ECUADOR: PRESIDENT LUCIO GUTIERREZ FIRES ENTIRE SUPREME COURT AND DECLARES STATE OF EMEGENCY IN CAPITAL QUITO IN BID TO QUELL PROTESTS

Record ID: 506180

  • Title: ECUADOR: PRESIDENT LUCIO GUTIERREZ FIRES ENTIRE SUPREME COURT AND DECLARES STATE OF EMEGENCY IN CAPITAL QUITO IN BID TO QUELL PROTESTS
  • Date: 15th April 2005
  • Summary: (BN09) QUITO, ECUADOR (APRIL 16, 2005) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) PAN: THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS DEMANDING THE OUSTING OF PRESIDENT GUTIERREZ, WAVING FLAGS PROTESTERS CHANTING, "IT'S OVER" ("SE ACABO") PROTESTING WOMAN AND CHILDREN JUMPING UP AND DOWN DEMONSTRATORS BANGING ON POTS AND CHANTING WIDE OF PROTESTERS CHANTING VARIOUS OF POLICE VEHICLES BLOCKING STREET AND AUTHORITIES KEEPING GUARD DURING EMERGENCY (4 SHOTS) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th April 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: QUITO, ECUADOR
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4UM32ZNPOZ5YFZVAD97JMMTSQ
  • Story Text: Ecuador's President fires the entire Supreme Court
    and declares a state of emergency.


    Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez fired the
    entire Supreme Court late on Friday (April 15) in an
    attempt to end a political crisis and declared a state of
    emergency in the capital Quito to quell protests.

    "The magistrates of the current Supreme Court are
    declared dismissed," former army colonel Gutierrez said in
    a surprise television address to the nation.

    He also declared the Andean mountain capital in a state
    of emergency, which restricts rights to assembly and
    expression.

    But thousands of enraged citizens rushed onto the
    streets of Quito to defy the emergency and protest, waving
    flags, bashing pots and calling on Gutierrez to quit. The
    security forces did not immediately move to disperse them.

    It was the second time Ecuador's Supreme Court has been
    fired in four months.

    In December, a short-lived pro-government congressional
    majority dismissed an earlier court at the behest of
    Gutierrez, who argued it was biased against him. The
    opposition accused him of behaving like a dictator and the
    president's attempts to end the subsequent congressional
    deadlock failed.

    Protests grew louder when the new president of the
    Supreme Court, named by pro-government legislators, threw
    out corruption charges against a key Gutierrez ally, Abdala
    Bucaram. This allowed the former president to return from
    eight years of exile in Panama earlier in April.

    The United States and the United Nations both expressed
    concern about government interference with the courts and
    Gutierrez lost his congressional majority, delaying key
    economic legislation.

    In a bid to end the crisis, Gutierrez offered to set up
    an independent body to name new judges, in a judicial
    reform he said should be approved by a referendum. But the
    opposition rejected the proposal, demanding the immediate
    dismissal of the Supreme Court.

    The political crisis has reawakened memories of popular
    unrest that has led to the overthrow of two Ecuadorean
    presidents since 1997.

    Gutierrez himself served jail time for leading an
    attempted coup in 2000. He was elected in late 2002 with
    support from the poor majority but has alienated many
    supporters by negotiating with the International Monetary
    Fund and pursuing austere economic policies.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register