>Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 11:59:18 -0800 >From: Sam Pawlett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > > ========================================= > Most of the country's 4 million Indians > live in poverty, and Indian groups > strongly opposed Mahuad's plan to > replace the national currency, the sucre, > with the U.S. dollar. >________________ ========================================= >CNN > >Saturday, 22 January 2000 > > Ecuador's Noboa assumes power after coup > ---------------------------------------- > >QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador Vice President Gustavo Noboa on Saturday said he >had assumed power over the Andean country, shortly after a three-man >military junta that had ousted President Jamil Mahuad was dissolved. > >"Under the laws laid out in the constitution I find myself under the >obligation of assuming the presidency of Ecuador," Noboa said at a news >conference. "I have the support of the armed forces and national police." > >After speaking with U.S. officials, junta member Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who >until Friday had been defense minister in Mahuad's government, said he was >stepping aside and allowing Noboa to take control, according to Reuters >and The Associated Press. Mendoza had joined the junta along with Indian >leader Antonio Vargas and former Supreme Court Judge Carlos Solorzano. > >A decree signed at the Ecuador Defense Ministry Saturday morning >authorized the transfer of authority, the AP reported. > >"What we were trying to do was prevent the international isolation of >Ecuador," said Mendoza. > >Washington had threatened punishing repercussions for any overthrow of the >constitutional order. > >The increasingly unpopular Mahuad presided over an economy beset by >rampant inflation and high unemployment. Troops joined Indian protesters >who seized control of the country's Congress building Friday afternoon. > > > OAS condemns revolt > ------------------- > >Mahuad was reportedly at a military airfield outside Quito early Saturday, >but Mendoza said he did not know the president's whereabouts. In >Washington, the Organization of American States condemned the revolt and >urged support for Mahuad's government. > >Mahuad refused the demands of military leaders that he step down Friday, >vowing, "I am not going to abandon you." But a short time later, he left >the presidential palace as demonstrators stormed government offices. > >Hundreds of Indians and an unknown number of military officers stormed an >empty Congress building, seized the podium and announced that they had >created their own "Parliament of the People." > >Mahuad's government has struggled for months amid Ecuador's worst economic >crisis since the Great Depression. Protesters called the government >corrupt and unresponsive. > >The military, which recently pledged support for democracy and the >constitutional process, withdrew its support Friday to prevent what one >general called "a social explosion." > > > Unemployment, inflation rampant > ------------------------------- > >"I think that we have completed what the spirits forecasted," Vargas said. >"We are going to work for the people and fight against corruption." > >A U.S.-educated reformer, Mahuad has been unable to pull the country's >economy out of a spin that has left barely one in three workers with a >full-time job. > >Most of the country's 4 million Indians live in poverty, and Indian groups >strongly opposed Mahuad's plan to replace the national currency, the >sucre, with the U.S. dollar. > >"Ecuador is paying for the consequences of a culmination of problems in >the past years," said political analyst Simon Pachano. > >"It's one of the countries with the worst distribution of wealth in Latin >America ... It's a country that hasn't found an adequate political system >to represent and process its problems and conflicts. All of these crises >came about in the last few years, not just now," Pachano said. > > Copyright 2000 CNN >________________________________________________________________ >**************************************************************** >* CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * >* http://www.prairienet.org/clm * >* and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * >* Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or * >* Dennis Grammenos at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * >* To subscribe send request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * >* subscribe clm-news Your Name * >**************************************************************** > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
