Here’s the latest on the situation in Ecuador:
Miami Herald: “After a long and confusing special session, Ecuador’s Congress has hashed out new legislation with one clear impact: The country is without a Supreme Court, and may remain so for days or even weeks to come.”
AFP: “In an interview with foreign journalists earlier on Sunday, Gutierrez insisted he had no plans to step down, saying only 1 percent of Quito residents would favor such an outcome.
But Gutierrez hinted that a lost battle of the judiciary could pave the way for his departure.
‘Only if my efforts to depoliticize the courts fail will it be possible for me to consider what you are asking me about,’ he said.”
AP: QUITO, Ecuador Apr 18, 2005 — Chanting “Lucio, get out,” a river of demonstrators poured into the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, Monday night to demand that President Lucio Gutierrez step down, as anti-government protests spread from Quito, the capital.”
Also includes this nice nugget summarizing the problems:
“The court crisis was set in motion in November when the former justices sided with opposition politicians in a failed effort to impeach Gutierrez on corruption charges. Gutierrez then assembled a bloc of 52 lawmakers in the 100-seat unicameral Congress, which voted in December to remove the judges.
Political tensions reached a boiling point after the return earlier this month of former President Abdala Bucaram to Ecuador following a Supreme Court ruling that cleared him of corruption charges. Gutierrez’s opponents charge he cut a deal with Bucaram to stack the Supreme Court in his favor as payback for key votes Bucaram’s political party provided blocking the impeachment drive in Congress.”
Reuters: “Ecuador’s opposition parties in Congress will try to oust President Lucio Gutierrez formeddling in the country’s courts, congressional leaders said onMonday as thousands protested against the government.”
New York Times: “The Ecuadorean Congress, trying to neutralize the political tumult threatening President Lucio Gutiérrez’s rule, dismissed the interim Supreme Court’s 31 judges in a raucous special session late Sunday night.
…
‘This does not resolve the crisis,’ said Fernando Bustamante, a political science professor at San Francisco University in Quito. ‘It lowers the tensions, but it shows there’s a vacuum for the rule of law.'”