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The new president of Ecuador, Gustavo Noboa, faces a tense few days of maintaining civil order after he was handed power at the weekend by the leaders of a "five-hour coup" that ousted the former president. Mr Noboa, who was vice-president until the coup, accepted the job from a three-man junta representing the 2,000 Indians and junior military officers who had stormed the empty congress building on Friday and forced President Jamil Mahuad into hiding. The junta, comprising an army general, an Indian leader and a former president of the supreme court, was persuaded to hand back power to a democratically elected politician by US officials, who threatened to cut foreign aid and discourage foreign investment in the country. However, the compromise could be shortlived because Antonio Vargas, head of the radical Indian movement which triggered the coup, said Ecuador's 4m Indians would not recognise Mr Noboa's authority. The military chief, General Carlos Mendoza, announced his support for Mr Noboa five hours after the junta took power. He then resigned from his army post, saying the three-person council had claimed power only to "prevent a bloodbath". With no military backing, the junta effectively fell apart. Mr Noboa, the sixth president in four years, faces daunting problems in addition to the Indian opposition. He must confront a severe economic crisis: 7m of the country's 12m population are trapped in poverty. Inflation topped 60% last year, the highest in Latin America, and the economy shrank by 7.5%. Only one person in three in the labour force has a full-time job. Mr Naboa has said he will forge ahead with his predecessor's controversial plan to make the US dollar Ecuador's official currency. Mr Mahuad proposed the move this month, hoping that it would curb inflation, bring down interest rates to US levels and spur investment. However, polls show that more than 60% of Ecuadoreans reject the plan. Indian leaders said the proposal was an affront to national sovereignty and would benefit only the rich. The row over the currency triggered the protests which resulted in the coup. Mr Mahuad, a Harvard-educated centrist who took office in August 1998, made a surprise appearance on television after he was deposed. He condemned the coup, but wished his former vice-president "the best of luck". Political analysts say the root of Ecuador's problems is a discredited political class, many of whose members seek public office only to exploit their positions and do little to improve the lives of the country's poor. Polls show that virtually no political leaders are trusted by the public. "The Ecuadorean political system has lost the capacity to represent the people," said the political scientist Simon Pachano. "That is why the Indians and social movements are proposing an overall restructuring of the political system and new forms of representation." As well as US demands for a return to civilian rule, pressure also came from the United Nations, the Organisation of American States and Ecuador's neighbours. South America's Mercosur trade bloc, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as well as associate members Chile and Bolivia, issued a joint statement urging Ecuadoreans to respect their democratic institutions.