Ecuador's Popular Revolt: Forging A New Nation

Correa responded by eliminating the onerous clauses from the congressional legislation, tailoring it to his original decree for a constituent assembly, and sending it to the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Hopes were not high, since the Tribunal is historically viewed as part of the partidocracia. The popular movements began to demonstrate in front of the Tribunal and Congress, calling for Correa to simply issue a decree for the Constituent Assembly. “To the surprise of virtually everyone,” says Rene Baez, a political analyst at the Catholic University of Ecuador, “the popular repudiation shook the consciousness of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.” Led by its president, Jorge Acosta, a member of a traditional right-wing party, the Tribunal declared that Correa’s original statute proposing to refound the country’s institutions would be the one voted up or down in April. Outraged, 57 of the 100 congressional deputies voted to depose Acosta. The next day Acosta and the Tribunal responded by expelling them from Congress for their unconstitutional actions. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=62&ItemID=13982 [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 11, 2007]

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