Was it the will of the people or the action of a power-hungry despot? I couldn't say, but the recent news that Ecuador's leader removed that country's Supreme Court judges should scare anyone who believes in the separation of powers. To be fair, I don't know how much separation there had been to start. The article noted an impeachment attempt against the sitting president, who I believe got his position through a coup d'etat.
But the dramatic shift still concerns me, and I think more Americans should be aware of it. Perhaps geographically the country is about as close as Great Britain is to us. Ecuador is due south of Florida (obviously hundreds if not thousands of miles from Florida and well below the Panama Canal), though most Americans are likely oblivious of this change in its realm of the world.
I guess the world these days is America's realm. Yet, I wonder how significant President Bush considers such a dramatic move. Would he replicate it if there were a Supreme Court decision that went against his political will? I doubt he would. Even if the court allowed gay marriages and upset much of his conservative base I expect he'd be reluctant to remove most or even all of the High Court. Not even the Republican majority in both houses of Congress could support that.
With the political problems throughout much of the northern end of South America, however, the shift in Ecuador only adds to the security concerns for Americans.
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