QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador's president is trying to win back credibility
                  amid charges he lacks the strength to govern his chaotic, strike-prone country
                  as it tries to emerge from a deep recession.

                  Doubts about President Jamil Mahuad's ability to handle Ecuador's savage
                  political infighting, which toppled the last elected president, emerged during
                  a wave of strikes and protests in March against harsh austerity reforms.

                  The urbane, Harvard-educated Mahuad dropped from sight as often-violent
                  demonstrations by taxi and bus drivers and students paralyzed major cities.

                  But last week, a rejuvenated Mahuad began giving marathon interviews,
                  answering questions about his health -- he had a stroke in 1997 -- and his
                  plans to cut the bloated bureaucracy.

                  He promoted "Ecuador 2000," his plan to rescue the economy from what he
                  has called its "worst crisis in 70 years," caused by low prices for oil -- its
                  main export -- and damage from El Nino-driven floods in 1998.

                  Ecuador's budget deficit has swelled to 7 percent of its gross domestic
                  product, inflation tops 50 percent and growth has come to a screeching halt.

                  Mahuad's popularity fell to 11 percent in polls after the protests, which
                  ended when the government partly gave in to the strikers and reduced an
                  almost threefold increase in gasoline prices.

                  Many questioned his ability to handle Ecuador's rough-and-tumble politics
                  and predicted he would be chased from office, as the eccentric former
                  President Abdala Bucaram was in 1997 after just six months in office.

                  Bucaram was removed from office by Congress for "mental incapacity" amid
                  massive street protests against similar austerity measures.

                  Mahuad will face more protests because Ecuador's municipalities have
                  called for a one-day strike Thursday to demand a greater share of the
                  nation's budget. Business leaders in the coastal city of Guayaquil, Ecuador's
                  largest city, have agreed to join the strike, and an umbrella group
                  representing its unions has called for street marches and protests on that day.

                  But analysts say it is still too early to write off Mahuad, who has been in
                  office eight months.

                  "Mahuad has preferred to play dead when it has suited him. But he was not
                  dead, he was only pretending to be dead," political analyst Maximo Ponce
                  said.

                  Mahuad has shrugged off his low popularity as the price he must pay for
                  making unpopular but necessary reforms to Ecuador's economy.

                  "Popular support is important, but it is an historical constant in Ecuador that
                  a president arrives, has to make tough decisions and falls out of popular
                  favor," Mahuad said.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.