|
At least Ecuador got it right!
He left on a plane for Brazil today and is now exiled. You think Brazil could send a plane for Paul Martin? As i said, if the shenanigans in Ottawa happened anywhere else the streets would be on fire. In Canada we cant even agree on an election to get rid of him.
| quote: |
Ecuador president ends state of emergency
Defying order not to assemble, thousands called for his ouster
Saturday, April 16, 2005 Posted: 7:20 PM EDT (2320 GMT)
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez called off a state of emergency in the capital Saturday as thousands defied his ban on demonstrations and demanded his resignation.
Gutierrez rescinded the measure less than 24 hours after he imposed it in hopes of stifling a wave of peaceful street protests demanding his ouster.
Speaking over national television, Gutierrez said he was annulling the decree, which suspended civil liberties, including the right to free expression and assembly, because he had "obtained the principal objective, which is the dismissal of the Supreme Court" after he dissolved that Friday.
Residents of the capital had defied the state of emergency imposed late Friday night, taking to the streets by the thousands and honking horns across the city, demanding that Gutierrez quit.
The military, which under the state of emergency was charged with maintaining public order, was not evident on the streets as thousands of people disobeyed the decree and staged a peaceful demonstration, punctuated by the honking horns and shouts of "Lucio Out!" and "Democracy yes, dictatorship, no!"
Although they had opposed the court that was stacked by Gutierrez, his political foes immediately labeled its summary dissolution an act of a dictator.
Early Saturday morning, the military command went on television to give its implicit support to Gutierrez. Adm. Victor Hug Rosier, head of the armed forces, said the only purpose of the state of emergency was "to recover the order, peace and tranquility lost during the last days."
Despite the restriction on public meetings, thousands of residents poured into Quito's streets Friday to protest the measures, shouting that Gutierrez, a former army colonel before his election in 2002, was a dictator.
"I want him to go and the congress, too. All the politicians have shown themselves to be corrupt," said Gorge Moor, 43, a civil engineer, accompanied by his 9-year-old daughter, who was waving a small yellow, blue and red Ecuadorean flag.
Quito Mayor Paco Moncayo, a retired army general and a leader of the opposition Democratic Left party, criticized the military command for supporting Gutierrez's actions. "The president can't dissolve the court. We are living in a dictatorship and this decree unmasks the dictatorship," he said. "We are calling for civil disobedience."
Street protests began Wednesday in response to an impromptu suggestion of a local radio station that residents of Quito form a nocturnal pot-banging caravan. They increased in numbers until at least 10,000 people -- banging pots and sticks and shouting "Get out, Lucio!" -- were marching in the streets as Gutierrez made his announcement Friday.
The court crisis was set in motion in November when the former justices sided with opposition politicians in a failed effort to impeach Gutierrez on corruption charges. Gutierrez then assembled a bloc of 52 lawmakers in the 100-seat unicameral congress, which voted in December to remove the judges. Legal experts said the vote ran contrary to Ecuador's constitution.
Opponents say Gutierrez cut a deal with former President Abdala Bucaram to stack the Supreme Court and clear Bucaram of corruption charges as payback for key votes Bucaram's political party provided last year blocking the impeachment drive against Gutierrez in congress.
The court cleared Bucaram of the charges and he returned to Ecuador earlier this month after eight years in exile.
In a bid to ease the political backlash, in late March Gutierrez proposed a judicial reform that would replace the new court and establish new methods for selecting judges. The legislature has not acted on the proposal.
Gutierrez was elected president in November 2002 after campaigning as a populist, anti-corruption reformer. But his left-leaning constituency soon fell apart after he instituted austerity measures, including cutting subsidies on food and cooking fuel, to satisfy lenders like the International Monetary Fund |
stacking the court with government friendly judges and corruption allegations.. sound familiar?
___________________
| quote: | Originally posted by jester
Everything in this country is illegal. |
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery…" Winston Churchill
"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law" - Winston Churchill
|
