Police sent to bar ousted lawmakers

Ecuador’s leftist president sent police to prevent the return of ousted opposition lawmakers to Congress, and his tentative majority in that body dismissed the nation’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, which had ordered the lawmakers reinstated.

The lawmakers had tried unsuccessfully to block a referendum to write a new constitution that President Rafael Correa hopes will reduce the power of political parties.

Ecuador’s top electoral court fired the lawmakers in March and says that it -- not the Constitutional Tribunal -- has the final say on electoral matters.