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IT MAY or may not be a sign of a healthy marriage when a president's wife votes against his proposals in Congress, but it certainly bodes ill for government policy. In a vote on June 16th, Ximena Bohórquez, the wife of President Lucio Gutiérrez and herself a congresswoman for his party, joined the opposition to help kill a government-backed bill that would have funnelled private capital to the struggling state-dominated oil industry. Its defeat is bad news for Ecuador's economy.

Oil provides 40% of Ecuador's export earnings and a third of government revenue. The opening last year of a new privately financed oil pipeline, more than doubling transport capacity just when prices were high, was supposed to usher in a new oil boom. But while oil production by private companies has increased threefold during the last decade, output from Petroecuador, the state oil firm, has dropped by almost 40%. Petroecuador is hobbled by lack of investment, corruption and bureaucracy.

Mr Gutiérrez, who campaigned for president as a populist, has embraced economic orthodoxy since taking office in January 2003. The oil reform would have legalised joint ventures between private firms and Petrocuador in the state firm's oilfields. But this was opposed by the powerful oil workers' union, and a host of leftist groups. The government will try again: it plans to issue a weaker version of the bill under a curious provision in Ecuador's constitution that allows automatic approval unless Congress rejects it in 30 days. That may prompt the legislature to act with uncharacteristic alacrity.

Meanwhile, Ecuadoreans can only rue what they are missing. Had Petroecuador produced last year what it did in 1994, its export income from its own fields would have been $1.2 billion—or almost three times the actual figure. Oil reform would also counter a widespread perception that Mr Gutiérrez is losing his grip on events. On June 1st, his respected finance minister, Mauricio Pozo, resigned for “personal reasons”. His replacement, Mauricio Yépez, is similarly orthodox. Without oil reform, he said, it was not worth going to Washington to talk to the IMF about a new loan.

Even so, Mr Gutiérrez, a former army colonel, might be relieved that his problems are not even more serious. Last month, the conservative Social Christians, who have hitherto backed the government's economic policy, hinted that they might join the left in seeking to impeach the hapless president.

Mr Gutiérrez is Ecuador's sixth president in seven years. No useful purpose would be served in removing him early. The political noise has quietened for now, after a sharp reminder from the American ambassador that the country should “maintain democracy”. But for how long? Mr Gutiérrez is abhorred by his former allies on the left, while the Social Christians are no more than fair-weather friends. But almost everyone in Ecuadorean politics has their price. The president may find ways to survive. But the country continues to pay for its political failings.

Copyright © 2004 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.