Wayzata World Factbook 1995/World Factbook - 1995 Edition - Wayzata Technology (1995).iso/mac/text/Build/orig BACKGR/BNOT0037.TXT

Text File | 1994-11-21 | 21KB | 444 lines

National Trade Data Bank
ITEM ID     : ST BNOTES ECUADOR
DATE        : Oct 28, 1994

AGENCY      : U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PROGRAM     : BACKGROUND NOTES
TITLE       : Background Notes - ECUADOR

Source key      : ST
Program key     : ST BNOTES
Update sched.   : Occasionally
Data type       : TEXT
End year        : 1992
Date of record  : 19941018
Keywords 3      :
Keywords 3      : | ECUADOR

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLICATION
BACKGROUND NOTE:  ECUADOR

Official Name:   Republic of Ecuador
PROFILE
Geography
Area:  271,000 sq. km. (109,000 sq. mi.); about the size of Colorado.
Cities:  Capital--Quito (pop. 1.5 million).  Other cities--Guayaquil (2
million).  Terrain: jungle, mountains to coastal plain.  Climate:  varied.


People
Nationality:  Noun and adjective--Ecuadorian(s).  Population (1990):

11 million.  Annual growth rate:  2.4%.  Ethnic groups:  Indian 25%,
mestizo (mixed Indian and Spanish) 65%, Caucasian and others 7%,
African 3%.  Religion:  predominantly Roman Catholic.  Languages:
Spanish (official), Indian languages, especially Quichua.  Education:
Years compulsory--ages 6-12.  Attendance (through 6th grade)--76%
urban, 33% rural.  Literacy--88%.  Health:  Infant mortality
rate--51/1,000.  Life expectancy--66 yrs.  Work force
(3.4 million):  Agriculture--39%.
Services --42%.  Industry--11%.  Other--8%.


Government
Type:  Republic.  Constitution:  1979.  Independence:  August 10,
1809.

Branches:  Executive--president and 12 cabinet ministers.
Legislative--unicameral Congress.  Judicial--Supreme Court,
provincial courts, and ordinary civil and penal judges.  Administrative
subdivisions:
21 provinces.

Political parties:  15 legal political parties (1986) represent a wide
variety of views; none predominates.   Suffrage:  obligatory for
literate citizens 18-65 yrs. of age; optional for other eligible voters;
active duty military personnel do not vote.

Central government budget  (1990 est.):  $1.4 billion.

Defense (1990):  $154 million.


Economy
GDP (1990): $10.9 billion.  Annual growth rate (1990):  1.5%.  Per
capita income (1989 est.): $1,043.  Inflation rate (1990): 50%.

Natural resources:  petroleum, fish, shrimp, timber, gold, limestone.
Agriculture (17% of GDP):  Products--bananas, seafood, coffee,
cacao, sugar, rice, corn, and livestock.  Industry (16% of GDP):
Types--food processing, wood products, textiles, chemicals
(pharmaceuticals).

Trade:  Exports (1990)--$2.4 billion: petroleum and petroleum
products, shrimp, bananas, coffee, cocoa.  Major markets--US, Latin
American Integration Association (ALADI), EC.  Imports (1990)--$1.7
billion: agricultural and industrial machinery, industrial raw materials,
agricultural commodities, chemical products, transportation and
communication equipment, petroleum products.  Major
suppliers--US, EC, Japan, ALADI.

Official exchange rate (March 1991):  1,000 sucres=US$1.

Fiscal year:  calendar year.

US Assistance (FY90): Economic--$16.7 million; Military--$1.2 million;
Law enforcement--$1.4 million.


Membership in International Organizations
UN and most of its specialized and related agencies, Organization of
American States, ALADI, Andean Pact, Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, Latin American Energy Organization, Latin
American Economic System, Group of 77, Non-Aligned Movement,
Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (a regional organization
composed of Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, which coordinates
fishing and conservation in the 200-mile maritime jurisdiction claimed
by the four countries).


PEOPLE
Ecuador's population is ethnically mixed.  The largest ethnic groups
are Indian and mestizo (mixed Spanish and Indian).  Africans,
Spanish and other Europeans, and some Asians form smaller
groups.

Two kinds of internal migrations are occurring in Ecuador, from the
highlands to the coast and from the countryside to the cities.
Although Ecuadorians were concentrated in the mountainous central
highland region a few decades ago, the population today is divided
about equally between that area and the coastal lowlands.  The cities
now contain about 55% of the population.  The tropical forest region
to the east of the mountains remains sparsely populated and
contains only about 3% of the population.


HISTORY
Pre-Columbian Ecuador was inhabited by linguistically and culturally
diverse peoples.  The dominant pre-Hispanic organization was the
Inca Empire, a pyramidally administered autocratic state whose
absolute ruler was believed to have descended from God.  In the
15th century, the Inca Empire spread into what is now Ecuador from
Peru.  One emperor, Huayana Capac, established Quito as a major
administrative and military outpost.  The Spanish explorer Francisco
Pizarro conquered the Incas in Peru in 1532, and other Spaniards
took advantage of Inca weakness and tribal resentment to subdue
Quito and surrounding areas in 1534.

After the War of Independence ended in 1822, Simon Bolivar joined
Ecuador with the Republic of Greater Colombia.  In 1830, Ecuador
seceded and became a separate republic.  The 19th century was a
period of political instability, and Ecuador's first 95 years as a
republic were marked by a succession of 40 presidents, dictators,
and juntas.

From 1925 to 1948, Ecuador had 22 presidents or chiefs of state.
Stability was re-established when Galo Plaza Lasso (later Secretary
General of the Organization of American States), became president
after free elections in 1948, and completed his constitutional 4-year
term.  Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra (1952-56) and Camilo Ponce
(1956-60) repeated his accomplishment.

Velasco Ibarra was re-elected in 1960 but forced out of office in 1961
after economic problems and political turbulence.  He was
succeeded by Vice President Carlos Julio Arosemena.  Less than 2
years later, the armed forces replaced Arosemena with a
four-member junta.

Almost 3 years of military rule ended in 1966 with the appointment of
an interim civilian president, Clemente Yerovi.  Yerovi supervised the
election of a constituent assembly, which named Dr. Otto Arosemena
interim constitutional president.  When elections finally took place in
1968, Velasco was elected to a fifth term.  However, student riots
and financial problems quickly undermined his position.  In 1970,
with the support of the armed forces, Velasco suspended the
constitution, dissolved Congress, and reorganized the Supreme
Court.  Despite these measures, in early 1972, the military deposed
him for a fourth time.

After 4 years, Gen. Guillermo Rodriguez Lara was replaced by other
military officers.  The new government, led by Adm. Alfredo Poveda,
paved the way for the resumption of civilian government in 1979.

Jaime Roldos, a protege of Guayaquil politician Assad Bucaram, was
inaugurated in 1979, beginning a new era of civilian rule.  His brief
term was marked by sharp conflicts with the Congress and with his
former mentor, Bucaram.  Roldos, a populist, brought Christian
Democrat Osvaldo Hurtado with him as vice president.  In May 1981,
Roldos was killed in an airplane crash, and Hurtado ascended to the
presidency.

During his 3-year tenure, Hurtado pursued a course of moderate
change and economic development marked, at times, by financial
difficulties.  Floods caused by a persistent weather pattern known as
"El Nino" did enormous damage to the country's agriculture and
roads and sparked social unrest.

Social Christian Leon Febres Cordero won the 1984 presidential
elections by a narrow margin.  Much of his tenure was characterized
by bitter wrangling between the executive and the other branches of
government, which were often dominated by the opposition, led by
Social Democrat Rodrigo Borja.  Febres Cordero implemented
free-market economic policies, sought to diversify Ecuador's exports,
and pursued close ties to the United States.  He also took a strong
stand against drug trafficking and terrorism.  A devastating
earthquake in March 1987 set back development plans.

In August 1988, Rodrigo Borja became president after a landslide
victory the previous spring that gave his party (Democratic Left-ID)
almost an absolute majority in Congress.  He instituted a government
characterized by respect for human rights and economic
restructuring.  The government reached an accord with the main
terrorist group (AVC) under which it was to become law abiding.

Despite initial success, efforts to control inflation failed to bring it
below 50%, and in mid-term congressional elections (June 1990), the
ID lost more than half of its seats.  Nevertheless, Borja pledged to
continue economic restructur-ing, tight credit control, and efforts to
attract foreign investment.


GOVERNMENT
The constitution provides for concurrent 4-year terms of office for the
president, the vice president, and the 12 congress-men (of a total of
72) who are elected as "National" (at large) legislators.  The
remaining 60 legislators, representing the country's 21 provinces,
serve for 2 years.  No president can be re-elected, and outgoing
legislators must sit out a term before running for Congress again.

Each year legislators elect from among themselves a president and
vice president of Congress.  Congress begins its annual 2-month
regular session on Independence Day, August 10.  For the
remainder of the year, unless an extraordinary plenary session is
called, all legislative business is transacted by the 20 members of the
Congress who constitute its 4 permanent committees.

Ecuador has a three-tiered court system.  Congress appoints justices
of the Supreme Court for 4-year terms.  The Supreme Court names
the members of the superior (provincial) courts, who in turn choose
ordinary civil and penal judges.  The power of judicial review rests
with the Tribunal of Constitutional Guarantees (TGC), a 15-member
body representing executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as
well as the private sector.  All TGC decisions must be submitted to
the Congress, which has ultimate authority to interpret the
constitution.

The executive branch includes 12 ministries and several cabinet-level
secretariats headed by presidential appointees.  The president also
appoints Ecuador's 20 provincial governors (the capital district of
Pichincha Province has no governor), who represent the central
government at the local level.


POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Historically, Ecuador's political parties have been small, loose
organizations dependent more on populist, often charismatic, leaders
than on programs or ideology.  Frequent internal splits produced
extreme factionalism.

To encourage the development of strong, stable political parties, the
constitution permits only candidates affiliated with registered political
parties to run for elective office.  To be certified, a party must file a
petition signed by a number of unaffiliated citizens equal to at least
1.5% of the number of valid votes cast in the last national election.
The party must then field candidates in at least 10 of the country's
provinces, including 2 of the 3 most populous.

The 1990 congressional and local elections revealed that political
frag-mentation continues to exist: 15 parties, including 2 communist
parties, contested the election.  Eleven political parties are
represented in the Congress.  The opposition, made up of
independents, the center-right, and populist parties, remains loosely
organized, with former leaders of the Febres Cordero admin-istration
among the chief spokesmen.

The armed forces include about 50,000 troops.


ECONOMY
Agriculture is the cornerstone of Ecuador's economy.  The coastal
region produces most of Ecuador's export crops, such as bananas
and coffee, while the highlands grow most of the country's food
crops and is beginning to export flowers and vegetables.  Although
only 15% of GPD, petroleum constitutes half of Ecuador's exports
and of government revenue.  Therefore, international oil prices have
a major effect on overall economic performance.  The small industrial
sector produces largely for a protected domestic market.

Pursuing a policy of gradual economic reform, the Borja
administration achieved notable improvements in the economy in
1989.  It tightened public sector spending and slowed monetary
growth, reducing inflation from 86% at the end of 1988 to  54% at the
end of 1989.  It also improved the external accounts, raising net
interna-tional reserves from negative $176 million to a positive $203
million.  However, growth in 1989 was only 0.2%.

Progress stalled in the first half of 1990.  Public spending increased,
monetary growth remained high, and inflation stabilized at just under
50%.  In response, the government cut spending for the second half
of the year by the equivalent of 11% of the original budget.  This,
coupled with increased revenue from higher oil prices, may reduce
the deficit and moderate inflation.

Although the government has made structural reforms, much
remains to be done, including a reduction of direct government
control of the economy, movement toward free-market interest rates,
privatization of some companies, further liberalization of trade, reform
of labor laws, and promotion of domestic and foreign private
investment.

On foreign debt, the government has regularized its relations with the
multi-lateral banks and bilateral creditors.  The IMF approved a
stand-by program for Ecuador in 1989 and renewed it in 1990, and
the World Bank and IBD have resumed lending.  In October 1989 the
government rescheduled principal and interest due to official bilateral
creditors (the Paris Club). Ecuador began discus-sions with
commercial bank creditors in August 1989 but was unable to reach
agreement.  The original round of talks stalled, but discussions were
resumed in November 1990.  Beginning in June 1989 the
government began paying about 30% of interest due. At the end of
1989, total outstanding external debt was $11.3 billion.


FOREIGN RELATIONS
Ecuador traditionally has maintained good relations with East and
West and emphasizes multilateral approaches to international
problems.

One of Ecuador's basic foreign policy objectives is a revision of the
1942 Rio Protocol of Peace, Friendship, and Boundaries, which
ended a short war between Peru and Ecuador.  Ecuador holds that
the protocol awarded disputed territory to Peru.  Geographical
features along a 78-kilometer (49 mi.) stretch of land that do not
match topographical descriptions in the protocol have, according to
Ecuador, made a complete boundary demarcation between the two
countries "inexecutable."  Most Ecuadorians would welcome a
revision of the protocol (a move Peru opposes) to gain sovereign
access to the Maranon river, a main tributary of the Amazon.

This long-running border dispute has erupted into armed conflict
along the undemarcated section.  The most recent and serious
episode occurred in 1981.  Ecuador has requested that the four
guarantors of the Rio protocol (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the
United States) help end formal differences over the border.  In his
inaugural address, Borja expressed interest in reaching a negotiated
solution, and relations between the two countries have warmed.

In addition to international financial institutions, Ecuador looks
primarily to the United States, Western Europe, and Japan for
assistance in addressing social and economic development.  The
govern-ment has indicated it will seek to attract private foreign
investment and has begun to remove trade impediments.  Ecuador
is not a member of GATT (General Agree-ment on Tariffs and Trade).


US-ECUADORIAN RELATIONS
The United States and Ecuador have close ties based on mutual
interests in maintaining democratic institutions, fighting
narco-trafficking, building trade, investment and finance, fostering
Ecuador's economic development, and participating in inter-American
organizations.  The United States assists Ecuador's economic
development through its Agency for International Development
program in Ecuador and through multilateral organizations such as
the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.  In
addition, the US Peace Corps operates a sizable program in
Ecuador.

Both countries are signatories of the 1947 Rio treaty, the Western
Hemi-sphere's mutual security treaty.  Ecuador shares US concern
over increasing narcotics trafficking and terrorism.  Ecuador has
condemned terrorist actions, eliminated coca production since the
mid-1980s, and developed a vigorous program of combating money
laundering and narcotics trafficking.

Differences have arisen over the breadth of the territorial sea claimed
by a coastal state and its rights over highly migratory fish traveling
through its claimed territorial waters.  Although the United States
claims jurisdiction for the management of coastal fisheries up to 320
kilometers (200 mi.) from its coast, it excludes highly migratory
species such as tuna.  Ecuador, on the other hand, claims a
320-kilometer (200-mile-) wide territorial sea and has implemented
that claim by imposing license fees and fines on foreign fishing
vessels, with no exceptions, made for the catch of migratory species.

In the early 1970s, Ecuador seized about 100 foreign flag boats,
many of them American, and collected fees and fines of more than
$6 million.  After a reduction in such seizures for some years, several
US tuna boats were detained and seized in 1980 and 1981.  The US
Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act then triggered
an automatic prohibition of US imports of tuna products from
Ecuador.  The prohibition was lifted in 1983, but the fundamental
difference between Ecuadorian and US legislation remains.
Successive Ecuadorian governments have declared their willingness
to explore
solutions to this problem with mutual respect for long-standing
positions and principles held on both sides.  No current conflict
exists.


Principal Government Officials
President--Rodrigo BORJA Cevallos
Vice President--Luis PARODI Valverde
Foreign Minister-- Diego CORDOVEZ Zegers
Ambassador to the United States-- Jaime MONCAYO Garcia
Ambassador to the OAS--Miguel Antonio Vasco
Ambassador to the United Nations--Jose AYALA
Ecuador maintains an embassy in the United States at 2535 15th
Street, NW, Washington, DC  20009 (tel. [phone]) and
consulates in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New
Orleans, New York, and San Francisco.



Principal US Officials
Ambassador--Paul C. Lambert
Deputy Chief of Mission--James F. Mack
Consul General, Guayaquil--Gwendolyn Clair
The US Embassy in Ecuador is located at Avenida 12 de Octubre y
Avenida Patria.  Phone:  [phone].  The Consulate General
is at 9 de Octubre and Garcia Moreno, Guayaquil (tel. (593)(4)
323-570).



TRAVEL NOTES:
Clothing and climate:  Temperatures vary with altitude, not season.
Spring- and fall-weight clothing is useful all year in the Sierra, while
summer-weight clothes are necessary in the Costa and Oriente.
Rainwear is necessary during the rainy season in Quito and
Guayaquil (roughly November-March).


Immigration and customs:  A valid Ecuadorian visa is required to
enter the country; however, visas can be obtained from immigration
auth-orities upon arrival in Ecuador.  Tourist visas are valid for up to
90 days per calendar year.  Those wishing to study or work in
Ecuador should request visas from the nearest Ecuadorian
Consulate or the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington, DC.


Health:  Inoculations against typhoid, polio, tetanus, and hepatitis are
recommended throughout the country.  In addition, malaria
suppressant and yellow fever inoculation are reco-mmended in the
lowlands.  Travelers must take precautions against contaminated
food and water.  Tapwater is not potable in all areas.  The high
altitude of the Sierra may cause problems, especially for older people
and those with heart problems.

Telecommunications:  Domestic telephone, telegraph and FAX
services are available between major cities in Ecuador.
Long-distance telephone service, cables, and telex are available.
Ecuador is in the eastern standard time zone but does not observe
daylight savings.


Transportation:  Flights are available from the United States.
Domestic airlines serve most large- and medium-sized cities in
Ecuador.  Intercity railroad passenger service is limited, but inter-city
buses are fre-quent.  In the major cities, buses and taxis are plentiful
and reasonably priced.