Ecuador’s new president prepared to form a new Cabinet today and continue the radical currency policy that helped topple his ousted predecessor.
Gustavo Noboa, who had been vice president until a weekend coup, said he will try to control Ecuador’s runaway inflation by adopting the U.S. dollar as the national currency.
He said he would announce key ministers in his new government and work toward ending the economic crisis that had forced President Jamil Mahuad to resign Saturday.
“Ecuador has to modernize, privatize,” Noboa, 62, said. “But to say that is repetitive. Now we really have to do it.”
Mahuad’s “dollarization” policy and failure to turn around Ecuador’s chronically troubled economy fueled the violent protests by Indians in the capital of Quito on Friday.
Mahuad resigned when the armed forces, led by military chief Carlos Mendoza, sided with protesters and about 80 junior officers who joined in seizing the national congress building and supreme court.
Mendoza described how he and other military brass Friday night urged Mahuad to step down: “When the situation became complicated, we told the president, ‘You have to decide. You decide so there isn’t trouble in the country and try to pacify things,'” Mendoza said.
Mendoza ended the coup Saturday after receiving phone calls from unnamed U.S. diplomats who urged him to restore civilian rule, he said. He gave no details.