BY TIM JOHNSON

 QUITO, Ecuador -- Congress approved Vice President Gustavo Noboa's
 ascension to the presidency Saturday after a chaotic daylong period in which the
 armed forces toppled elected President Jamil Mahuad, seized power for four
 hours, then returned to the barracks.

 Noboa vowed that he would proceed with a high-stakes plan to adopt the U.S.
 dollar as Ecuador's currency and said he would launch a crusade against
 corruption.

 ``Ecuador is mired in the worst crisis of its history,'' Noboa said.

 Ecuadoreans appeared stunned at the sudden succession of leaders. Noboa
 became the nation's sixth leader in barely four years. Even so, many citizens
 voiced satisfaction that the nation had dodged a military dictatorship or a total
 breakdown of authority.

 ``We were very close to entering a period of anarchy,'' said former President Sixto
 Duran-Ballen.

 The turmoil in Ecuador underscored the threats to democracy still haunting the
 Americas. Mahuad became the first elected Western Hemisphere leader
 overthrown by the military since Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
 toppled in 1991. Attempts at authoritarian rule roiled Peru in 1992 and Guatemala
 in 1993, and a military-instigated political crisis jolted Paraguay last year.

 ``We have offered an image of savagery [abroad],'' Guayaquil Mayor Leon Febres
 Cordero lamented.

 Noboa, a 62-year-old former university rector, reaped significant support to form a
 government -- even from his toppled predecessor.

 ``I will never be an obstacle for Gustavo Noboa,'' Mahuad said in a dramatic
 televised speech announcing his departure from the presidency. ``He must make
 very important and very difficult decisions. . . . I wish Gustavo the best of luck.''

 `WATCHING CLOSELY'

 The U.S. State Department, in a statement issued by the American Embassy in
 Quito, said it was ``watching closely'' as events unfold in Ecuador.

 ``While we regret the circumstances that led President Mahuad to call for public
 support for a Noboa presidency, his statement is a magnanimous gesture to pave
 the way to restore the country to constitutional order,'' the State Department said.

 By early afternoon, Congress voted 87-1 to declare that Mahuad had abandoned
 his position and that Noboa should succeed him. The session, which was held in
 the port of Guayaquil, was peppered with condemnations of Indian leaders who
 backed the coup and invective against legislator Rene Yandun, a retired army
 general who also supported the insurrection.

 When Yandun offered the only vote against the motion, colleagues angrily yelled
 ``Coup plotter!'' and ``Rascal!''

 Fellow deputy Jaime Nebot demanded that Yandun and Paco Moncayo, another
 legislator and former army commander, be booted from Congress for supporting
 the uprising.

 ``They were involved in the sedition, in the coup,'' Nebot said. ``They said publicly
 that `we are resigning from a undignified Congress.' I think what's necessary is to
 tell them that democracy triumphed, the coup didn't triumph, and that they are,
 according to the constitution, out of Congress.''

 A parallel move gained momentum to send dozens of military officers who took
 part in Friday's insurrection to jail.

 ``The armed forces are obligated to punish the subversives,'' said Francisco
 Alarcon, head of the Chamber of Industry in Guayas state on the Pacific coast.

 But by evening, only one of the military coup leaders, Col. Lucio Gutierrez,
 appeared to have been arrested.

 Friday's events unfolded in a flurry that held Ecuadoreans glued to live broadcasts
 on nearly every national television channel.

 MILITARY'S MOVE

 The insurrection began when troops allowed thousands of Indians to break
 through barricades and seize Congress and then the Supreme Court, neither of
 which was in session. During the takeover, Col. Gutierrez emerged with two
 civilians and declared that a three-man junta would rule Ecuador.

 Mahuad left the palace in the late afternoon, hidden in an ambulance.

 Shortly before midnight, the nation's senior military commander, Gen. Carlos
 Mendoza, looking pleased, removed any doubts about the coup's success. From
 a Carondelet Palace hallway, he declared that he would sit on the three-man
 junta, along with former Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Solorzano and Indian
 activist leader Antonio Vargas.

 But a little before 3 a.m., Mendoza backed down.

 ``I have decided to leave the armed forces and decline the designation as a
 member of the junta,'' the general said. ``I ask my comrades in arms to
 reestablish the legal order with a constitutional succession, as I always have
 proposed.''

 Mendoza said later that he retreated after witnessing growing divisions in the
 armed forces and foreseeing ``a spilling of blood.''

 NOBOA STEPS UP

 By 7:30 a.m., Noboa assumed the presidency in a simple ceremony in the
 Defense Ministry. In a 10-minute speech, Noboa vowed to forge ahead with a plan
 Mahuad announced two weeks ago to replace the sucre with the U.S. dollar.

 Noboa said he would launch a drive to recover stolen assets from government
 coffers, and listen to Ecuador's Indians, who make up about a third of the 13
 million population. Weeklong Indian protests over runaway inflation and rising food
 prices had weakened the Mahuad government.

 ``The aspirations expressed by Indian people . . . will be duly considered by my
 government,'' Noboa said.

 But indigenous activists said the failure of the coup frustrated them.

 INDIANS `BETRAYED'

 ``The Ecuadorean people have been betrayed by Gen. Carlos Mendoza,'' said
 Antonio Vargas, the indigenous leader who briefly took part in the three-man
 junta. ``He quit after only four hours.''

 While Vargas said Indian protests would continue, news media reported an
 exodus of Indians from Quito back to rural areas where they live.

 ``We're going home to organize better,'' said Segundo Jami, an activist.

 Other indigenous protesters sounded relieved to be rid of Mahuad, whose
 popularity plummeted as the economy shrank 7 percent last year.

 ``Why would we be disappointed?'' Luis Fernando Amaya said with a puzzled look
 to a reporter's inquiry. ``If [Noboa] tries to do the same thing as Jamil, we Indians
 will rise up again.''
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald