By Shane Hopkinson

Last August, President Abdala Bucaram netted 54% of the vote. In office, the populist president recorded an album and gave concerts, auctioned his moustache in a benefit for the poor and launched a subsidised powdered milk campaign. He also made his relatives and closest friends ministers, and was charged for corruption and slander.

His neo-liberal austerity package, described by the Interamerican Development Bank as "the most ambitious of the past 10 years in Latin America", began to take effect in January.

To cover a supposed fiscal black hole of 4% of GDP, the government planned a 344% price hike in household cooking gas, increases of 150% in electricity and telephone rates and a fare hike for public transport.

Protests began in January and by the beginning of February the Patriotic Front -- a coalition of labour unions and indigenous organisations supported by a coalition of local neighbourhood, sports and business associations -- had called a two-day general strike on February 5-6 in which some 2.2 million people took part.

Peaceful protests developed into clashes with police, who arrested hundreds and injured many others. The government was forced to back away from declaring a state of emergency when the military said it would not support such a move.

After warning that the opposition was planning a "congressional coup d'état", President Bucaram sacked his most unpopular ministers and modified some of the cuts.

The country's congress, besieged by petitions from hundreds of social organisations and threatened with an occupation including by former presidents, mayors and other prominent public figures, then impeached Bucaram on grounds of mental incompetence.

The congress named as interim president congressional leader Fabian Alarcon, to preside over new elections and to dissolve the Court of Constitutional Guarantees. Vice President Rosalia Arteaga initially tried to succeed Bucaram but stepped down when the congress's opposition to her was made clear.

Opinion polls indicate that some 82% of the population backed the parliamentary decision and the Patriotic Front.

The Patriotic Front has called on workers to participate in new street protests in favour of Alarcon. [Compiled in part from Weekly Updates on the Americas and One World News Service.]

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