The Julian Revolution1 was a civic-military movement in Ecuador that, through a coup on July 9, 1925 led by the Military League, a secret group of young officers of the Ecuadorian Army, overthrew President Gonzalo Córdova.
Despite being forged outside the population, initially limited to supporting what was carried out by the military, it reflected a national aspiration for change from those political and social sectors that participated in the juntas and the Ayora Government.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Ecuador —like the bulk of Latin America— was characterized by an economy oriented towards the international market, the basis of the strength of the agricultural and financial sectors; and by the tensions between the forms and practices of government of politics and the liberal state, on the one hand, and the advent of a mass society, with its inherent demands, on the other.
The end of radical liberalism and the assassination of former president Eloy Alfaro (1912 ) and his main lieutenants had given way to General Leónidas Plaza and the succession of the governments of Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, José Luis Tamayo and Gonzalo S. Córdova.
Under his mandates, the cocoa economy and a monetary and financial regime continued to prosper —beginning with the first gold standard (1900–17), the suspension of convertibility (1914) and the inorganic over-issuance of banknotes— through which he enthroned his hegemony the “bankocracy”.
For their part, the socialist organizations were just taking shape —the party would appear, precisely, during the Revolution— and the labor movement, although it showed signs of its vigor in a first general strike in November 1922, its actions ended up being repressed without regard, like that month in Guayaquil or against the indigenous people of the Leyto hacienda, on September 19-23-78.
In turn, they had agreed to name a Provisional Military Junta, with only six of the officers: as president, Luis Telmo Paz y Miño; as members, Carlos A. Guerrero, Juan I. Pareja, Emilio Valdivieso and Ángel Bonilla; and would keep Federico Struve11 as secretary.
In his proclamation "To the Nation", signed in Quito on July 17, he thus specified his "idealistic and disinterested" program: "[...] will be inspired by a truly democratic spirit and will tend to respect the rights and freedoms of all citizens."