Today’s
Political
Situation
Ecuador’s
current
President
is
President
Alfredo
Palacio,
who
took
over
after
the
former
President
Lucio
Gutierrez
was
thrown
out
of
office
in
April
2005.
Gutierrez
was
removed
as
President
by
Congress
after
widespread
demonstrations
throughout
the
country.
Gutierrez
then
left
Ecuador
for
Brazil
and
Colombia
where
he
remained
in
political
asylum.
He
returned
to
Ecuador
in
October
2005
and
was
immediately
arrested,
only
to
be
released
by
the
Supreme
Court
in
March
2006.
He
is
now
planning
to
stand
for
the
Presidency
in
the
next
Presidential
Elections,
due
to
be
held
in
October
2006.
Despite
Ecuador’s
turbulent
political
situation,
the
country
remains
a
traveller’s
paradise
and
continues
to
fascinate
and
reward
those
who
choose
to
explore
this
small
but
special
country.
Ecuador’s
Political
History
One of the least politically stable
of
the
South
American
republics
for
most
of
its
history,
Ecuador
had
86
governments
and
17
constitutions
in
its
first
159
years
of
independence.
Only
twenty
of
those
governments
resulted
from
popular
elections,
and
many
of
the
elections
were
fraudulent.
Jose
Maria
Velasco
Ibarra,
who
completed
only
one
of
his
five
terms
as
president,
was
often
known
to
state,
"Ecuador
is
a
very
difficult
country
to
govern."
Ecuador
had
four
successive
democratic
elections
from
1948
to
1960,
but
the
country
did
not
experience
relative
political
stability
under
democratic
rule
again
until
the
1980s.
Seven
years
of
military
dictatorship
ended
with
the
presidential
inauguration
of
Jaime
Roldos
Aguilera
on
August
10,
1979.
After
Roldos
died
in
an
airplane
crash
on
May
24,
1981,
Vice
President
Osvaldo
Hurtado
Larrea
assumed
the
presidency.
The
completion
of
the
Hurtado/Roldos
administration
and
the
constitutional
and
orderly
transfer
of
power--the
first
such
transfer
in
twenty-four
years--to
conservative
Leon
Febres
Cordero
Ribadeneyra
[1984-88]
in
August
1984
seemed
to
affirm
the
restoration
of
democracy
in
Ecuador.
Nevertheless,
as
Roldos
himself
had
cautioned
shortly
before
taking
office,
the
nation
had
only
a
formalistic
and
ritualistic
democratic
tradition.
Indeed,
Ecuador
has
been
shaken
periodically
since
1984
by
bitter
conflicts
between
the
executive
branch
on
the
one
side
and
the
unicameral
legislature
and
the
judiciary
on
the
other.
These
clashes
were
particularly
pronounced
during
Febres
Cordero's
polemical
administration.
His
authoritarian
rule
also
provoked
military
mutinies
and
even
his
brief
abduction
by
rebellious
troops.
Although
battered,
Ecuador's
democratic
system
survived,
and
Febres
Cordero
transferred
power
to
his
long-time
rival,
Rodrigo
Borja
Cevallos,
in
August
1988.
Whereas
Febres
Cordero,
a
millionaire
businessman
from
Guayaquil,
had
advocated
a
free-market
economy,
strong
executive
control,
and
close
alignment
with
the
United
States,
Borja,
a
social
democrat
from
Quito,
espoused
a
mixed
economy,
a
pluralist
government,
and
a
nonaligned
foreign
policy.
In
his
first
two
years,
Borja
succeeded
in
softening
the
impact
of
his
predecessor's
legacy
of
political,
economic,
and
social
crises.
Despite
a
decade
of
civilian
democratic
rule
marked
by
three
peaceful
transitions
of
government,
analysts
generally
agreed
that
the
political
system
remained
vulnerable.
Political
scientist
John
D.
Martz
noted,
for
instance,
that
the
transition
to
a
third
democratic
government
in
1988
provided
"little
reason
to
believe
that
the
fragile
democratic
system
in
Ecuador
had
been
strengthened,
nor
that
the
historic
pattern
of
instability
had
been
fundamentally
reversed
or
modified."
The
destabilizing
conflicts
among
the
executive,
legislative,
and
judicial
branches
of
government
resulted
primarily
from
idiosyncrasies
of
Ecuador's
institutional
structure.
For
example,
the
judiciary,
despite
being
independent,
lacked
the
authority
needed
to
serve
as
an
effective
check
on
the
abuse
of
presidential
powers.
Although
the
Supreme
Court
of
Justice
[Corte
Supremo
de
Justicia--CSJ]
carried
out
many
judicial
duties
normally
expected
of
a
nation's
highest
court,
it
did
not
rule
on
constitutional
issues.
A
nonjudicial
appendage
of
the
National
Congress
[Congreso
Nacional--hereafter,
Congress],
the
Tribunal
of
Constitutional
Guarantees
[Tribunal
de
Garantias
Constitucionales--TGC],
exercised
that
function,
thereby
giving
the
legislative
body
the
power
to,
in
effect,
control
interpretation
of
the
Constitution.
The
traditional,
deep-seated
division
between
the
liberal,
trade-oriented,
tropical
Costa
[coastal
region]
and
the
conservative,
agrarian-oriented
Sierra
[Andean
highlands]
also
helped
explain
Ecuador's
bitter
infighting
over
political
and
economic
affairs.
This
fundamental
division
pitted
the
Pacific
port
city
of
Guayaquil,
the
country's
principal
economic
center,
against
the
highland
capital
of
Quito.
The
enmity
between
natives
of
Guayaquil
and
of
Quito
was
reflected
in
the
alignment
of
the
country's
sixteen
registered
political
parties,
in
the
1988
elections,
as
well
as
in
the
refusal
of
outgoing
President
Febres
Cordero,
a
native
of
Guayaquil,
to
speak
to
his
successor,
Rodrigo
Borja,
a
native
of
Quito,
or
even
to
personally
pass
the
presidential
sash
to
him
on
August
10,
1988.
According
to
political
scientist
and
former
president
Hurtado,
rivalry
among
provinces
and
regions
for
central
government
attention
in
the
form
of
development
projects,
principally
road
construction,
also
was
a
major
source
of
political
conflict.
Although
Ecuador's
political
parties
and
its
free
and
partisan
press
participated
in
a
lively
and
contentious
democratic
political
process,
parties
suffered
from
factionalism,
weak
organization,
lack
of
mass
participation,
and
blurred
ideologies,
as
well
as
from
the
competing
influences
of
populism
and
militarism.
Analysts
generally
agreed
that
the
proliferation
of
small
parties
and
the
need
to
negotiate
alliances
contributed
significantly
to
political
instability
in
the
1980s.
Last
updated
12th
June
2006
