Protestors turn out in Ecuadorian capital
By Eliza Barclay UPI Correspondent
Published April 13, 2005
QUITO, Ecuador -- Members of an opposition movement demanding that the Ecuadorian government dissolve a Supreme Court they say is illegitimate effectively forced the capital into a lock down Wednesday.
Schools, public transportation, museums and other government institutions were closed in Quito and the streets were eerily quiet save for the nodes where hundreds of citizens frustrated with what they see as the erosion of democracy gathered to express disapproval of President Luis Gutierrez and the events of the last several months.
Gutierrez, commonly known as "Lucio," is in a predicament over the legitimacy of the country's Supreme Court and whether corruption and other crimes committed by past presidents should be pardoned.
Tensions initially erupted when a congressional majority allied with Gutierrez voted in December to dismiss 27 out of 31 judges on the Supreme Court. Gutierrez said the decision was reasonable because the Social Christian Party, an opposition party that led a failed attempt to impeach Gutierrez, had an unfair influence and advantage in the court.
Since December's judicial turnover, critics have accused Gutierrez and allied politicians of tampering with the country's legal foundations and pitching the country into a highly volatile state.
But in the past week and a half, anger and apprehension at the president's actions reached a new level with the April 2 return of former President Abdala Bucaram from exile in Panama after the Supreme Court annulled corruption charges against him and two other former political leaders.
The Ecuadorian Congress ousted Bucaram, who liked to call himself "El Loco," or "The Crazy One," from office in 1997 for "mental incapacity" after just six months as president.
Bucaram, who has remained a by and large unpopular political figure, was also accused of spending $40 million in public funds to buy 1.4 million student backpacks for a subsidized school-materials program in late 1996. Many Ecuadorians became furious after it was revealed that only 500,000 of the backpacks were actually delivered.
Analysts say Bucaram's PRE party joined a congressional coalition allied with Gutierrez to clean out the Supreme Court and boost the former leader's chances for a possible run in the 2006 presidential race.
Upon his return to Ecuador last weekend, Bucaram promised to lead a "revolution of the poor" based on President Hugo Chavez's efforts in Venezuela.
"I come to Ecuador to copy Chavez's style with a great Bolivarian revolution," he told reporters.
After Bucaram's arrival, student protestors and intellectuals unleashed a torrent of criticism directed at Gutierrez and the government, some calling he president's actions "dictatorial."
Opposition groups threatened a massive protest Wednesday if the Congress did not vote to dissolve the court and set up a tribunal to review the country?s judicial system. Opposition legislators lacked one vote in the Tuesday vote, the daily El Comercio reported, prompting the plans for the citywide protests to move forward as planned.
On Wednesday morning, Quito Mayor Paco Moncayo and the prefect of the Pinchincha province that includes Quito, Ramiro Gonz?lez, kicked off the marches by reading sections of the country?s constitution. The two leaders also demanded that the federal government uphold the country?s democratic principles.
Quite?os, as Quito natives are known, are well-accustomed to citywide protests and the inconveniences that accompany them.
As police officers clad in grey camouflage uniforms and riot gear set off tear gas bombs near the Congress Wednesday, Quincamora Nicolas, a shoeshiner, patiently sat and watched as protestors and pedestrians ran for cover, their noses and mouths buried in their shirts and their eyes streaming tears.
"I?ve seen so many marches in this city and it always comes to this (with the release of tear gas bombs)," Nicolas said in an interview.
"This city is getting bigger and bigger and the government continues to do nothing to help people with the dire issues they face like hunger and unemployment,? Nicolas added. "Of course they are going to turn out for a protest even if they may not understand the particulars about politics."
A Red Cross volunteer assigned to monitor the protests said the demonstrations had not been particularly violent but that there had been about 20 injuries and three physical skirmishes.
"This situation is very serious for this country but I don?t know if these protests helped at all,? said the volunteer, who said the organization's rules prohibited her from identifying herself.
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