Ecuador's Congress removes president

QUITO, Ecuador -- Lawmakers in Ecuador voted Wednesday to remove embattled President Lucio Gutierrez from office after a week of escalating street protests demanding his ouster, and they swore in Vice President Alfredo Palacio to replace him.\nAn unidentified army official in combat gear said on television that Gutierrez and his wife, Congresswoman Ximena Bohorquez, had left the palace. An Associated Press photographer saw a small helicopter land briefly on the palace roof and a figure climb aboard. Panama's Ambassador Mateo Castillero denied reports that Gutierrez had sought political asylum in Panama.\nEarlier Wednesday, a special session made up of opposition legislators in the 100-seat unicameral Congress took less than an hour to reach the decision in a 62-0 vote in hopes of ending a crisis that was spiraling out of control with the threat of violent clashes between Gutierrez supporters and opponents.\nPalacio, who broke with Gutierrez after they were elected, was sworn in by Congress President Cyntia Viteri after the vote.\nAdm. Victor Hugo Rosero, head of the joint chiefs of staff, announced after the vote that the military had withdrawn its support for Gutierrez.\nLegislators based their decision on a clause in the Constitution that allows Congress to remove a president for "abandonment of the position." Congressman Ramiro Rivera made the motion, arguing that because Gutierrez had not complied faithfully with the responsibilities of the presidency, Congress should declare it vacant.\nThe measure avoids a drawn-out impeachment process and is similar to what Congress did in 1997 when it dismissed President Abdala Bucaram for "mental incapacity."\n"Congress, in representation of the Ecuadorean people, has proceeded ... to declare Col. Lucio Gutierrez in abandonment of the position of constitutional president. Therefore, he has been dismissed," Viteri, who was elected to the position of president of Congress at the beginning of the special session Wednesday, declared after the vote.\nAt a news conference, Rosero said, "We cannot remain indifferent before the pronouncements of the Ecuadorean people. In this scenario of anarchy, the military high command ... has been forced to make the hard decision of withdrawing support from the constitutional president in order to protect public safety and recover peace and tranquility."\nGutierrez 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 such as the International Monetary Fund.\nProtests have been building for a week with the largest coming late Tuesday night as some 30,000 demonstrators marched on the palace, seeking Gutierrez's ouster. Police dispersed the crowd by firing tear gas.\nJust hours earlier, Gutierrez told AP in an interview that he had no intention of resigning.\n"There is not the least possibility. I was elected for four years," he said. "My government ends in January 2007."\nIn a blow to Gutierrez earlier Wednesday, the head of Ecuador's national police force, Gen. Jorge Poveda, resigned, saying, "I regret what happened yesterday. I cannot continue to be a witness to the confrontation with the Ecuadorean people. I am not a violent man."\nThousands of blue-uniformed high school students took to the streets Wednesday to demonstrate against Gutierrez. Many gathered on Avenida Amazonas, Quito's most important avenue, beating drums and chanting, "Get out, Lucio!" Other students convened at different points across the city.\nRenan Borbua, head of the ruling party in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city located 168 miles southwest of the capital, said he was sending thousands of pro-Gutierrez supporters by bus to the capital to "defend democracy and the Constitution."\nQuito Mayor Paco Moncayo, who has called for Gutierrez's resignation, sent municipal buses and dump trucks with sand to block entrances to the capital to keep out any Gutierrez supporters.\nGutierrez, a 48-year-old former army colonel with a confrontational governing style, has had to deal with growing street protests demanding his ouster since April 13. The demonstrators accuse him of trying to illegally control the three branches of government.\nGutierrez dissolved the Supreme Court Friday to try to placate protests after his congressional allies in December fired most of the court's judges and named replacements sympathetic to his government. That move was widely viewed as unconstitutional, and critics accused him of trying to consolidate his power.\n"We were in intensive therapy. Now we're in a coma," Palacio told foreign correspondents.\nOpposition legislators failed to impeach Gutierrez in November.\nIn a country where indigenous peoples make up 30 percent of the 12.5 million population, Gutierrez is a dark-skinned mestizo like most Ecuadoreans -- an exception to the rule of white Ecuadorean presidents.\nJaime Duran, a public opinion analyst, said racism is a factor in the opposition Gutierrez has faced in Quito, home to Ecuador's European-descended political and social elite.\n"Poor people identify with him. The more educated the person being surveyed is, the more he hates Gutierrez, while the less educated he is, the more he supports him," Duran said.\nGutierrez said his power base is in the shantytowns of the big cities and in the small towns of the interior, and he has gotten big turnouts when he visits rural areas. Ecuador's small towns have not joined the protests.