Ecuador's Congress on Monday confirmed President Lucio Gutierrez's order to dissolve the Supreme Court, as demanded by the opposition, which has demonstrated for a new court for weeks. A judicial holiday has been declared until a new court is appointed. Political observers in Quito said it appeared an arrangement to name the new court was in close reach. The move came amid an escalating political crisis in the Andean country. The problems arose in December when Gutierrez' government sacked the Supreme Court's 31 judges, appointed new ones and pushed through their appointments in Congress, where the government enjoyed a majority at the time. The move was supposedly aimed at combatting judicial corruption but led to accusations that the president, elected in 2002, was acting like a dictator. The crisis deepened April 1, when the new head of the Supreme Court threw out corruption charges against two former presidents, including Abdala Bucaram, as well as a former vice president. --MORE 2334 Local Time 2034 GMT
