ECUADOR: DEMONSTRATORS DEMAND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM.

by Kintto Lucas

QUITO, Jan. 31, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- Protesters, worried that former President Lucio Gutirrez would not support proposed constitutional reform, stormed congress to pressure the legislators to approve the referendum.

One of the key campaign pledges of Ecuador's new left-leaning president, Rafael Correa, was to bring about radical political and economic reforms by holding a referendum to create a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

While the popular pressure and a political pact between the government and Gutirrez would seem to guarantee that the referendum will take place, a decision by the electoral court to put the question in the hands of Congress has angered many of the social organizations that back Correa.

When some 5,000 demonstrators gathered outside the legislature Tuesday, the congressional session was suspended, and lawmakers were escorted out of the building by police.

A smaller group of protesters then shoved their way through the police cordon and into the legislature, which they occupied briefly until they were dispersed with tear gas by the police.

Although Congress was getting ready to vote on the referendum for a constituent assembly, which, if approved, would be organized by the electoral court, the protest reflected the social movements' distrust of the legislature, to which Correa himself referred during the campaign as a "sewer of corruption."