[CS-FSLUG] Pray for Ecuador

[Stephen J. McCracken]

Josiah Ritchie wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 11:34 -0500, Stephen J. McCracken wrote:
> 
>>Josiah Ritchie wrote:
>>
>>>Passing the word... Thanks for keeping us abreast of the situation.
>>>JSR/
>>>
>>>On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 23:31 -0500, Stephen J. McCracken wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Please pray for Ecuador right now.  Tonight a State of Emergency has
>>>>been declared for Quito and, in effect, President Gutierrez has declared
>>>>himself a dictator according to various mayors and representatives by
>>
>>In order to keep you informed, the state of emergency was withdrawn (it
>>was basically ignored by many protestors anyway) but the protests
>>against the government are spreading to other major cites in the country
>>besides Quito.
> 
> 
> Was this simply sparked by the self-decleration of the leader as a
> dictator? What in the governmental structure will prevent such action
> (for that matter, what is the form of government?) I'll gladly mention
> this in prayer meeting tonight.

Ecuador has an elected government (democracy), though the the high level 
of corruption has the politicians acting more on self interest than for 
the good of the people.  This situation is not completely unusual here 
as the people rose up to oust the last elected president (Mahuad) in 
2000 (He escaped to the USA and the vice president (Noboa) followed 
basically the same policies and at the end of his term took off to Costa 
Rica).  In 1997 they ousted another elected president (Bucaram) 
(Congress declared him unfit to serve - and he looted the coffers and 
took something like $60million to Panama).

A simplified look at teh situation now:
The current problems stem from people seeing him step all over the 
constitution here.  Back on Dec. 8th, 2004 he, with some political 
negociation, convinced his allies in the Congress to oust the Supreme 
Court (he said it was corrupt) with judges more favorable to his 
government.  This is against the constitution and there has been 
rumblings since then, but people were waiting mostly for the 
congress/polititians to solve the crisis.

The problem came to a head when the president of the new Supreme Court 
(a good friend of the president ousted in 1997) threw out and voided the 
cases against the president of 1997 (Bucaram), the President that left 
for Costa Rica at the end of his term (Noboa), and a prior Vice 
President (Dahik).  Most are saying that this is in return for the 
support of their political parties for the ouster of the Supreme Court 
in December.  The very next day the three came back to Ecuador to 
celebrate the situation.

This voiding of the case and allowing Bucaram back (most attencion is 
paid to him rather than Dahik or Noboa because he, it is said, robbed 
the state blind in leaving--taking money out by sackfuls) is mostly what 
brought on the street protests.  From there it has been slowly 
escalating.  The protests and the inability of Congress to solve the 
situation, provoked the President to declare the State of Emergency and 
throw out the new Supreme Court (although he was incidental in creating 
the new Supreme Court).  This was another unconstitutional step that 
many comentators said was him showing his true self and becoming a dictator.

Well, continuing protests (ignoring the State of Emergency) caused him 
to lift the State of Emergency after talking with the President of the 
Congress to convene a special session to deal with the Supreme Court 
crisis.  Late Sunday evening, the Congress voted to nullify the decision 
of the 8th of December, but couldn't agree on the state (whether to 
nullify or let stand) of the decisions the unconstitutional court had 
made.  (Side note: The President of the Congress is from the same 
political party as Bucaram (the ousted President of 1997) and at one 
recess in the session on Sunday night called Bucaram to consult him on 
what to do.)

Some thought that the solving of the Supreme Court situation on Sunday 
(although it is still to be decided as to how to fill the Court--right 
now it is empty) would qwell the protests, but it looks like it has goe 
too far and people are fed up with the political situation and the 
politicians here.  (One friend said that she thought the protests would 
continue as long as Bucaram was still in the country without being 
charged.)  Yesterday (Monday) other cities had entered into the protests 
and the news this noon was saying that many of the indiginous people had 
come into Quito to join the protests.

There are other things going on like the cutting off of electricity to 
the transmitter sites of some radio stations against the government and 
even, it seems, conducting "electronic warfare" of sending out 
interference on the same band as one of the stations that has been the 
gathering point of some of the protests.

For the most part it hasn't had too much effect yet on HCJB (except 
probably running the diesel backup generator at the transmitter site for 
6 or so hours last night and transferring the AM broadcast to a weaker 
antenna signal).  It seems that the protests mostly are in the evening 
after work as most people can't afford not to go in to work.  HCJB 
historically has also tried to always stay apolitical.

So, while things could change, right now it hasn't affected us much. (We 
also lost power suspiciously in our house for an hour and a half last 
night during the news hour--but restored prior to the President's 
message to the country trying to show the reasons not to try and oust 
him.)  But losing power is not completely out of the norm here.

Anyway, that's a quick synopsis of the situation and we are grateful for 
your prayers.

sjm