Americas Watch ALERT! Ecuador voted Wednesday to remove embattled President Lucio Gutierrez April 20, 2005 QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Lawmakers in Ecuador voted Wednesday to remove embattled President Lucio Gutierrez from office after a week of escalating street protests demanding his ouster, and they swore in Vice President Alfredo Palacio to replace him.
A special session made up of opposition legislators in the 100-seat unicameral Congress took less than an hour to reach the decision in a 62-0 vote in hopes of ending a crisis that was spiraling out of control with the threat of violent clashes between Gutierrez supporters and opponents. Congress President Cyntia Viteri swore in Palacio as president after the vote. Palacio broke with Gutierrez after they were elected. Adm. Victor Hugo Rosero, head of the joint chiefs of staff, announced immediately after the vote that the military had withdrawn its support for Gutierrez. Gutierrez was believed to still be inside the palace even though soldiers who had set up a protective perimeter withdrew from the plaza in front of the building immediately after the vote. Legislators based their decision on a clause in the Constitution that allows Congress to remove a president for ``abandonment of the position.'' Congressman Ramiro Rivera made the motion, arguing that since Gutierrez had not complied faithfully with the responsibilities of the presidency, Congress should declare it vacant. The measure avoids a drawn-out impeachment process and is similar to what Congress did in 1997 when it dismissed President Abdala Bucaram for ``mental incapacity.'' ``Congress in representation of the Ecuadorean people has proceeded ... to declare Col. Lucio Gutierrez in abandonment of the position of constitutional president. Therefore, he has been ceased in the position,'' Viteri, who was elected to the post Wednesday, declared after the vote. In a news conference, Rosero said: ``We cannot remain indifferent before the pronouncements of the Ecuadorean people. In this scenario of anarchy the military high command ... has been forced to make the hard decision of withdrawing support from the constitutional president in order to protect public safety and recover peach and tranquility.'' Gutierrez was elected president in November 2002 after campaigning as a populist, anti-corruption reformer. But his left-leaning constituency soon fell apart after he instituted austerity measures, including cutting subsidies on food and cooking fuel, to satisfy lenders like the International Monetary Fund. On Tuesday, police fired tear gas dispersed about 30,000 people trying to reach the palace - the largest anti-Gutierrez demonstration so far in the capital. Gutierrez told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning. ``There is not the least possibility. I was elected for four years,'' he said hours before demonstrators tried to march to the palace. ``My government ends in January 2007.'' In a blow to Gutierrez's hopes of holding on to power, the head of Ecuador's national police force, Gen. Jorge Poveda, resigned earlier Wednesday. ``I regret what happened yesterday. I cannot continue to be a witness to the confrontation with the Ecuadorean people. I am not a violent man,'' he said. Thousands of blue-uniformed high school students took to the streets to demonstrate against Gutierrez on Wednesday. Many gathered on Avenida Amazonas, Quito's most important avenue, beating drums and chanting ``Get out, Lucio!'' Other high school and university students convened at different points across the city in similar protests. Renan Borbua, head of the ruling party in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city located 168 miles southwest of the capital, said he was sending thousands of pro-Gutierrez supporters by bus to the capital to ``defend democracy and the Constitution.'' Quito Mayor Paco Moncayo, who has called for Gutierrez's resignation, sent municipal buses and dump trucks with sand to block entrances to the capital to keep out any Gutierrez supporters. Gutierrez, a 48-year-old former army colonel with a confrontational governing style, has had to deal with growing street protests demanding his ouster since April 13. The demonstrators accuse him of trying to illegally control the three branches of government. Gutierrez dissolved the Supreme Court on Friday to try to placate protests after his congressional allies in December fired most of the court's judges and named replacements sympathetic to his government. That move was widely viewed as unconstitutional, and critics accused him of trying to consolidate his power. ``We were in intensive therapy. Now we're in a coma,'' Palacio told foreign correspondents. Opposition legislators failed to impeach Gutierrez in November. In a country where indigenous peoples make up 30 percent of the 12.5 million population, Gutierrez is a dark-skinned mestizo like most Ecuadoreans - an exception to the rule of white Ecuadorean presidents. Jaime Duran, a public opinion analyst, said racism is a factor in the opposition Gutierrez has faced in Quito, home to Ecuador's European-descended political and social elite. ``Poor people identify with him. The more educated the person being surveyed is, the more he hates Gutierrez, while the less educated he is, the more he supports him,'' Duran said. Gutierrez said his power base is in the shantytowns of the big cities and in the small towns of the interior, and he has gotten big turnouts when he visits rural areas. Ecuador's small towns have not joined the protests. 04/20/05 15:34 EDT Related News from Indymedia URL: _http://www.indymedia.org_ (http://www.indymedia.org/) More Than 15,000 In The Streets Despite State Of Emergency Lucio Gutierrez declara el estado de sitio y deja cesantes a los magistrados de la Corte Suprema de Justicia. Lucio Gutierrez has declared a state of emergency firing the topmost parts of government. _http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822012.shtml_ (http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822012.shtml) _http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822008.shtml_ (http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822008.shtml) _http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822013.shtml_ (http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822013.shtml) Live radio: _http://www.radiolaluna.com/rluna.asx_ (http://www.radiolaluna.com/rluna.asx) A report that he has declared himself dictator cannot yet be confirmed. Developing... Read more _http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/114629.shtml_ (http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/114629.shtml) Americas Watch is the Project of Peace No War Network and ActionLA Coalition Web: _http://www.PeaceNoWar.net_ (http://www.peacenowar.net/) _http://www.ActionLA.org_ (http://www.actionla.org/) ==================================================== ActionLA Action for World Liberation Everyday! Tel: (213)403-0131 URL: _http://www.ActionLA.org_ (http://www.actionla.org/) e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Please Donate to ActionLA! Send check pay to: ActionLA/SEE 1013 Mission St. #6 South Pasadena CA 91030 (All donations are tax deductible) Please join our ActionLA Listserv go to: _http://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/actionla_ (http://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/actionla) or send e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
