Ecuador's Congress fires President Gutierrez

Yo quiero Taco Bell. I don't think Venezuela's last chapter in the struggle against its new tyrant is yet over by any stretch - that airplane of Chávez may well never even fly. Many locals don't care for much for dictators, Communist Cubans, Chinese, Islamofascists or any of the other usual suspects we find orbiting that pack of murderous rats.

Actually, before old Lucio, Ecuador was moving along just fine. I've been there twice now (my wife is from Ecuador).

Lucio came in, bribed some key folks, dismissed the Supreme Court, then stacked the court with allies. He went on to bribe the houses (Congress, as it were), and was moving to become like Hugo Chavez very quickly. He was said to be very friendly to Castro and Chavez, and trying to work their example in his country.

Lucio pressed hard to force people to show up to work on time (it is tradition in Ecuador, like some areas of Japan, to show up to work a little late), then showed up very very late regularly to his own job and meetings. They mockingly called it "Lucio time" in Ecuador. It was an exercise/demonstration of power, nothing less.

Ecuador is very wary of their neighbor Chavez, and their people are quite pro-American. During the time of global protest against Iraq, you were hard pressed to find any organized protest in Ecuador.

The people have spoken is what this move tells me. Our American Ambassador had suspiciously spoken of his support for Lucio, which now looks to have been a PR move (he must have had intelligence telling him that this was coming and to avoid making any aggressive statements -- IMHO).

They acted before it was too late. Everyone saw what was going on, and moved accordingly. Viva Ecuador!!!

ALARM - demonstrators occupy the airport to prevent the president from leaving

QUITO - A group of demonstrators occupied Wednesday the track of the airport of Quito to prevent the president relieved Lucio Gutierrez to go up on board a plane of the army, noted AFP.

Hey, what goes around comes around, as they say.

Lucio was one of the key plotters who overthrew Mahuad, even though in the end he has effectively continued Mahuad's policies. The plotters were on Chavez' dime back when, and he has followed Chavez' play book by firing the Supremes.

The recent move, to pave the way for Bucaram's return from exile, smells like corruption. Bucaram was famously corrupt, even proudly corrupt, so for Lucio to go out on a limb for him is pretty telling evidence of corruption, in my view. Bucaram has lately come out loudly in favor of Chavez, too, just to tie things up nicely.

Ecuador Atty Gen Issues Arrest Order For Ousted President

QUITO (AP)--Ecuador's Acting Attorney General Cecilia Armas issued an arrest order Wednesday for ousted President Lucio Gutierrez after Congress voted to remove him from office and swore in Vice President Alfredo Palacio as the country's new leader.
Armas ordered the new head of the national police to arrest Gutierrez for the violent crackdown on demonstrators that Gutierrez had ordered in recent days.
A special session made up of opposition legislators in the 100-seat unicameral Congress took less than an hour to reach the decision by a vote of 62-0, in hopes of ending a crisis that was quickly spiraling out of control with the threat of violent clashes between Gutierrez supporters and opponents.
Congress President Cyntia Viteri swore in Palacio as president after the vote, in keeping with the country's Constitution.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.