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Ecuador CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
The tension between civilian and clerical authority dominated
Ecuador's constitutional history for much of the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. This issue provided one of the bases for
the lasting dispute between Conservatives, who represented
primarily the interests of the Sierra and the church, and the
Liberals, who represented those of the Costa and anticlericalism.
Ecuador's first constitution of 1830, when the country seceded
from the Confederation of Gran Colombia, followed the precedents of
other independence documents: the Quito State Charter (1812) and
the Gran Colombia constitutions of Cúcuta (1821) and Bogotá (1830).
The Quito State Charter, framed before independence, called for a
unicameral legislature and a popular and representative state
established through indirect elections by its citizens. The term
"popular," however, meant in practice participation by only wealthy
and influential persons. Succeeding constitutions clearly defined
the stringent property, professional, and literacy requirements for
citizenship and distinguished between citizens and Ecuadorians.
Only a small, white-male minority (initially those over twenty-one
years of age) met these requirements and therefore enjoyed the
impressive rights guaranteed under these and other nineteenth-
century constitutions
(see The Struggle for Independence
, ch. 1).
Ecuador's first constitution as a republic, that of 1830, also
became known as the Floreana constitution, after the new nation's
first president, General Juan José Flores (1830-45). It established
a unitary and centralized presidential system of government, and
separation of powers, with the executive power predominating in
practice. The 1830 constitution also established a unicameral
congress, elected by indirect suffrage and made up of an equal
number (ten) of deputies from each of the three districts--Quito,
Azuay, and Guayaquil--and a Council of State to assist the
executive in administering the government and to substitute for
Congress during the recess.
The five constitutions framed between 1830 and 1852 had much in
common. Voting was made indirect, through electors, in both
congressional and presidential elections. The presidential term was
four years, with the exception of the 1843 constitution (the so-
called "Slavery Charter"), which provided for an eight-year term.
The 1843 constitution also recognized Roman Catholicism as the
state religion. Only the constitutions of 1830 and 1851, however,
provided for a unicameral legislature; the others established a
bicameral congress, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.
The 1843 constitution also made an exception to indirect
congressional elections by extending popular suffrage to the
election of senators. The 1845 constitution declared that
sovereignty resides in the people, although it extended suffrage
only to all male citizens.
The constitution of 1861, promulgated by President Gabriel
García Moreno (1859-75), eliminated the financial requirements for
citizenship and the franchise; introduced direct and secret
suffrage for electing all members of a bicameral Congress, the
president and vice president of the republic, and the provincial
authorities; and established proportional representation for
Ecuador's provinces in the Chamber of Deputies (each province
elected two senators). These innovations made the 1861 constitution
the most representative in Ecuador's constitutional evolution in
the nineteenth century. It also reintroduced the strong presidency,
whose chief executive was elected by "universal suffrage" for a
four-year term. Although it retained Roman Catholicism as the only
legal religion, the 1861 constitution guaranteed free expression of
thought.
Nearly all of the constitutions prohibited the immediate
reelection of the president, but this provision was often violated
in spirit. Despite a strong sentiment against long-term monopoly of
the presidency, generals Flores, García, and Eloy Alfaro (1895-
1912) managed to rule behind the scenes between their terms of
office. In 1869 García, a conservative, intensely devout Catholic,
promulgated a more authoritarian constitution, referred to as the
Garciana constitution or Carta Negra (the Black Charter), which
extended the presidential term to six years
(see The Era of Conservatism, 1860-95
, ch. 1). It introduced the religious factor
into politics by making membership in the Roman Catholic Church a
requisite for citizenship, and it also required being at least
twenty-one years of age, married, and able to read and write. The
1884 Elections Law, however, eliminated the requirement of being
Catholic in order to be a citizen.
The Liberal period from 1895 to 1925 had two constitutions,
those of 1897 and 1906. The first, promulgated by General José Eloy
Alfaro Delgado, prohibited religious orders, abolished privileges
of the Catholic Church, and reduced the male voting age to eighteen
(or marital status). The second, the country's twelfth and most
durable charter, provided unprecedented protection of civil and
political rights and guarantees, including abolition of the death
penalty, introduced new individual freedoms, and prohibited
arbitrary imprisonment for debts. It also established the
separation of the church and state and strengthened the Council of
State
(see The Rule of the Liberals, 1895-1925
, ch. 1). The 1906
Elections Law gave women the right for the first time to
participate in political and administrative life.
The 1929 constitution combined quasicorporate features drawn
from many different models. Described as a semiparliamentary
charter, it reorganized the Senate into a body consisting of
fifteen senators elected to represent specific interest groups.
Ecuadorian judicial scholar Hernán Salgado Pesantes notes that the
1929 constitution was the only one that weakened presidential
powers by, for example, disallowing successive presidential
reelection and introducing a Council of Ministers and a vote of no
confidence. Congress was even able to impeach an incumbent
president in 1933. The 1929 document also introduced various
social, economic, and political rights, including the right of
literate women of at least twenty-one years of age to have
citizenship and to vote, and the right of minorities to elect
deputies and provincial councillors (consejeros
provinciales). The traditional social and ethnic stratification
continued, however, as did the constitutional distinction between
citizens and Ecuadorians. Consequently, the 1929 charter,
coinciding as it did with the worldwide economic crisis, failed to
improve political stability significantly.
A Constituent Assembly, dominated by the leftist Ecuadorian
Democratic Alliance, deliberated almost six months before adopting
the country's fourteenth constitution, promulgated by President
Velasco on May 3, 1945. Although Velasco had opposed the assembly's
efforts to strengthen the legislature, the new constitution imposed
a number of important checks on the president, especially regarding
the executive's use of emergency and veto powers. The 1945
constitution also provided for a unicameral legislature, rendered
the cabinet partially responsible to Congress, replaced the Council
of State with the TGC, and established the Supreme Electoral
Tribunal (Tribunal Superior Electoral--TSE). In addition, the 1945
constitution smoothed over the religious issue by stating that the
nation did not recognize any official religion and that citizens
could practice any faith.
Although Velasco signed the 1945 constitution, his immediate
rejection of it prompted the adoption of another, promulgated in
1946, that restored the bicameral legislature (consisting of a
forty-five-member Senate and a sixty-four-member Chamber of
Deputies) and the Council of State (replacing the TGC) and greatly
increased the executive's authority. Velasco's constitution also
reintroduced the office of vice president, for which no provision
had been made in the constitutions of 1869, 1906, 1929, and 1945.
The constitution made autonomous the institutions responsible for
supervising the electoral process: the TSE and the Provincial
Electoral Tribunals (Tribunales Provinciales Electorales--TPEs)
(see The Electoral Process
, this ch.).
The most extensive of Ecuador's constitutions, the 1967
document, drafted by a popularly elected constituent assembly,
legitimized political parties recognized by the TSE; made voting
obligatory for women as well as for men; and made Congress
bicameral, meeting twice a year in ordinary sessions (from March 6
to May 4 and from August 10 to October 9). In addition, the TGC
again replaced the Council of State.
The 1967 constitution, however, contained provisions that
displeased Velasco, who as of June 2, 1968, was in his fifth term
as president. For example, it restricted powers to call a state of
siege. On June 22, 1970, Velasco, in an autogalpe (self-
seizure of power), assumed extraconstitutional powers and began
ruling by decree. He suspended the 1967 constitution, which he
charged had destroyed executive control, amputated the Senate's
power, divested the police of all authority, and dismembered the
administrative organization.
After General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara deposed Velasco in a
military coup in February 1972, the armed forces issued a decree
reinstating the 1945 document. Rodríguez suspended it in 1974,
however, and cancelled plans for holding an election. In January
1976, a military junta ousted Rodríguez and again reinstated the
1945 constitution. In a measure unprecedented in Ecuador's
constitutional history, the junta held a popular referendum on
January 15, 1978, to decide between a reformed version of the 1945
document and a new charter; 44 percent of the voters cast their
ballots for the latter, and 31 percent for the former. Nullified
votes totaled 23 percent.
By allowing for a considerable amount of state intervention and
providing for a large number of economic and social rights, the new
Constitution (promulgated on August 10, 1979) is much more
progressive than the reformed document, which had favored the
status quo. Framed along the lines of the 1945 and 1967 charters,
the 1979 Constitution, the country's seventeenth, contains several
innovations, including granting citizenship and suffrage to all
Ecuadorians over eighteen years of age, including illiterates; and
requiring candidates in popular elections to affiliate with a
legally recognized party. It also creates a unicameral Congress
(for the fourth time in Ecuador's constitutional history) and four
Legislative Commissions which form the Plenary of Legislative
Commissions (Plenario de las Comisiones Legislativas--PCL). In
addition, it requires the selection of the president and vice
president in the same election, prohibits either from seeking a
successive term, authorizes Congress to elect a new vice president
if the incumbent resigns, and allows the president to declare a
state of national emergency and to finance the public debt without
prior legislative authorization. Although the Constitution
initially extended the presidential term to five years, an
amendment later reduced it to four. The Constitution also creates
the National Development Council (Consejo Nacional de Desarrollo--
Conade), headed by the vice president, and strengthens the
independence of the judiciary.
To help compensate for numerous deficiencies in the 1979
Constitution, amendments were approved in 1983. These reforms,
which went into effect in August 1984, give more power to the TGC;
reduce from five to four years the term of the principal officials
of the state, including the president (with the exceptions of TGC
and TSE members, who serve two years); shorten the terms of the
judges of the CSJ, Fiscal Tribunal, and Contentious Administrative
Tribunal (Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo--TCA) from six years
to four; and make the president and vice president of the republic
subject to trial only for treason, bribery, or other infractions
that seriously compromise the national honor.
The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, sex,
religion, language, or social status. Nevertheless, in the late
1980s Indians and blacks constituted a disproportionate share of
those living in poverty, although there was no legally sanctioned
discrimination against them. Moreover, there were still few highly
placed women in the political structure. Fewer than 15 percent of
the candidates in the 1984 elections were women, and only three of
the seventy-one congressional deputies elected that year were
female. Women still suffered some discrimination under civil law
and usually received lower wages than men employed in similar
positions. In 1987, however, changes in laws concerning divorce,
property distribution, and inheritance gave women equal rights with
their husbands in these areas as required by the Constitution.
According to the United States Department of State, the
following individual rights were respected in the late 1980s: the
freedom of peaceful assembly and association; the freedom of
religion (although the country was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic);
the freedom of movement within the country, of foreign travel, and
of emigration and repatriation (persons from other Latin American
countries readily found asylum in Ecuador); and the freedom to
exercise political rights. Worker rights that were generally
respected included the right of association, the right to strike,
and the right to organize and bargain collectively. Although forced
or compulsory labor and employment of children under the age of
eighteen were prohibited, Indians often worked for near-starvation
wages, and many children in rural areas were active in the work
force.
Data as of 1989
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