Urgent Update on Situation in Ecuador:
Faction of the Armed Forces and the Indigenous Movement Carry Out a Coup
  http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Ecuador/collins2.htm
 By Jennifer N. Collins

(Jennifer Collins is a graduate student in political science at the
University of California at San Diego, currently conducting dissertation
research in Ecuador. She is associated with the Facultad Latinoamericana de
Ciencias Sociales, Ecuador.)

 Quito, January 21, 2000

This morning at about 10 am indigenous protesters succeeded in taking over
the National Congress in the capital Quito. Their leadership, together with
elements of the Armed Forces have declared the institution of a new popular
government to be headed by Coronel Lucio Gutierrez, a young mid-level
officer in the Armed Forces, together with Antonio Vargas, the President of
the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). It is not
clear at this point what the position of the rest of the Armed Forces will
be to this declared coup, or what their reactions might be. It appears,
however, that those who are supporting and leading this coup are mid-level
officers in the Army. Indigenous peoples together with other segments of the
population that had joined the indigenous movement in their demand for the
destitution of the three branches of government have succeeded in taking
over not only the National Congress, but the Supreme Court as well.
Protesters are also surrounding the Central Bank. Currently the
constitutionally elected President, Jamil Mahuad is in the National Palace
and the area around the Palace has been highly militarized and completely
cordoned off by elements of the military which appear to be supporting or at
least protecting the President. From the National Palace government
spokesmen, including the Foreign Minister have made declarations to the
press that they are taking actions to restore order and unseat the
"subversive forces" who have carried out this coup.

The members of the new "Junta of National Salvation" say that they have
taken this historic decision in order to put an end to the corruption that
permeates this country. The military officers have said that their move to
take over the government is irreversible and have called on the nation to
give them the opportunity to pull this country out of the terrible crisis
that has been plaguing it during the last few years. Coronel Cobo, who is a
member of this declared Junta said, "we are here so that they (the corrupt
politicians) don't pillage this country." In their statements, the military
officers explained their position in the sense that they could not turn
their guns on "their brothers" (presumably the indigenous and poor people of
this country) who had fought in the war with Peru, in order to protect
"corrupt politicians." Antonio Vargas also spoke from the Congress and
called on the nation to support this new government and called for a
national "concertacion" or a political effort to unite around a common
government program.

Uncertain Future

At the moment uncertainty reigns in Ecuador and it is not at all clear what
the next few days will bring. The alliance between certain factions of the
military and the indigenous movement was certainly a surprise, and a crucial
factor will be the reaction to this move by the rest of the armed forces.
The mid-level officers who have taken power claim to have the support of
troops in all three branches of the armed forces, but the higher level
generals have not yet taken a clear position with regard to the coup. In a
public statement made at about 3 pm this afternoon, the Joint Command of the
three branches of the Armed Forces called on the President to resign, but
they did not take any clear stand on their relationship with the faction of
the military led by Gutierrez.

Also this afternoon, at about 3:30 pm President Jamil Mahuad finally
addressed the nation and said that he would not resign and that it was his
responsibility to stay in power and to maintain the constitutional order.
His insistence on staying in power is quite surprising given the fact that
the Joint Command of the Armed Forces has called for his resignation, along
with former President Oswaldo Hurtado, who is a founder of Mahuad's
political party, Democracia Popular. In his references to the indigenous and
military leaders who are carrying out the coup, he said that they were not
prepared to govern, and called on the nation to reject this attempted coup.
There were clear racist elements in his references to the indigenous
leaders, who he claimed were not prepared or fit to run the country.

The other major question is how people on the coast will react to these
historic developments. The indigenous movement is very strong and has
tremendous mobilizational power, but their bases are in the highlands, and
they do not have many connections with social sectors on the coast. There
was an attempt this afternoon by popular sectors sympathetic to the coup to
take over the provincial government building in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest
city, but it appears that they were fairly quickly removed by the police.
The right-wing mayor of Guayaquil, Leon Febres Cordero, rejected the
attempted coup, but also said that if President Mahuad needed to resign then
he should do so. Ecuador suffers from serious regional divisions that have
intensified during the last few years, if politicians on the coast are able
to stir people up there against this new government, then it could result in
serious regional conflicts. In other parts of the country there are reports
that the indigenous movement has taken over provincial seats of government
and municipalities

Images of Popular Power

The indigenous movement has been calling for the destitution of the three
branches of government here - Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court -
since December. It was early this week that they initiated an uprising to
press for this demand. They began last weekend to mobilize their people in
the provinces and move towards Quito, which they had announced that they
would take over. Since their arrival into Quito on Monday they have been
carrying out various different types of actions, including a large march of
about 10,000 people through the city on Wednesday, as well as blocking
thoroughfares in the capital on Thursday, January 20. It was yesterday in
the afternoon that the indigenous protesters, who came into Quito from all
parts of the rural highlands, first surrounded the Congressional building.
They succeeded in forming a human barricade around the building that
prevented anyone from entering or leaving, and some functionaries who did
not abandon the building earlier were stuck in there most of the night.
Apparently, the military that had been protecting the Congressional building
were given the order by their superiors this morning to abandon their posts
and thereby let the protesters takeover the building.

At mid-day the Congress was surrounded by indigenous peoples and other
groups supporting the declared coup. People could be seen in silhoette on
the rooftop of the Congressional building, from where they have hung a large
huipala, the rainbow colored flag of the indigenous movement. Moving away
from the Congress and towards the historical center of town where the
National Palace is located, all traffic was blocked and protestors have
taken over the streets. Elements of the police and the army are protecting
the national palace and so protestors can not get past a certain point.  Up
until now the military and police have been using tear gas to maintain their
blockade.