Voters in Ecuador Approve Constitution
New Document Would Enhance Presidential Powers, Allow Consecutive Terms

By Joshua Partlow and Stephan Küffner
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 29, 2008; A14

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 28 -- Ecuadorans approved by a wide margin Sunday a new constitution that would expand the powers of President Rafael Correa and open the possibility that he could serve a decade in office.

Preliminary and unofficial results Sunday evening indicated that at least 65 percent of Ecuadorans voted for the constitution. That result, if confirmed in final totals, would hand an important political victory to Correa, the 45-year-old former economic minister who has made this a central issue in his first two years as president.

"Today Ecuador has decided on a new nation. The old structures are defeated," Correa told cheering supporters in the coastal city of Guayaquil. "This confirms the citizens' revolution."

The victory, Correa said, gives him the opportunity to effect rapid social change in pursuit of his vision of alleviating poverty and weakening the traditional elite as he implements what he calls "21st-century socialism."

Voting is mandatory for Ecuadorans ages 18 to 64, and nearly 10 million people were called to vote in the referendum, although absenteeism normally runs at close to 30 percent. The president of Ecuador's Supreme Electoral Court said he expected official results by Monday afternoon.

Rewriting constitutions has become a favorite tactic of a new crop of South American leaders eager to solidify their political agendas. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, an ideological ally of Correa's, increased his powers with a new constitution after he took office in 1999. Another like-minded politician, President Evo Morales of Bolivia, is fighting for a new constitution, but he has confronted entrenched, and sometimes violent, opposition led by regional governors who say he is mishandling the economy and threatening their interests.

In Ecuador, a 130-member constituent assembly -- a majority of which supported Correa -- convened to write the new constitution. The constitution gives the president the ability to abolish the National Congress once each term, although such a move would trigger presidential elections.

Opponents of the president say the document would allow Correa to consolidate too much control over the economy, as well as over strategic sectors such as oil and mining, without sufficient checks on his authority. And some voters said Sunday that the new constitution would create a bloated state that will not be able to meet expectations.

"The state will be unable to meet demand due to a lack of resources," said Lucia Cordero, 42, who was voting in La Floresta parish in northern Quito, an area home to both working-class and middle-class residents. "It's too statist."

Ecuador currently prohibits presidents from serving more than four consecutive years, although recent history shows that holding on to power even that long is difficult amid the country's tumultuous politics. The country has inaugurated eight presidents in the past decade.

The new constitution would allow two consecutive four-year terms, which, if Correa wins new elections planned for February, could put him in position for 10 years in office. However, government spokesman Vinicio Alvarado recently said that Correa would only serve another six years if he wins.

Correa's supporters emphasize that the 444-article document -- Ecuador's 20th constitution -- prohibits discrimination, respects private property, will increase spending on health care and the poor, and enshrines more rights for indigenous groups. In a country rich with ecological treasures, including the Galapagos Islands and part of the Amazon rain forest, the constitution also calls on government to avoid measures that would destroy ecosystems or drive species to extinction -- the first such measure of its kind, according to Ecuadoran officials. The constitution would allow civil unions for gay couples.

"We expect a change. We expect the government to meet its promises," said Beatriz Astudillo, outside a polling station in Quito.

Correa, educated in the United States and Belgium, was elected in December 2006 with 58 percent of the vote. He has been critical of the type of pro-privatization, free-market policies often referred to as the "Washington consensus," and he has taken bold if controversial moves in his mission against those he considers the corrupt rich.

Correa was criticized in July when he ordered a state takeover of major television stations. The government said they and other businesses were owned by two Ecuadoran brothers and former bankers accused of owing the state hundreds of millions of dollars. Correa was accused by opponents of attempting to use the TV stations to garner support for the new constitution, though the confiscations were also widely popular.

Correa dampened expectations that the broad changes outlined in the constitution could be introduced overnight. "We can't achieve anything immediately," he said, adding that new laws will have to be passed in the near-term to implement the guidelines of the constitution. "We don't have a minute to lose."

Rights for Nature

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State."

Funny how the article omitted the most interesting aspect of this new constitution, that the president can dissolve the congress. Way to go!

Hmmm, I thought the one i posted mentioned that, but you're right. Let me find another good one.

Nicknamed El Loco, Abdala Bucaram made campaign appearances that were noteworthy for their offbeat style. He would arrive by helicopter and have himself lowered onto the stage dressed as Batman. Accompanied by go-go dancers in hot pants, he would break into song, offering his own renditions of popular salsa tunes. (He recorded a CD, "El Loco que Ama (THe Crazy One Who Loves".) As he warmed to the task, Abdala Bucaram would strip to the waist. As he addressed the crowd, he would boast of his sexual virility, claiming that he possessed superior testicles that produced high-quality semen, in contrast, he offered, to those of his effeminate opponents. Usually joining him at campaign appearances was his running mate, Rosalia Arteaga, a conservative, politically inexperienced thirty-nine year old serrana. When the demure Arteaga arrived on stage, Bucaram liked to reach around and hoist up her skirts so the crowd could get a look at the legs of the vice presidential candidate.

He also studied in Belgium. Maybe he's the missing link between g_v and Angus.