Ecuador's military generals last night demanded the resignation of the country's president, amid civil uprisings that saw 2,000 indigenous Indians storm the parliament building, reports Nicole Veash.
The Defence Minister, Gen Carlos Mendoza, chief of armed forces operations, said that the military had withdrawn support for the president and was asking him to resign.
The emergency meeting of the military top brass came after indigenous groups - with the help of a few sympathetic soldiers - broke into the empty Congress building and declared a new government.
However, Gen Mendoza was quick to separate the resignation calls from the demands of the Indians from the military's attitude. He added that the military still supported democracy and did not want a coup, only a new president.
Only last week, the military's council of generals published an advertisement in the country's newspapers saying that President Mahuad had their full support.
Appearing on national television, the embattled President Jamil Mahuad said: "In the face of the insinuation that I resign as president, it is an insinuation that I cannot and will not accept. "I cannot resign and leave Ecuador in chaos."
Ecuador is suffering its worst economic crisis since records began in 1927. Since the start of trading in January, 15 per cent of the value has been wiped off its currency.
Last week the Harvard-educated President announced plans to save Ecuador's collapsing economy by replacing the national currency, the Sucre, with the dollar.
Making up some 25 per cent of the population, Ecuador's Indians are an organised political force which has have long demanded a greater degree of autonomy from so-called Spanish "invaders".
They oppose President Mahuad's plans to dollarise saying that it would bring mass unemployment.
Last night, local media reported that President Mahuad had left his presidential palace in an ambulance surrounded by a motorcycle cavalcade. He tried to make his way to the airport, but found it closed on his arrival.
The Andean Community's presidential council, comprising leaders of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, expressed "firm and energetic" support for President Mahuad. Washington rejected "the actions of those who have occupied the Ecuadorean national Congress and are seeking to establish an unconstitutional regime."