here today, gone tomorrow

In an article in the NYT - Americas section, I read that in Ecuador, in an effort to rewrite the constitution a vote was passed to dissolve congress in order to give more power to the current president. I was surprised to hear such a drastic change could occur so quickly, even after learning about several unstable governments in Latin America. I think what is surprising is that the congress actually voted to dissolve itself, as opposed to a forced dissolution from the outside.