Ecuador Vice President Takes Power Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 Message from sender: Hey Folks, I grabbed this off Reuters. Note the third paragraph about "buckling under to U$ pressure". Does anyone out there have a good source of info on the Ecuadoran uprising in english? Solidarity, R News Article: Ecuador Vice President Takes Power By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - The vice president has accepted the presidency of Ecuador after Indian protesters led a rebellion backed by junior military officers. Vice President Gustavo Noboa is the sixth president since 1996 to rule this small South American country. The presidency was handed over Saturday after Ecuador's military chief, buckling to U.S. pressure, dissolved a three-man junta that had claimed power just a few hours earlier. Tensions boiled over in the capital, Quito, on Friday when hundreds of Indian protesters, angry at ousted President Jamil Mahuad's inability to stop Ecuador's economic slide, stormed the empty Congress building. Together with young army officers unhappy with widespread corruption, the Indians announced the creation of a new government, including a "Parliament of the People" and a three-man governing junta. Mahuad fled into hiding. The military chief took a seat in the junta, but then quickly dissolved it, ceding power to Noboa. Noboa faces daunting problems, beginning with a radicalized Indian movement that feels betrayed by the military command's decision to relinquish power. Noboa also must confront the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with 7 million of Ecuador's 12 million people trapped in poverty. "Internal confidence is destroyed. The country's image is horrible. If we don't create jobs, if we don't generate production, if we don't stabilize the country's economy, Ecuador is finished," former President Leon Febres Cordero said. On another problematic issue, Noboa said he would stick with Mahuad's plan to make the U.S. dollar Ecuador's official currency. Mahuad had hoped adopting the greenback would curb inflation, bring down interest rates and spur investment. But polls show more than 60 percent of Ecuadoreans reject the plan. And Indian leaders say it is an affront to national sovereignty and would benefit only the rich. After dissolving the short-lived junta, military chief Gen. Carlos Mendoza resigned from his army leadership post. The junta also included Antonio Vargas, the head of the Indian movement that sparked the coup, and Carlos Solorzano, a former president of the Supreme Court. Mendoza said the quick decision to dissolve the junta was made after discussions with U.S. officials, who threatened to cut foreign aid and discourage investment if power was not restored to the elected government. But Solorzano and Vargas opposed the junta's dissolution, and Vargas denounced Mendoza for betraying the Indians. He said Ecuador's 4 million Indians would not recognize Noboa's authority and would continue their struggle for change. But as he spoke, the 5,000 Indians who had arrived to try to oust Mahuad, Congress and the Supreme Court, were already abandoning the capital, and life was quickly returning to its quiet pace in this colonial city in the Andes.