Alfredo Poveda; Former Ecuador Junta Leader

Alfredo Poveda, 64, retired admiral who led a military junta that ruled Ecuador from 1976 to 1979. Considered the most benign of the military dictators who ruled Latin America in the 1970s, Poveda was born in Ambato, a mountain city 75 miles south of Quito, and studied in the United States, Argentina and Brazil. Although he gained power through the military, Poveda set up a system to return the government to civilian power and developed a constitutional process that survives today. On Friday in Miami of a heart attack.