[Marxism] Ecuadorean president forced to rescind emergency decree

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Of course, the Times-Forero style makes it impossible to know much
about the issues, the real players, the strength of different forces,
and so on. But the news that Ecuador still struggles,in the face of the
"populist" president's alignment with the oligarchy and Washington, is
encouraging.
Fred

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April 17, 2005
Ecuador's President Revokes Protest Curbs
By JUAN FORERO 
 
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, April 16 - Hours after declaring a state of emergency
to quell anti-government protests, President Lucio Gutiérrez of Ecuador
revoked the measure on Saturday. The embattled president had faced
thousands of furious protesters who had taken to the streets of Quito,
defying the decree, which was limited to the capital, and demanding that
he resign.

The president, though, said he would stick with his decision to dissolve
the Supreme Court. Late Friday in a televised announcement, President
Gutiérrez, with stern-looking military officers standing behind him,
told Ecuadoreans that he was instituting a state of emergency and
removing the Supreme Court.

The announcement did little to thwart protesters, who took to the
streets, banging pots and pans and honking car horns. Though the state
of emergency permitted the government to curb civil liberties, like the
right to public assembly, the military and police did not take action
against the protesters, raising questions about the loyalty of
commanders to Mr. Gutiérrez.

With the United Nations, the United States and other countries raising
concerns about Mr. Gutiérrez's measures, the president reversed course.
"In an environment of brotherhood," he told the nation, "we look for the
best solutions to the grave problems that the republic still has." 

The president's decision did not seem to placate his determined
opponents, who saw the state of emergency and the firing of the court as
anti-democratic measures, even though it was opposition to the
pro-government court that had prompted much of the unrest in the first
place.

This is the second time the court has been removed in four months. On
Dec. 8, angry that the court had sided with opposition politicians in a
failed effort to impeach him on corruption charges, Mr. Gutiérrez was
able to summon 52 lawmakers in the 100-member Congress to remove 27 of
the court's 31 judges. He contended that the measure restored
independence to a court that had been closely aligned with the
opposition Social Christian Party.

But the move plunged the chronically unstable country into uncertainty,
with political foes and indigenous groups accusing Mr. Gutiérrez of
having begun an institutional coup to consolidate power. Congress also
replaced judges on the Electoral and Constitutional Courts, stacking
them with government allies.

Opposition politicians and protesters have been demanding that the
members of the new Supreme Court be removed, calling the appointments
unconstitutional. In March, Mr. Gutiérrez proposed a change in the
judiciary to create a new court amenable to the opposition, but the
Congress remained deadlocked.

The protests gathered strength this week after the Supreme Court ruled
it would not try two former presidents on corruption charges, Abdalá
Bucaram and Gustavo Noboa. Government foes say that Mr. Gutiérrez, in
facing down congressional opponents who wanted to impeach him in
November, received crucial support from Mr. Bucaram's Roldosista
political party.

The president's opponents say that in return, the government permitted
Mr. Bucaram, who was removed from power in 1997 after being declared
mentally unfit to govern, to return to Ecuador from a self-imposed exile
in Panama. Mr. Bucaram promptly called on Mr. Gutiérrez to dissolve
Congress and declare a state of emergency. 

The machinations involving the president and Mr. Bucaram only further
enraged Ecuadoreans disgusted with the corrupt political system.

"It's ominous because there have been growing protests and the rejection
of the whole political class, not just Gutiérrez and his cronies, but
all political parties," said Michael Shifter, who tracks Ecuador for the
Washington policy group Inter-American Dialogue.

"Gutiérrez just doesn't know how to get out of the crisis," Mr. Shifter
said. "He is digging the hole deeper and adding fuel to the fire."

Hoping to ease the protests in recent days, estimated by some news media
outlets at 10,000 people, Mr. Gutiérrez dissolved the court, saying the
controversy over its appointment was "generating national commotion." In
his speech on Friday, he reminded Ecuadoreans that the court
appointments were temporary, awaiting reforms that would lead to a
permanent court. But Mr. Gutiérrez's adversaries, though opposing those
very appointments, saw the move as yet another unconstitutional act by a
president eager to tighten his grip on power.

"He's taking us into a dictatorship, and we're going to stop him by
supporting demonstrations in Quito," said Xavier Sandoval of the Social
Christian Party, Reuters reported.

It remained unclear whether the military had offered complete support
for the state of emergency. The head of the armed forces, Adm. Victor
Hugo Rosero, had said the emergency measure was needed to bring order.
But General Luis Aguas, the Army chief, did not accompany Mr. Gutiérrez,
as did other leading commanders, when the president announced the state
of emergency.



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