Frank Vargas Pazzos
 Lieutenant General Frank Vargas Pazzos |
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Teniente General Frank Vargas Pazzos
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| Nickname(s) | El Loco (The Crazy) |
| Born |
July 18, 1934 Chone, Manabí, Ecuador |
| Allegiance |
 Republic of Ecuador
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| Service/branch |  Ecuadorian Air Force |
| Years of service | 1955 – 1986 |
| Rank |
 Lieutenant General
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| Commands held |
Commandant of Second Air Zone, 1980–1983 Commander-in-chief of Ecuadorian Air Force, 1983-1986 Commander-in-chief of Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, 1983–1986 |
| Battles/wars |
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| Awards | Best graduate of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Guayaquil, 1981 Great Cross of the Venezuelan Air Force, 1984 |
| Other work |
Representative in National Congress of Ecuador, 1996 Minister of Government of Ecuador, 1997 |
Frank Vargas Pazzos (born July 15, 1934 in Chone) was a commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) and Chief of the Joint Armed Forces Command of Ecuador.
He was born into a singular family of landowners of the province of Manabí where he attended primary school and took part in the family's routine rural economic activities. He Joined the Army College in 1955 and received his commission and pilot wings in 1957. His initial posting was to Guayaquil as a second Lieutenant, and he also served in Salinas and Taura. He qualified as a fighter pilot in the following aircraft: T-6 Texan, T-28 Trojan, Gloster-Meteor, MK-89. He was also appointed as Air attaché in London, Commander of the Taura Air Base, Commander of the II Air Zone and Commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force. In 1983 he was appointed by president León Febres Cordero Chief of the Joint Staff of the Ecuadorian armed forces.
In 1986 general Vargas aired in public grievances and denounced actions of the president inner circle of power in the procurement of a Fokker F-28 aircraft for flag carrier TAME. Allegedly an overprice of almost six million dollars had been paid by an Ecuadorian company where the president brother was a stockholder and his private secretary a former executive. When the president ordered his arrest, Vargas flew to the Air base of Manta using one of the Air force aircraft; in Manta many of the officers and enlisted personnel took a stronger stand and voiced calls for a coup d'état that would put Vargas as a member of a triumvirate the calls were not headed and in hours of the evening president Febres Cordero went to the air bases in Guayaquil and Taura to call for the officers corps loyalty portraying general Vargas as a mental case. A video of the actions of the morning at Manta was shown to the officer corps in Taura that showed general Vargas in a state of inebriation and out of his normal self. In the morning of the following day general Vargas flew to the Air Base in Quito in an attempt to initiate a dialogue with officers of the Army and Navy. That night the army surrounded the air base and most of the air force troops walked out of the base abandoning Vargas who was apprehended during the night in the attic of the PX building.
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