A day like today: Ecuador's first shout of independence
The news came from Europe like a bomb: Napoleon had invaded Spain, the Iberian government was reeling and the Spanish Empire seemed to collapse forever. The leading sectors of the city of Quito decided that this was the time to take power; to prevent possible decisions against their interests from Lima or Bogotá.
A group of patriots and intellectuals met at the house of Mrs. Manuela Cañizares and decided to remove the authorities and form a Supreme Board.
The coup was surprising and triumphed without opposition. The rebels were supported by local troops and took members of the government prisoners.
But that easy triumph was misleading: the people did not participate, the other provinces did not support the movement and felt unknown in such a momentous decision. And the most serious: the leaders were not convinced revolutionaries, in truth they were conservative by birth, vocation and conviction.
And a revolution thought, decided and carried out by traditionalist sectors, would have to have an unhappy ending. And so it was, a year later, after hesitations and erratic attitudes of the leaders of that "revolution", after new submission to Spanish power, a repression broke out that the people of Quito wept bitterly.