Ecuador

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Ecuador is a South American country situated on the equator at the western edge of the continent. Its 283,561 square kilometers (109,483 square miles) includes the Gálapagos Islands. Roughly one-third of its 13.7 million citizens are under fifteen years of age. Blanco-mestizos of mixed Caucasian and Amerindian ethnicity dominate the population (65%). One-quarter of Ecuadorians are Amerindian, and there are small Spanish (7%) and black (3%) populations. Spanish is the official language, but Quechua and other Amerindian languages are widely used. The population is 95 percent Roman Catholic.

The Andean highlands of central Ecuador are dotted with active volcanoes, including one overshadowing the capital city of Quito. To the west lies the Pacific coastal plain where the country's largest city and business center, Guayaquil, is located. To the east is sparsely populated jungle. In 1942 Ecuador ceded 200,000 square kilometers (124,280 square miles) of disputed territory to Peru. Sporadic border clashes culminated in renewed hostilities until a peace agreement stabilized territorial boundaries in 1998.

Ruled by the Incas from 1450 to 1526, Ecuador became a Spanish colony in 1543. It won independence in 1822 after Antonio Josáé de Sucre (1795–1830) defeated Spanish royalists and joined with Colombia, Venezuela, and modern-day Panama to form Gran Colombia. When the federation collapsed in 1830, Ecuador became a constitutional republic governed by conservative and liberal caudillos, or local strongmen, well into the twentieth century. The military was active in politics, and throughout the 1970s Ecuador endured military authoritarian rule. Democracy was restored in 1979, but enthusiasm for it faded. In 2004 the Latinobarometer poll indicated that just 46 percent of Ecuadorians preferred democracy, and 30 percent said an authoritarian government might be preferable. Government remained highly centralized.

Instability and corruption have plagued Ecuador's presidency. In 1997 the country's Congress removed President Abdala Bucaram (b. 1952) after a year in office, judging him mentally unfit to serve following widespread protest against his policies and personal corruption. His successor, Fabian Alarcon Rivera (b. 1947) also was accused of corruption and briefly jailed. President Jamil Mahuad (b. 1949) was ousted in January 2000 by indigenous protesters and their military allies, making Ecuador the first South American country to undergo a coup d'etat in nearly a quarter century. Constitutional succession was preserved when his vice president, Gustavo Noboa (b. 1937), filled out the term. However, he too was eventually charged with malfeasance and fled into exile. In response to this pattern, the Civic Commission for Control of Corruption was founded and granted state authority by the 1998 constitution.

Pardoned coup-leader Lucio Edwin Gutierrez (b. 1957) went on to win the presidency in 2002, with 54.3 percent of the vote in a second-round run-off direct election. Relatively equal population distribution between the rival highland and coastal regions virtually assures close presidential races. The executive branch also features an elected vice president and appointed cabinet.

The one hundred deputies in Ecuador's unicameral National Congress are popularly elected from the twenty-two provinces to four-year terms. The Congress is typically fragmented among a multitude of small parties. Because defections are commonplace, the distribution of seats fluctuates. Starting in the late 1990s, Amerindians became increasingly politically active—winning mayoral races, voicing demands in Congress through the Pachakutik Movement, and joining protest marches organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and other groups.

The rule of law remains weak in Ecuador. Although citizens enjoy civil liberties such as freedom of expression and labor rights, and their human rights are largely respected, informal discrimination against Amerindians persists. The judicial branch, headed by a supreme court, became politicized in the 1980s by party control of lower-level judicial appointments. A Byzantine legal framework is further complicated by corruption, making contracts difficult to enforce and taxes difficult to collect, and crowding jails with defendants awaiting trial. In 2004, political maneuvering of dubious constitutionality by the Congress in cooperation with the executive branch influenced selection not only of the Supreme Court of Justice, but also of members of the Constitutional Court and the highest electoral authority, illustrating that separation of powers is ineffective.

Ecuador exports oil, bananas, and shrimp, and the nation has enjoyed a booming tourist economy. Nevertheless, as a result of low oil prices, weather-related damage caused by El Niño, a banking crisis, and mismanagement, in 1999 Ecuador became the first country to default on its Brady bonds. (Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady first conceived of these governmentissued bonds, which are underwritten by the U.S. Treasury, in 1982 as a way to help Latin America retire its debt.) In 2000 inflation reached 96 percent; to control it, Ecuador made the U.S. dollar its currency. The strategy worked to lower inflation in the short term, and the economy recovered when oil prices shot up to a historic high. In 2005, however, two-thirds of Ecuadorians continued to live in poverty. Although 92 percent of Ecuadorians are at least minimally literate, only two-thirds finish six years of schooling. Ecuador ranked ninety-seventh among the 175 countries assessed via the 2002 United Nations Human Development Index. Privatization of state industries has faltered, and many Ecuadorians reject neo-liberal policies that cut subsidies and shrink state employment. Completion of a second oil pipeline now under contract, however, could improve the economy by increasing the quantity and price of future oil exports.

Constitutions and Constitutionalism; Democracy; Freedom of Expression; Human Rights.

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Gerlach, Allen. Indians, Oil, and Politics: A Recent History of Ecuador. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003.

McConnell, Shelley A. "Ecuador's Centrifugal Politics." Current History 100, no. 643 (2001): 73–79.

"South America, Central America and the Caribbean." In Regional Surveys of the World, 11th ed. New York: Europa Publications, 2003.

"Informe–Resumen Latinobarómetro 2004: Una decada de mediciones." Corporación Latinobarómetro. December 2004. <http://www.latinobarometro.org& #x003E;.

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. Background Note: Ecuador. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 2005.

ViewsWire Ecuador Economist Intelligence Unit. December 2003. <http://www.viewswire.com> ;.

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