Miami Herald editorial: “Politics-by-mob claims another victim.” Key passage:
“It’s hard to feel sorry for President Lucio Guti�rrez of Ecuador, the latest victim of the ominous slide of democracy that is roiling the Andes, because he has no one but himself to blame for the blatant power grab that produced his downfall. Still, Mr. Guti�rrez, who had been in office for little more than two years, was chosen in a free and fair election, and the only acceptable way to remove such a figure is by constitutional means. When elections mean nothing, neither does democracy.”
Amen. (Emphasis mine.)
AP: “QUITO, Ecuador — Former president Lucio Gutierrez holed up in the Brazilian Embassy here yesterday after Brazil offered him political asylum, awaiting a flight into exile as Ecuadorans tried to return to normalcy after a week of street violence and political chaos.”
Washington Post editorial: “…like Bolivia before it, Ecuador is suffering from a dangerous crumbling of the political order it has lived by since it embraced civilian democratic rule 25 years ago.”
New York Times: “A day after President Lucio Guti�rrez was driven from power, his successor, Alfredo Palacio, named a new cabinet on Thursday, including a left-leaning economy minister likely to appeal to poor Ecuadoreans, while working to gain legitimacy with Washington and Ecuador’s Latin American neighbors.”
And finally, Les Blough, Editor or Axis of Logic, directs me to this dispatch on his site. It’s from a few days back but contains some interesting images.