Ecuador President Dissolves Supreme Court
President Lucio Gutierrez declared a state of emergency in the capital city of this Andean Mountain country and dissolved a Supreme Court he and his allies had appointed last winter, saying the unpopular judges were the cause of three days of pot-banging street protests in Quito.Although they had opposed the court that was stacked by Gutierrez, his political foes immediately labeled its summary dissolution an act of a dictator.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation Friday night with his military high command standing behind him, Gutierrez said he was using the powers granted him by the constitution to dismiss the justices. In explaining their dismissal, he said opposition to their appointments was causing the protests.
Ecuador has been in a state of semi- political crisis for some time now, so I am not especially surprised by this news. The fundament of the entire story seems to be political corruption at the presidential level, over several presidents.
The court crisis was set in motion in November when the former justices sided with opposition politicians in a failed effort to impeach Gutierrez on corruption charges. Gutierrez then assembled a bloc of 52 lawmakers in the 100-seat unicameral congress, which voted in December to remove the judges. Legal experts said the vote ran contrary to Ecuador’s constitution.Opponents say Gutierrez cut a deal with former President Abdala Bucaram to stack the Supreme Court and clear Bucaram of corruption charges as payback for key votes Bucaram’s political party provided last year blocking the impeachment drive against Gutierrez in congress.
The court cleared Bucaram of the charges and he returned to Ecuador earlier this month after eight years in exile.
In a bid to ease the political backlash, in late March Gutierrez proposed a judicial reform that would replace the new court and establish new methods for selecting judges. The legislature has not acted on the proposal.
And while it is not directly on subject, these kinds of events, which are far too common in Latin America (and the developing world in general), underscore the precious thing that we have in the United States with an independent, efficacious judiciary. Indeed, one of the most difficult institutions to develop in a new or struggling democracy, is the court system. They are typically weak, ineffective, and bound too deeply to the influence of the executive branch.
There are, no doubt, areas that warrant criticism of the federal court system, but it seems to me that the most vociferous of those critics (including some in the Congress) paint with too broad a brush when they attack the whole system, and call for radical reform (or even the impeachment of justices) over specific rulings. On balance, I don’t think that they know what we have, nor the damage that would be caused if judges were easily subject to the political passion of the day or easily removed because it fit the political whim of a politician at some specific moment in time.
I disagree. The issue at hand in Ecuador’s case is not about having a strong judiciary. Ecuador has it… or at least had it until December 8, 2024 when Gutierrez party arranged for Congress to dismiss all the Supreme Court justices.
Such dismissal was against the Ecuadorian constitution. Congress has no power to overthrow the Supreme Court.
Ecuadorian Supreme Court justices are not even nominated by Congress or by the President. They are nominated by the court itself. They can be impeached for cause, just as in the United States. They usually remain in service until they retire.
In conclusion, the assumption that this happened because of some sort of defect in the Ecuadorian judicial branch is false. Congress and the President are at fault here, have violated the Constitution and the country’s laws and must be held responsible for the situation.
Comment by Beto South — Saturday, April 16, 2024 @ 8:53 pm
There’s a great paper title here somewhere.
“When the Pots Bang: The Intersection of Political Parties and Tupperware Parties.”
Comment by John Lemon — Sunday, April 17, 2024 @ 12:36 am
Beto:
I didn’t say that the crisis itself was caused by the lack of strong judiciary–indeed, note the paragraph that starts “And while it is not directly on subject…”
Nonetheless, the idea that Ecuador has a strong judciary, or that any Latin state has one, is simply not true. Some have made progress towards the development of a well functioning, indepedent judciary, but none have fully acheived that feat.
My point was that the current griping about our “out of control” courts misses the point about what the alternative might be like.
However, to pretend as if the court in Ecuador are are anything but pawns in this game is to ignore the facts. Indeed: as lovely a place as Ecuador is, it isn’t where I point for exemplars of institutional design and effectiveness.
Comment by Steven Taylor — Sunday, April 17, 2024 @ 7:53 am