and a passing phenomenon that will eventu- ally, and hopefully, go away. That is why most studies of populism begin by focusing on its negative characteristics,on what populism is not when it is compared with other political ideologies, parties, movements,or regimes.For instance,unlike liberalism or socialism, populism lacks an ideology.Populist movements are not the political expression of the economic interest of a particular social class.Nor can populism be specified as a type of political regime.Because of populism’s negative characteristics,modernization theory,for exam- ple, considered it a temporary event, an aberration produced by abrupt processes of social change. Populism is also associated with leaders who manipulate,followers who are betrayed,and overall backwardness.Modernization theorists, ix