QUITO, Jan 14 (IPS) - Lucio Gutiérrez, who is to be sworn in as Ecuador's president on Wednesday, says he will seek backing from the United States for canceling this South American country's debt so financial resources may be channeled towards improving the local economy and building social equality.
Support for negotiating an agreement of this sort with the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) (IMF) and for counteracting the negative effects of Plan Colombia, the anti-drugs effort that is playing out along the shared border, are at the top of Gutiérrez's agenda for his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites), slated for Feb 11 in Washington.
The foreign debt cannot be treated as a mere statistic or a number, but rather must be understood as a critical social and humanitarian problem, the future Ecuadorian president said in a conversation with IPS.
''I plan to tell (Bush) that Ecuador needs a political response like that of 1953, when creditors met in London with representatives from Germany and reached a creative solution'' to the European nation's financial straits, Gutiérrez said.
He noted that Germany could not get a grip on its debt after the end of World War II and asked to be given the opportunity to grow first in order to be able to pay later.
''They reached a creative accord that was beneficial for both sides, and we can all see what Germany has become today,' he said.
''We need to do something similar for Ecuador, because otherwise efforts to resolve our economic and social problems will not be enough for the country to move forward,'' stated the president-elect.
Gutiérrez won the run-off election in November as the candidate for the alliance between his Patriotic Society Party and the indigenous Pachakutik Movement, with 54.4 percent of valid ballots, defeating banana baron Alvaro Noboa by nine percentage points.
Also in regards to political relations with Washington, Gutiérrez told IPS that the military base in the northwestern port of Manta, ceded to the United States in 1999 by then-president Jamil Mahuad (1998-2000), is only authorized to be used for the fight against drug trafficking in the Andean region.
''We support the battle against narco-trafficking and that is why the base and installations were conceded, but they cannot be used for any other purpose,'' he said.
As for regional ties, Gutiérrez said his government will place priority on the integration of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), which comprises Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, and of the entire South American continent before moving forward with the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the creation of which is in the negotiating stages.
''First it is necessary to deepen integration with our equals, the Andean countries, and then extend integration to the rest of South America. This is already under way and we have even made contacts for joining Mercosur (Southern Common Market - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay),'' he said.
''That is the process that should be followed before deciding if we will enter the FTAA or not.''
Gutiérrez believes that the creation of the hemisphere-wide FTAA should be a decision made with the consensus of all Latin American nations, ''because entering the accord individually would be detrimental'' to the region's social and economic future.
The ceremony inaugurating Gutiérrez, a retired army colonel, as president of Ecuador for the next four years will be attended by some 1,300 people, including local and international guests.
The heads of state to be present for the swearing-in include Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, of Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Brazil, Ricardo Lagos, of Chile, Alvaro Uribe, of Colombia, Francisco Flores, of El Salvador (news - web sites), Alejandro Toledo, of Peru, and Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela, as well as Spain's crown prince Felipe de Bourbon.
The presence of numerous presidents bodes well for a discussion of Brazil's proposal to create an international body to help Venezuela overcome its profound political crisis, most notably the ongoing general strike that began Dec 2 and has practically paralyzed the oil industry, the country's main revenue generator.
''I back the initiative of some South American presidents, with the support of the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, César Gaviria, to set up a group of countries, friends of Venezuela, to help find a way out of the domestic conflict,'' said Gutiérrez.
He added that he plans to speak with Chávez ''about improving bilateral relations,'' a meeting that has many analysts on the edge of their seats as they compare the similar military origins of Gutiérrez and Chávez and the fact that both reached the presidency through democratic elections after having participated in attempts to take power by force.
''I can't comment on the domestic reality of a brother country, but it is important to keep in mind that each country has its own characteristics. I hope my government is judged for what it does and not for rumors or comparisons,'' said Gutiérrez.
On the national front, Gutiérrez is already embroiled in debate with the opposition parties, which together make up a larger force than the ruling alliance in the unicameral Congress that was sworn in Jan 5.
The opposition parties thus were able to divide the leadership posts in the legislature amongst themselves, designate the members of the Electoral Supreme Court and two members of the Constitutional Tribunal, leaving the ruling alliance's candidates on the sidelines.
Coexisting in this opposition movement are the right-wing Social Christian Party, two centrist parties, the social-democrat Democratic Left and the Socialist Party.
The lawmakers who support the incoming Gutiérrez administration come from the alliance and from the Marxist-leaning Democratic People's Movement and the populist Ecuadorian Roldosista Party.
Some political experts see this as a polarization that could lead to situation similar to that of Venezuela, where government and the opposition forces have divided society roughly in half.
They fear a clash between the new government and the traditional parties, which have more representatives in Congress than the future Gutiérrez administration does.
''I was continually inviting the lawmakers to engage in dialogue, but they responded by electing an Electoral Supreme Court in an unconstitutional way,'' Gutiérrez commented to IPS.
The Constitution enacted in 1998 establishes that the outgoing members of the Court should send to Congress the list of the seven most-voted parties so that each one has a member on the Court.
''Although the tribunal did not send the list, the parties in the parliamentary majority disregarded procedure and divided up the Tribunal posts amongst themselves,'' Gutiérrez said.
''The gave a seat to the Conservative Party, which doesn't have even one legislator, and to the Popular Democracy Party, which has fewer legislators than our party. How can I applaud anti-constitutional actions?''
But the future president of Ecuador commented that the existence of a strong opposition is a good thing because it will force his ministers and his government to act with greater caution, with greater transparency and with ongoing contact with the Ecuadorian people.
''The ministers should be in permanent contact with the population in order to understand the people's aspirations, because that is what we are going to govern this country for,'' Gutiérrez said.
''The privileged sectors in this country have taken too much power. It is time for the poor to have hope for better days, and all effort will be focused in that direction,'' he said.
Guillermo Landázuri, a social-democrat and president of parliament, told IPS that the accord among the opposition parties was only ''to organize Congress,'' and denied that it was an attempt to block the maneuvering room of the incoming government.
''The Democratic Left and I, as president of Congress, are open to dialogue and to supporting the government's positive initiatives. It is wrong to say we are the opposition,'' commented Landázuri.
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