the main ideologue of the AVC ...any bomb exploding alone, senseless... any killing of an unarmed person was stupid. In response to this activity, the government began conducting raids against the group. The group's leader, Arturo Jarrin, was killed during a shootout against government forces in October 1986. By 1987, a large number of AVC leaders and members had been killed or arrested. In 1989, the Ecuadorian government reached an agreement with the AVC, and the group agreed to end its violence. In 1991, the group was officially reformed as a legitimate political party. A year later, eight members of the group made an illegal but non-violent entry into the British embassy in Quito, demanding the release of a group leader who was later imprisoned by the Ecuadorian government. They were responsible for several criminal actions, armed robberies to banks, robberies, and kidnappings; highlighting the kidnapping of Nahim Isaías Barquet, general manager of the bank Filanbanco, in September 1985, who died during the intervention for his rescue carried out by the Anti-Terrorist Unit of the Special Forces Brigade of the Ecuadorian Army, ordered by the then president León Febres-Cordero. Due to the death in 1986 of its leader, Arturo Jarrín, arrests and the death of several other members in the same year as a result of the actions carried out by the security forces of the Ecuadorian State, AVC lost strength and was practically eliminated. According to the book The remnant of AVC it formally handed over its weapons in 1991. The balance of the AVC campaign between 1983 and 1988 was: 16 AVC members, six members of the M-19, 14 police officers killed, more than 20 injured. Background AVC arose during an economic crisis in the 1980s. During the 1970s Ecuador experienced an annual economic growth rate of 8.1% due in part to high oil prices. In 1982 the economy stagnated due to the fall in the price of oil and the simultaneous rise in interest rates in international markets. The middle and upper classes were the ones who benefited the most from the oil boom, but the popular classes were the ones who suffered the costs of the economic adjustment when the boom ended. Beginning with President Osvaldo Hurtado (1981-1984) the government of Ecuador applied measures dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restructure the economy. These measures included: reducing fiscal spending, devaluing the local currency, and