Fuera Lucio - Overthrow of President Gutierrrez
When I arrived in Quito with my parents the first of April there were small groups of protesters gathering in the square outside the presidential palace. They grew bigger over the two weeks I was in Quito, increasing until Wednesday when the president Lucio Gutierrez became the ex-president, fleeing the presidential palace in a helicopter.


The recent backdrop to this drama was set on December 8 2004 when a parliamentary majority of legislators affiliated with Lucio’s political coalition passed a resolution dismissing all Supreme Court judges. New judges were appointed, all of whom were connected to that same reining political group. Legally, neither the president nor the legislature holds the power to take such an action. Discontent began growing in the population, and there were marches against the government in January and February in Guayaquil and Quito respectively.

The agitation heightened when on March 29 Guillermo Castro, then president of the Supreme Court and personal friend of Ecuadorian ex-president Abdalá Bucaram, annulled all corruption charges against his friend and two other ex-presidents of Ecuador: Noboa and Dahik. Then on April 1, 2, and 3, they one-by-one returned to Ecuador from their respective countries of asylum (El Universo, 4A, 5A Martes 19 de abril del 2005 y “El fenómeno ‘forajidos’” El Universo, 1D, Domingo 24 de abril 2005). The people took to the streets in great numbers beginning on April 13, and a week later, Wednesday April 20, Lucio was ousted and Alberto Palacio was sworn in as Ecuador’s president.



On Wednesday, April 13 there was a paro, a strike called by the authorities of Quito and Pichincha to protest the corruption of the president and his administration. I saw a lot of Quito that day as there were few busses running because of the strike and I was trying to help my friend José Luis (from Mi Cometa) get his French visa for his upcoming trip to the Taizé monastery. As we walked across the city to Casa Victoria from the French Consulate José trailed along just behind me as I followed the crowds with my camera, chiding, “Dana, be careful. Be careful with your camera.”

“I will, I just want to take some pictures. And don’t worry, protesters like cameras.”



Taking pictures of the confrontations between the protesters and police, and of the vendors stationed along the streets of the protest, offering fruit, gum, water, I moved with José between different crowds, trying to avoid the worst of the tear gas and staying away from the rock-throwers. We stopped to check on a man we saw carried from the fray by a group of police and protesters and then left lying on the sidewalk, only to discover he was just very drunk, and he went running after us when we walked away, trying to give me a little card with a picture of Jesus on it. We got on a bus back to Guayaquil that night, when the spark for the overthrow was lit.


(to see all pics of the protests, click here)

That night in response to Lucio calling the paro a failure, a proposal was made on La Luna, a community radio station in Quito. “Hagamos un cacelorazo, vamos todos a las calles” translation, “Let’s make a casserole, let’s all go to the streets.” For two hours the radio station opened their microphone to anyone who wanted to call in, and a march was spontaneously organized for the following day.

Lucio called the protesters “Forajidos,” or delinquents, people escaping justice. La Luna embraced the word, broadcasting, “We are all forajidos!” Entire families, religious sisters, students, people young and old filled the streets, carrying signs, Ecuadorian flags, beating drums and bowls. (“Los Forajidos hacen una Revolución de otro tiempo,” Hoy Jueves 21 de abril 2005, 2A, and conversations with friends).

In addition to being central to the organization of the resistance movement, the radio station also became a symbol of the movement. When a group of government employees attempted to attack the radio station on Friday, the crowds moved to protect it, and when the station mysteriously lost its signal on Monday April 19th, more than 150 people went to the station to express their solidarity (“Radio ‘La Luna’ se quedó sin señal ayer,” El Universo, Martes 19 de abril 2005, 1A).

The president declared a state of emergency in Quito, suspending several civil rights of the population on Saturday the 16th. The protests continued growing in Quito, while in Guayaquil the first marches finally took place on Monday the 19th, and in Guasmo Sur it was impossible to even find a newspaper. When I did find a paper Monday, it announced the legislators had ratified the termination of the controversial Supreme Court justices over the weekend. When the legislative session ended, those legislators affiliated with the political opposition ended the chanting the same words as the “cacerolazo” (casserole), the thousands of demonstrators in the streets, “Lucio, fuera!” (Lucio, out!) (“Congreso ratificó cese de la Corte, por unanimidad,” El Universo, Lunes 18 de abril 2005, 1A).

The chiming of the bells of the churches in Quito’s city center on Tuesday morning set military on edge, thinking they announced a call to attack the government. Instead they announced the naming of the new pope, Benedicto XVI, just announced in Vatican City, Rome. Amid the chaos, people went to the churches to pray for the new pope (and he does need the prayers, he’s horribly conservative). That afternoon the first casualty in the Quito protests took place – Agusto García, a Chilean photographer, had a cardio-respiratory attack amid the teargas while photographing the march. (“Un Muerto en Protestas de Quito,” El Universo, miercoles 20 de abril 2005 1A).

Wednesday I spent the day in Guayaquil’s city center with José Luis getting the rest of his papers together for his visa application. Crowds of people stood on the sidewalk outside electronics stores, watching images of Quito, where the protests were intensifying. Employees of banks and travel agencies had TVs and radios on, and updated each other every few minutes. The crowds in Quito chanted, “Lucio, fuera!” (Lucio, out!).

He was voted out of his office as president in Congress at 1:30 in the afternoon; soon after the military withdrew their support and the troops who had been on the streets battling the crowds retreated. Minutes later, Lucio fled the government palace in a helicopter and Alfredo Palacio, his vice president, was sworn in as president of Ecuador by the National Congress. The crowds learned Lucio was on his way to the airport to try to leave the country, and they stormed the airport tarmac, impeding his flight and causing the airport to be shut down. President Palacio stood on a balcony of the Congressional building to try to calm the crowds, they chanted for him to leave too, and threw sticks at him. (“Minuto a Minuto” El Universo, 6A jueves 21 de abril de 2005).

Over lunch yesterday my friend Sandra was filling me in on the background of this situation. Palacio is not technically affiliated with any political party, and is seen as a puppet without any strong opinions of his own. Right now it seems the political group Partido Social Cristiano (Christian Social Party) is manipulating him, and they have also taken control of the Congress. The mayor of Guayaquil is also member of this political party, and Mi Cometa has organized several demonstrations against him for failing to follow through with promises made to install sewage systems in Guasmo Sur and provide the people with potable water.

The newspaper yesterday gave an interesting summary of what they consider to be the major issues at the moment in Ecuador. There is still no Supreme Court, and no agreed-upon way of choosing the new court. There is little public confidence in the Congress, people have been yelling “Que se vayan todos!” (Everyone leave!), and during the protests several Congressional members were physically attacked by the crowds. Because of the political turmoil Ecuador had to withdraw from this week’s negotiations of the free trade agreement they are in the midst of with the US, Columbia and Peru. Everyone is marveling at the “forajidos,” the non-politically led, popular leaderless movement, begun by a community radio station, which helped topple Lucio Gutierrez.
- posted by little monk @ 12:34 PM