ECUADOR: Ecuadorian president Lucio Gutierrez is hoping for political asylum in Brazil, after Ecuador's congress sacked him for violently crushing a demonstration and swore in vice-president Alfredo Palacio to replace him as head of state
In Ecuador, politics is as volatile as the country's explosive geology, which has no fewer than 30 active volcanoes. Wednesday's turn of events was only the latest crisis in a long history of political instability for the oil-rich, mountainous nation situated on the north-west shoulder of South America. Since 1996 it has had seven presidents. Three of them, including Mr Gutierrez, have been driven from office.
After demonstrators prevented him on Wednesday evening from taking off in his private jet at Quito's main airport, Mr Gutierrez sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy.
Lawmakers swore in vice-president Mr Palacio and he immediately promised to hold a referendum and constitutional assembly to create a new state structure for the Andean nation.
Mr Palacio, a cardiologist, had frequently employed medical metaphors during his public addresses to describe Mr Gutierrez as a strain of dictatorial disease afflicting the nation.
He pledged an end to clientelism saying: "I am no politician. I belong to no political group, no economic group, banking or financial, I'm a simple doctor and my friends are my colleagues and my patients and no one else."
Earlier on Wednesday, a special session made up of opposition legislators in the 100-seat single house congress voted 62-0 to sack Mr Gutierrez in hopes of ending a crisis. Violent clashes between government supporters and opponents had already resulted in at least one death and over 100 injuries.
Mr Gutierrez took office in January 2003 on a populist platform of working for Ecuador's poor but soon angered many by turning full circle and applying economic austerity measures. His recent attempt to pack the Supreme Court with judges loyal to him was seen as an illegal attempt to amass power and sparked several days of protests. Thousands of Ecuadorians in several major cities took to the streets to bang crockery and shout "Lucio Out".
Following congress's decision to remove Mr Gutierrez, Ecuador's military quickly withdrew its support for the embattled leader, who fled in a helicopter from the presidential palace roof.
The protests had undermined the authority of Mr Gutierrez, a retired colonel best known for being one of the leaders of a coup that ousted elected president Jamil Mahuad in 2000. The final straw was his decision to allow the return from asylum in Panama of another former president, Abdala Bucaram, who was in office for six months before congress removed him in February 1997 for "mental incapacity".
Mr Bucaram earned this reputation by singing in a pop group as president, shaving off his Charlie Chaplin-style moustache on national TV and trying to get his overweight teenage son onto a professional soccer team.
Mr Gutierrez's opponents said he had cut a deal with Mr Bucaram to have the Supreme Court clear him of corruption charges. They believe Mr Bucaram, or El Loco, as he is known locally, was allowed to return as payback for political support provided by his party last year to block an impeachment effort against Mr Gutierrez under way in congress.
Yesterday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Ecuadorians to revoke violence and follow the constitution to hold fresh elections. "We are simply asking everyone to keep calm in the area. . . There needs now to be a constitutional process to get to elections, if that is what is in the future," she said.