QUITO, Ecuador — The military asked President Jamil Mahuad to resign Friday after Indian protesters, joined by midlevel officers, stormed an empty Congress building. Mahuad refused to step down, saying anyone who wanted to overthrow him would have to do it by force.
Military guards stepped aside when hundreds of Indians stormed the building, seized the podium and announced that they had created their own Congress, "The Parliament of the People."
While downtown Quito was in chaos — with Indians armed with rocks and clubs paralyzing traffic and menacing pedestrians — most of the country and much of the city seemed unfazed and Mahuad said he had no intention of stepping down.
"I am not going to abandon you," Mahuad, 50, said in a nationwide television broadcast Friday, his only public appearance of the day.
"If you want to take power through force, gentlemen, take power through force," he said, directing his comments to the military high command, which only a few minutes before had asked him to resign.
In the broadcast, he characterized the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities — which led the rebellion — as a small minority among 12 million Ecuadoreans. Other government leaders said the protesters were attempting to exploit discontent caused by the Latin American nation's deep economic crisis.
"What future awaits the country, the next president? Will he be a hostage of this kind of movement? The next time that he makes a decision, whatever it is, that the Indian movement does not like, will it announce a march on Quito and take control of the city?" Mahuad said.
Later, Mahuad left the national palace with close aides and was being protected by several military officers. His destination was not known.
With no real agreement between the military and the Indian confederation, which claims to represent Ecuador's 4 million Indians, it was unclear who would take power even if Mahuad agreed to resign.
The Indians appointed a new governing council, made up of an Indian, an army colonel and a former Supreme Court chief.
However — despite the military's call for Mahuad's resignation — it was not clear whether most military leaders would support the triad.
Military leaders said 120 officers were involved in the rebellion, along with an undetermined number of troops.
The participation of the armed forces seemed more a result of their growing impatience with Mahuad's inability to handle the Indian rebellion, which was part of a month of broader protests. They backed the attempted takeover mainly to prevent "a social explosion," said Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who was joint military commander until becoming defense minister last week.
"We are conscious that we must maintain order and discipline in the country," he said.
As night fell in Guayaquil, 165 miles southwest of the capital, rioters took to the downtown streets, burning two vehicles, beating a bystander and hurling rocks at passing vehicles.
Earlier in the day in Guayaquil, a group of leftist-led unions, student organizations and neighborhood associations seized the provincial government building.
Foreign Minister Benjamin Ortiz accused the protesters of exploiting Ecuador's grim economic situation. Last year inflation reached 60 percent, the highest in Latin America, and the economy contracted 7.5 percent. Only one in three in the labor force has full-time work.
The protesters are also upset about Mahuad's plans to scrap Ecuador's currency for the dollar.