Ecuadorian leader to take refuge in Brazil after protests

BRAZIL has granted asylum to former Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez, who took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy yesterday after being removed from office by Congress amid street protests calling for his ouster for abuse of power.

Mr Gutierrez, who was in the Brazilian Embassy, was granted asylum on Wednesday, Brazilian Ambassador Sergio Florencia told Radio Caracol in Bogota, Colombia.

"We are taking the necessary steps with the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry to finalise procedures to obtain his safe conduct and his transfer to Brazil," Mr Florencia said, adding that he hoped it would occur as soon as possible.

Mr Gutierrez was the third Ecuadorian leader forced from office in the past eight years.

Lawmakers swore in Vice-President Alfredo Palacio to replace Gutierrez, and he immediately promised to hold a referendum and constitutional assembly to create a new state structure in this Andean nation.

Mr Palacio, a cardiologist by profession, had for months used medical metaphors to describe Mr Gutierrez as a dictatorial disease afflicting the nation. "I am no politician. I belong to no political group, no economic group, banking or financial," the 66 year-old told reporters. "I'm a simple doctor and my friends are my colleagues and my patients and no one else."

A special session made up of opposition legislators in the 100-seat unicameral Congress voted 62-0 to fire Mr Gutierrez in hopes of ending a crisis that was spiralling out of control with the threat of violent clashes between government supporters and opponents.

Mr Gutierrez took office in January 2003 on a populist platform of working for the nation's poor, but soon angered many in Ecuador by applying economic austerity measures. His recent decision to overhaul the Supreme Court was seen by protesters as an illegal attempt to amass power. Following the lawmakers' decision to remove Mr Gutierrez, Ecuador's military quickly withdrew its support for the embattled leader, who apparently fled in a helicopter from the government palace roof.

Several hundred people gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy and the ambassador's residency in Quito's upscale northern neighbourhoods, demanding Mr Gutierrez be turned over to Ecuadorian authorities. They shouted "Lucio, assassin!" and "Lucio to jail!" until police arrived and forced them to leave.

The rapid events were only the latest in a long history of political instability in Ecuador, a Colorado-size, oil-rich Andean nation of 12.5 million inhabitants on the northwest shoulder of South America. Since 1996, it has had seven presidents.

Mr Palacio's ascension to power is reminiscent of Gustavo Noboa, another former vice-president who took the reins of government five years ago after President Jamil Mahuad was toppled following a revolt by Indians and junior military officers led by a rogue army colonel: Lucio Gutierrez.