New Ecuador President Struggles With Foes
www.tuscaloosanews.com By MONTE HAYES Associated Press Writer January 14, 2003
Lucio Gutierrez, a cashiered army colonel and former coup leader, didn't wait until he takes office Wednesday as Ecuador's new president to seek a showdown with what he calls a corrupt political establishment.
But his first forays, including a failed attempt to gain control of Congress, have left him bruised and looking inept.
Gutierrez has been forced to back down from a series of demands and threats, and to apologize publicly for declaring the country's ex-presidents should be in jail for their responsibility in "the national disaster."
In the days before he assumes power, Gutierrez has also been accused of an authoritarian streak, bringing comparisons to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the former paratrooper and coup leader whose leftist rhetoric has divided Venezuela and led to growing political instability.
"I think they are different personalities but their political plans are not so different," said Benjamin Ortiz, head of a Quito think tank. "His goal is to accumulate political power and if he achieves it, it will be a beginning similar to that of Chavez, who began with popular referendums."
Gutierrez, frequently referred to simply as "the Colonel," thrust himself into the national spotlight three years ago when he led a group of disgruntled junior army officers and 5,000 Indian protesters in an uprising that drove the highly unpopular Jamil Mahuad from power amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
Gutierrez, 45, won an election runoff in November on pledges to bring an end to corruption.
He promised to reduce the number of lawmakers, eliminate political party influence over the court system and extradite bankers implicated in a 1999 collapse of the banking system. He plans to call popular referendums to achieve his reforms.
"I am going to govern the country. I am chief of state and those who prevent Ecuador from advancing, well, we'll do it over their heads," he said. "I will call the people to march and Lucio Gutierrez will be at the head. The country has to change, whatever the cost."
Gutierrez's woes began last week when he reacted angrily after he failed to negotiate an agreement with opposition parties that would have given him control of the 100-member Congress. Gutierrez's political coalition has only 17 seats.
He declared he would not take the oath of office in Congress but in front of "the people" in another forum. But when told the constitution required the oath be taken in Congress and that his vice president would be sworn in as president instead, Gutierrez backed down.
He then threatened not to accept the presidential banner from the Congress president, whose election he questioned as unconstitutional, before again backing down.
"He has no political experience and isn't familiar with constitutional norms, the mechanisms of negotiation," said Simon Pachano, a political scientist. "He is showing the authoritarian spirit of a military man. He is chief of the executive branch. He can't give orders to Congress."
Besides insulting the country's nine former presidents in a newspaper interview Sunday, Gutierrez took special aim at former President Leon Febres Cordero, who as head of the country's largest party, the Social Christians, is probably the most powerful political figure in Ecuador, except for the president. Gutierrez called him "one of the most destructive men in the country."
Responding in a a statement, Febres Cordero said "Gutierrez's declarations...demonstrate his lack of democratic spirit."
"Until now, Col. Gutierrez has been characterized by his contradictions, by his declarations and denials, which reveal a confused and disorienting personality."
Gutierrez also has worried Ecuadoreans with reported plans to force out the top 27 officers in the army, air force and navy so he can choose members of the joint military command from younger officers who served with him. News reports of the plan provoked a public protest from the military command.
"He has made mistakes with the generals, he has made mistakes with the ex-presidents, his reforms are unsustainable," Ortiz said. "He has spent a good part of his political capital before beginning to govern."