Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutierrez Saturday lifted a state of emergency in the country's capital after Congress scheduled a special session to discuss the political crisis prompted by mass protests against recent judicial reforms.
"We have fulfilled the primary goal to suspend the Supreme Court of Justice," Gutierrez said, announcing on television an end to the state of emergency decreed Friday that saw members of the Supreme Court removed.
The president's decision came after a meeting with Congress Speaker Omar Quintana, judicial advisers and military commanders.
PHOTO: EPA
Gutierrez's emergency declaration had curbed individual liberties and empowered the government to take extraordinary measures to quell unrest in Quito.
In a televised address to the nation Friday, Gutierrez justified the drastic measures saying he had been compelled to do so to maintain calm and stability in the country. But opponents swiftly criticized the president's move as worthy of a dictator, and legal experts said they did not believe he had the authority to dissolve the high court by decree.
"We are informing the legislators one by one so that they attend the extraordinary session in Quito this Sunday," Quintana said. The 100-member Congress had been set to meet Tuesday to discuss the future of the court.
"At the moment the country is without a Supreme Court," said Ecuador's Justice Minister Oscar Ayerve as he urged lawmakers to find a mechanism as they meet that will allow a new, independent judiciary to be designated.
But many Ecuadorans drove through Quito's main streets sounding their vehicles' horns in protest, as around 200 police and soldiers were posted around the government headquarters.
Opponents called for Gutierrez's resignation. Vice President Alfredo Palacios, running mate to Gutierrez in the 2002 election, added his voice in opposition. "I reject, as much as anyone, the dictatorial state of affairs that the Ecuadoran people are being subjected to."
"Lucio has taken off his mask and has shown himself to be a complete dictator," said Carlos Solorzano, a former Supreme Court chief justice, who said the president had violated the Constitution and had no power to shut down the court.
Solorzano and others, including former president Leon Febres Cordero, said only the legislature could dissolve the high court and name a new one under Ecuador's Constitution.
But the armed forces expressed support for Gutierrez. Vice Admiral Victor Hugo Rosero, the chief of the joint command, said the sole aim of the state of emergency was "to recover the peace and order lost in the last few days."
In a statement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his concern and called for a constitutional and peaceful solution to the crisis.
"The Secretary General is following with concern the latest developments in Ecuador," spokesman Fred Eckhard said. "The present crisis may aggravate an already unstable situation."
Gutierrez had said Friday he would not allow lawmakers to reform the Supreme Court through a simple congressional resolution, insisting that new changes should take place after consulting the people.
Several labor unions have launched a series of 24-hour strikes, blaming the president for attempts to manipulate the court to consolidate his power. Some schools have closed, but banks have remained open.
Protesters have been infuriated by the Supreme Court's decisions not to put on trial former presidents Abdala Bucaram, who ruled Ecuador from 1996 to 1997, and Gustavo Noboa, president from 2000 to 2003.
Bucaram had lived in exile in Panama, while Noboa had found refuge in the Dominican Republic.
But the court decision allowed the former leaders, both allies of Gutierrez, to return to Ecuador in early April.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS