Is Ecuador's social participation an illusion?

AutorSaavedra, Luis Angel

The Ecuadoran Constitution approved in 2008 is described as a guarantor or protective constitution because it incorporates various legal innovations to protect rights and social participation in political debate and public administration (NotiSur, Oct. 10, 2008). Five years later, not all innovations seem to have met the objectives for which they were created, such as the two branches of government added to the traditional executive, legislative, and judicial branches that make up the general structure of the state.

The 2008 Constitution incorporated a chapter related to the rights of nature, provoking an intense debate on whether nature could have legal rights, and a chapter defining protection proceedings (accion de proteccion) as the guarantee that protects all rights, including those of nature. The latter has now been used to block the national government from implementing its extractive policies. But the Constitution also changed the structure of the state, incorporating the two new branches: the National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral, CNE) and the Council for Public Participation and Social Control (Consejo de Participacion Ciudadana y Control Social, CPCCS).

In the past, the unicameral Asamblea Nacional (AN), previously called the Congreso Nacional, appointed the principal control authorities, such as the attorney general (Fiscal General del Estado) and magistrates of the Corte Nacional de Justicia (CNJ) and Tribunal Constitucional (TC). Similarly, Congress also appointed members of the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE). This way of appointing the principal control authorities allowed the major political parties to appoint members to these positions and thereby control state institutions, especially the judiciary.

Parties such as the rightist Partido Social Cristiano (PSC), which today has very little power, controlled the judicial system for more than 20 years, giving it impunity not only for human rights violations but also for graft and crimes involving financial administration and for allowing the existence of shell companies, which finally led to the financial collapse of 1999.

In much the same way, control of the electoral system allowed the major parties to monopolize assignments of elected authorities, such as members of Congress, through the systems for allocating seats, which precluded the participation of minority groups, such as leftist parties or the indigenous movement.

Role of Consejo de Participacion...

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