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Ecuador

Country in South America, bounded north by Colombia, east and south by Peru, and west by the Pacific Ocean.

Government

Ecuador has a multiparty limited presidential political system. As amended in 1998, the constitution provides for a president who is directly elected by universal suffrage for a four-year, non-renewable term and is head of state and government, presiding over a cabinet of ministers. The legislature is the 100-member national congress, whose members are elected every four years in multi-member constituencies. Power is devolved to 22 provinces, including the Galapagos Islands, each governed by a directly elected governor.

History

The tribes of northern highland Ecuador formed the Kingdom of Quito about AD 1000, and it was conquered by the Inca in the 15th century. Ecuador was invaded and colonized by Spain from 1532 and many of the indigenous people died from disease in the mid 16th century. It joined Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama in the confederacy of Gran Colombia in 1819.

Independence from Spanish rule

After joining other South American colonies in a revolt against Spain, Ecuador was liberated in 1822 by Antonio José de Sucre and became fully independent in 1830. With the support of the army, Ecuador was governed by Venezuelan Gen Juan José Flores 1830-45, but there was instability and he was forced into exile in 1845. Power passed to a Liberal oligarchy before the conservative Gen Gabriel García Moreno unified the country, with the support of the Catholic Church. Moreno dominated Ecuador's politics 1861-75 and promoted education and carried out important public works.

After a further period of instability, in 1895 coastal-based liberals, led by Eloy Alfaro, seized power and reduced the influence of the clergy. Liberals continued to dominate until a military coup in 1925. They were followed in the 1930s and 1940s by populist politicians. In 1941 there was a brief war with Peru over land in the Amazon region that had been in dispute for more than a century. This frontier dispute was eventually resolved in 1998 when Ecuador signed an agreement with Peru which gave Ecuador navigation rights in Peru's Amazon basin.

There was stability under the Liberal government 1948-56 and, 1956-60, under Dr Camilo Ponce, Ecuador's first Conservative president for 60 years. However, in the 1960s economic recession bred popular unrest and political change. In 1961, the Liberal, Dr José Maria Velasco, was deposed by his vice-president who was, in turn, overthrown in 1962 by a military junta. Velasco returned from exile to become president again in 1968, but was ousted in 1972 by a nationalist military junta which held power until 1979.

In the 1970s, following construction of an Andean pipeline bringing oil from the east to the coast, Ecuador became South America's second largest oil producer. A democratic government took power in 1979, but the economy deteriorated, with uncompetitive industries, high inflation, and mounting public debt. This provoked strikes and demonstrations, leading, in 1982, to a state of emergency. Power was held by a Conservative president, León Febres Cordero 1984-88, the centre-left Rodrigo Borja Cevallos 1988-92, and the right-wing Sixto Duran Ballen 1992-96 who faced opposition to his privatization and land-development policies.

Increasing political instability

In 1996, Abdala Bucaram of the centre-right populist Ecuadorean Roldosist Party (PRE) was elected president, but within a year his increasingly irrational behaviour, which had earned him the name ‘El Loco’ (‘the madman’) alienated him from the population and in February 1997 the national congress dismissed him after three former presidents called for his removal. He was replaced by the vice-president, Rosalia Arteaga, before, in 1998, the Quito mayor, Jamil Mhhuad Witt, was elected president. Mahuad was overthrown in 2000 in a bloodless coup by a coalition of highland Indians and military officers after a further economic crisis. The currency, the sucre, had fallen sharply in 1999-2000 and Mahuad had reacted by imposing a state of emergency, freezing bank accounts, sacking his government, and announcing plans to introduce the dollar to replace the sucre. This had provoked popular protests.

The former vice-president, Gustavo Noboa, replaced Mahuad as president in 2000 and, faced with the threat of US isolation, stuck with the plans to adopt the dollar, which was introduced in September 2000. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders offered Ecuador US$2 billion on condition that Noboa reduced government spending. With inflation hitting 90%, this provoked further protests and in February 2001, President Noboa imposed a five-day state of emergency, and agreed to freeze fuel prices.

A left wing nationalist, Lucio Gutierrez, won the election to become president in January 2003 but was ousted by Congress and replaced by vice-president Alfredo Palacio in April 2005 after further unrest. Palacio's former economy and finance minister, Rafael Correa, replaced him as president in January 2007 after winning the November 2006 presidential election. A centre-left economist, Correa pledged to reform the constitution and oil industry, to increase the percentage of oil revenues received by the government.

Azogues Azuay Bolívar, Simón Carchi Chimborazo (province)

Cuenca (Ecuador) Flores, Juan José Pichincha (volcano) Riobamba Tungurahua