Buenos Aires it will be......

Posted on Wed, Apr. 20, 2005


Ecuador lawmakers vote to remove Gutierrez

MONTE HAYES - Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador - 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.
An unidentified army official in combat gear said on television that Gutierrez and his wife, Congresswoman Ximena Bohorquez, had left the presidential palace. An Associated Press photographer saw a small helicopter land briefly on the palace roof and a figure climb aboard. Panama's Ambassador Mateo Castillero denied reports that Gutierrez had sought political asylum in Panama.
Anti-Gutierrez protests have been building for a week and late Tuesday night 30,000 demonstrators marched on the palace, demanding Gutierrez's ouster.
Gutierrez was elected president in November 2002 on a populist, anti-corruption platform. But his left-leaning constituency soon fell apart after he instituted austerity measures, including cuts in food subsidies and cooking fuel, to satisfy international lenders.
Opponents have accused him of trying to consolidate power from all branches of government. On Friday Gutierrez dissolved the Supreme Court in a bid 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.
Meanwhile, acting Attorney General Cecilia Armas issued an arrest order for Gutierrez. She ordered Gen. Marco Cuvero, named Wednesday as the new head of the national police, to arrest Gutierrez for his alleged violent repression of demonstrations.
The ousted president's whereabouts weren't clear, though some protesters apparently believed he was trying to leave from Quito's airport. Television images showed hundreds of people forcing their way onto the military landing strip at the airport and blocking a twin-engine plane from taking off. A helicopter parked nearby was like the one seen at the palace. Radio reports said the airport was closed for security reasons.
Violence flared in the hours before Gutierrez was removed. As protesters took to Quito's streets, TV images showed looters rifling offices at the Ministry of Social Welfare and masked gunmen firing pistols near the building. Firefighters battled a blaze into the afternoon at the site set by demonstrators.
Earlier Wednesday, 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.
Palacio, who broke with Gutierrez after they were elected, was sworn in by Congress President Cyntia Viteri after the vote.
Adm. Victor Hugo Rosero, head of the joint chiefs of staff, announced after the vote that the military had withdrawn its support for Gutierrez.
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 dismissed," Viteri, who was elected to the position of president of Congress at the beginning of the special session Wednesday, declared after the vote.
At 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 peace and tranquility."
Just hours earlier, Gutierrez told The AP in an interview that he had no intention of resigning.
"There is not the least possibility. I was elected for four years," he said. "My government ends in January 2007."
In a blow to Gutierrez earlier Wednesday, the head of Ecuador's national police force, Gen. Jorge Poveda, resigned, saying, "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."
Thousands of blue-uniformed high school students took to the streets Wednesday to demonstrate against Gutierrez. Many gathered on Avenida Amazonas, Quito's most important avenue, beating drums and chanting, "Get out, Lucio!" Other students convened at different points across the city.
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.
Opposition legislators failed to impeach Gutierrez in November.