Conservative Party

The Conservative Party (, abbreviated as PC) was an Ecuadorian conservative party formed in 1869. Initially associated with the military of Ecuador the PC became one of the two great parties of state in the country, alternating in power with the Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party. Its traditional support basis has been amongst the landowning classes, as well as merchants and artisans and it tended to favour a unitary structure rather than federalism. Development The PC was formed by Gabriel García Moreno to be the party of state during one of his spells as President of Ecuador. The party would then divide the Presidency with the Liberals until the 1895 coup that brought the reformer Eloy Alfaro to power, whilst the 1925 coup that ousted Gonzalo Córdova (himself a Liberal) further entrenched reformist hegemony and damaged the PC. The PC was able to regroup however, winning the election in 1931 for Neptalí Bonifaz Ascásubi, albeit with the result annulled. Whilst a member of their party was not elected the Conservatives endorsed the victorious José María Velasco Ibarra in 1933 and supported him again as part of the alliance to oust Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río after the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War and subsequent treaties. They formed part of the very broad-based Democratic Alliance - which included the PC, elements of the Liberals, the Ecuadorian Socialist Party, the Velasquistas and even the Communist Party of Ecuador - that emerged after the war and which forced Arroyo del Río out of office. In 1956 they were part of the coalition backing victorious candidate Camilo Ponce Enríquez who assumed the Presidency, although the validity of the result was disputed by opposition groups and his cabinet was dominated by Liberals as a compromise. The PC candidate Otto Arosemena was also appointed President in 1966 by the Constituent Assembly.