ECUADOR: Ecuador's Congress sacked the entire Supreme Court after President Lucio Gutierrez accused magistrates of favouring the opposition and asked lawmakers to replace them.
Fifty-two members of the 100-seat Congress voted late on Wednesday after Mr Gutierrez called a session to dismiss all 31 judges in an attempt to consolidate power after a move to oust him narrowly failed last month.
Congress named replacements linked to political parties that opposed the failed attempt to impeach the president over accusations he misused public funds during a local election.
The opposition said the 1998 constitution did not allow Congress to remove the judges by a simple majority vote. In response, the government argued the magistrates were appointed prior to that year.
Mr Gutierrez said it marked the end of what he termed the dictatorship of the powerful Social Christian Party.
Mr Gutierrez, a former army colonel who led a coup attempt in 2000 but won elections in 2002 with support from the country's poor and Indians, has boosted his influence over the judiciary since the failed impeachment bid.
In late November, the Congress voted to remove pro-opposition members of the constitutional and electoral courts. They were immediately replaced by allies of Mr Gutierrez.
Control of the Supreme Court means the incumbent president is now more likely to finish his four-year term in a country where two presidents have been overthrown during popular unrest since 1997.