Six ousted opposition lawmakers fled to Colombia after an Ecuadorean prosecutor requested that they and their colleagues be arrested for sedition.
Prosecutor Elsa Moreno accused two dozen ousted legislators of disregarding authority after they declared themselves to be legitimate congressmen based on a ruling this week handed down by Ecuador's Constitutional Tribunal.
TRIBUNAL DISMISSED
The tribunal was dismissed by the sitting congress as President Rafael Correa tightened his hold over all branches of government.
On Tuesday, Correa disregarded the tribunal's ruling and surrounded Congress with police to prevent the lawmakers from returning.
Alfonso Harb, one of the six ousted congressmen who fled to Colombia, on Wednesday said the prosecutor's request for the arrest warrants represents "political persecution against the opposition congressmen. ... We were dismissed unfairly in violation of the Constitution."
More than half of congress was fired last month by an electoral tribunal that accused the lawmakers of interfering with a referendum on the need for a new constitution.
An overwhelming 82 percent of voters last week approved the election of a constitutional assembly that Correa hopes will reduce the power of political parties.
`PERSECUTION'
Ousted congresswoman Gloria Gallardo, also in Colombia, said that lawmakers feared for their lives and were evaluating whether to request political asylum from Colombian authorities.
She said they fled Ecuador to escape the "political persecution they are suffering" because of Correa's government.
Correa said he opposed the prosecutor's request to a judge for the arrest orders.
The judge, Elsa Sanchez, said she was studying the request.
But Correa warned that if any of the dismissed lawmakers tried to enter Congress by force, "it will be necessary to send them to prison."
The dismissal of the tribunal effectively consolidated Correa's control over the courts and legislature in the politically unstable Andean nation.
Correa is Ecuador's eighth president in a decade.
During that period, Congress has dismissed three unpopular presidents and has violated impeachment proceedings in the process.
On Wednesday, the top US diplomat for the Americas, Thomas Shannon, voiced support for political reform in Ecuador, saying that "the Ecuadorean people spoke with a firm voice in the referendum."
FRENCH AID: Paris has sent a navy ship and aircraft from Reunion Island with some pollution control equipment, but rough seas are spreading the oil spill The operator of a Japanese bulk carrier which ran aground off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean yesterday apologized for a major oil spill, which officials and environmentalists say is creating an ecological disaster, as police prepared to board the ship. The MV Wakashio, operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, struck the reef on Mauritius’ southeast coast on July 25. “We apologize profusely and deeply for the great trouble we have caused,” Mitsui OSK Lines executive vice president Akihiko Ono said at a news conference in Tokyo. The company would “do everything in their power to resolve the issue,” he said. At least 1,000 tonnes of
They stand as eyesores to most passers-by and potential public health risks to authorities, decaying buildings wrapped in tangles of exposed wire, studded with protruding leaky plastic pipes, vegetation billowing from cracks and terraces where particulates from polluted air have accumulated over time. With skyscrapers and ultramodern developments on every side, some of these “nail houses” are also sitting on land worth millions of dollars in Shenzhen’s inferno of a property market, where new-unit and second-hand home prices rival London. In battles over land and development, the nail house phenomenon has become widespread throughout China over the past two decades, with owners
An Italian alpine resort on Friday remained on high alert over fears that a vast chunk of a glacier on the slopes of the Mont Blanc massif could plummet in high temperatures. “No one gets through! No cars, bikes or pedestrians,” was the message at a checkpoint where an automatic barrier and two guards blocked the small road snaking up into a lush valley below the Planpincieux glacier, near the town of Courmayeur and the Italian-French border. The blockade has largely been greeted with contempt by the locals, one of whom said: “It’s a joke.” The huge ice block measuring around 500,000 cubic
BEYOND CULTURE: The US State Department was expected to announce that the Chinese government-funded institutes would have to register as foreign missions US President Donald Trump’s administration is increasing scrutiny of a long-established Chinese-government funded program that is dedicated to teaching Chinese language and culture in the US and other nations, the latest escalation of tensions with Beijing. The US Department of State was expected to announce as soon as yesterday that Confucius Institutes in the US — many of which are based on college campuses — would have to register as “foreign missions,” according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The designation would amount to a conclusion that the institutes are “substantially owned or effectively controlled” by
RSS