Ecuador's Congress voted on Wednesday to fire President Lucio Gutierrez for "abandoning his post" and named Vice President Alfredo Palacio in his place. A total of 60 congressmen from the 100-seat chamber voted to fire Gutierrez, who became the third Ecuadorean president to be toppled amid popular unrest since 1997. The armed forces, traditional arbiters of power in the country, withdrew their support from Gutierrez, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff head Gen. Victor Hugo Rosero. The opposition had denounced Gutierrez as a dictator for stacking the Supreme Court with political allies last December. Tens of thousands of protesters had clogged the streets of the capital, Quito, to call for Gutierrez, a former army colonel, to resign. --SP 2227 Local Time 1927 GMT
