CONGRESS CREATES A COURT OF CONVENIENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 001268 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS TAGS: PGOV PREL EC SUBJECT: CONGRESS CREATES A COURT OF CONVENIENCE REF: A. QUITO 554 ¶B. QUITO 1182 Classified By: PolOff Erik Martini for reasons 1.4 (b&d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Congress produced a politicized Constitutional Court to replace the politicized Court it recently voted out of existence. Deals and trades have produced a Court that will probably be pro-Correa, removing a potential vehicle for opposition maneuvering, but otherwise not likely to be highly active or significant in the few months remaining before the constituent assembly. End Summary. Congress Votes Away ¶2. (U) Congress has done little since the March crisis (Ref A),but it has "voted" out of existence by simple majority the Constitutional Court (TC) and, on June 1, approved a new one. The Congress voted to eject the nine justices on April 24 when the Court ruled that the 57 Congressional Deputies ousted by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in March should regain their seats. The new court will be composed of nine members, chosen in the corporatist manner specified in the Constitution: Nina Pacari and Manuel Viteri chosen by Congress itself; Patricio Pazmino and Roberto Brunis by the executive; Edgar Zarate and Alfonso Elian Luz by the Supreme Court; Patricio Herrera by mayors and prefects; Ruth Seni by civil society chambers; and, Hernando Morales by unions. Politics As Usual Produce Another Politicized Court ¶3. (U) Political maneuvering in Congress produced the new TC. The new pro-government majority, led by the bloc of National Dignity (members replacing the ejected 57), negotiated the deal with the Social Christians (PSC),who provided the five swing votes to approve the process by majority. (Note: Most interesting in coming days will be the rumors with respect to what the PSC gained by supporting this move.) Expected to become President of the TC is Nina Pacari, the former foreign minister under Lucio Gutierrez (during his government's short-lived alliance with the Pachakutik indigenous party),now serving as political adviser for Pachakutik Deputy Ramses Torres. Edgar Zarate, Alfonso Luz, and Hernando Morales are affiliated with the radical leftist Democratic Popular Movement (MPD); Morales is currently the legal adviser for the MDP party. Manuel Viteri, the only re-elected TC justice, is openly affiliated with Abdala Bucaram's PRE party, as is Edgar Herrera. Although designated the civil society chamber's candidate, Ruth Seni was proposed and ushered through the process by Congress President Cevallos (PRIAN),as the chambers failed to submit candidates. The Democratic Left (ID) party didn't get its nominee selected, some say because it proposed to bring Economy Minister Ricardo Patino to trial over the bond market manipulation scandal (Ref B). Comment ¶4. (C) Pacari, the three MPD members and the two members chosen by Correa probably give the government a comfortable majority on the new TC. While Correa has criticized the politicization of the Ecuadorian judiciary, this result should suit his purposes by creating a court likely to be compliant to his agenda. Pacari has the requisite qualifications to serve as President. She is a lawyer, former member of Congress and delegate to Ecuador's last constituent assembly in 1998. In her dealings with the Embassy as Foreign Minister she was pragmatic and competent, although a visa scandal involving her sister uncovered by the Embassy's consular section somewhat tarnished her image. (Note: Pacari herself was not involved). Even with a good President, however, the murky world of Ecuadorian constitutional law will not likely gain any clarity, reason, or authority, especially when all eyes are forward to the Constituent Assembly. JEWELL