1.
GV PAN Scenes of wreckage of plane. (3 SHOTS) (MUTE)
0.13

2.
GV PAN Quito airport from guard of honour TO planes on tarmac. (SOUND)
0.19

3.
GV & SV Coffins carried from aircraft. (2 SHOTS)
0.45

4.
GV Coffin placed on armoured car.
0.48

5.
GV PAN Crowd looking on as motorcade carries coffin to presidential palace. (2 SHOTS)
1.02

6.
GV Plane taxiing.
1.07

7.
GV president Hurtado walks towards plane.
1.10

8.
GV President Herrera Campins of Venezuela descending from plane and being greeted by new president.
1.31

9.
GV Colombian President Torbay descending from plane and greeted by President Hurtado.
1.50

10.
TILT DOWN FROM Cathedral TO crowds outside along road. (3 SHOTS)
2.13

11.
SV PULL BACK TO GV Troops outside cathedral TO crowds outside.
2.21

12.
GV Dignitaries viewing coffin lying in cathedral. (2 SHOTS)
2.35




Initials JS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: Hundreds of thousands of mourners, led by five Latin American heads of state, attended the funeral in Guayaquil on Tuesday (26 May) of Ecuador's President Jaime Roldos who died in a plane crash at the weekend (24 May). The President, his wife Marta Bucaram, and seven other people were killed when the presidential aircraft crashed in southern Ecuador, near the Peruvian border.

SYNOPSIS: The plane crashed and burst into flames on its way to a ceremony marking the 159th anniversary of the battle of Pichincha which decided Ecuador's independence from Spain.

On Monday (25 May), the bodies of President Roldos and the other victims were flown from the scene of the accident to Quito airport. From there the President's coffin was taken to the presidential palace before the funeral next day.

Vice President Osvaldo Hurtado was sworn in as President four hours after the news of the accident and will complete Mr. Roldos's term of office, due to expire in 1984.

The late president took office in 1979 after his Popular Forces Concentration Party( CFP) won a landslide election with the support of Mr. Hurtado's Popular Democratic Party, Ecuador's Christian Democrats.

President Hurtado was at Guayaquil airport on Tuesday to meet Venezuelan President Herrera Campins and the other South American leaders who attended the funeral.

Mr. Hurtado has replaced a man who was a self-styled left of centre populist when first elected president after nearly 10 years of military rule in Ecuador. Although supporters feared Mr. Roldos's brand of populism could prove too much for Ecuador's powerful economic establishment, the first challenge came from the ranks of his own party. CFP leader Assad Bucaram challenged the authority of President Roldos by pushing a series of sweeping economic bills without presidential clearance. The bitter power struggle came to an end last year when Mr. Roldos reshuffled his cabinet to reflect a new balance of power in the ruling party. The most dramatic foreign policy development of the president's administration was a brief border war last January with Peru over a disputed mountainous area.

The late President Roldos emerged as a leader of the Andean Pact, an economic regional grouping of Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The former lawyer was the strong voice in this democratic bloc in a region where military governments have long been dominant.