The people of Ecuador are rising up to refound their country as a pluri-national homeland for all. This inspiring movement, with Ecuador's indigenous peoples at its heart, is part of the revolution spreading across the Americas, laying the groundwork for a new, fairer, world. Ecuador Rising aims to bring news and analysis of events unfolding in Ecuador to english speakers.

Friday, October 08, 2010

Suspected rebel officers jailed in Ecuador

AFP QUITO — A judge ordered 14 police officers held in preventive detention as court proceedings began against the alleged perpetrators of a rebellion in Ecuador last week that President Rafael Correa called an attempted coup.

Also being held was Fidel Araujo, an ally of former president Lucio Gutierrez, whom Correa accused of inciting the uprising that left 10 dead and 274 wounded.

Among the officers ordered held was Rolando Tapia, head of the legislative security service.

A state of emergency which has allowed the military to take over functions of the police was set to end on Friday.

Arrest orders were issued earlier in the week against 46 police officers in connection with last week's rebellion, which plunged the South American nation into turmoil and prompted international support for the government.

Of those, 22 police officers have been released and another 11 remain at large.

Hundreds more are under investigation for participating in the revolt, prosecutors said.

Correa said Wednesday the state must seek punishment against the policemen "with all the firmness of the law," and told foreign reporters there would be "no forgiving or forgetting" of their actions. He added the group amounted to only a "few" officers in the force.

He also warned, however, that "the coup is not over" and said "it will be very difficult in the future to guarantee that the situation, maybe not on the same scale, won't happen again."

Hundreds of police officers rose up in revolt over a law that reduced their bonus pay. Correa was cornered in a police hospital for 12 hours, after his attempt to personally confronted rebellious officers in Quito backfired.

Correa, a leftist who denounced the uprising as a coup attempt, was rescued by loyal soldiers and police.

Top police officials were arrested or forced to resign, but the mass of the force remains in place.

The president earlier this week raised salaries of higher ranking military and police. Defense Minister Javier Ponce said the raises were unrelated to last week's turmoil, and had been due since 2008.

1 comment:

  1. reharding the aborted coup, are you aware that certain organisations that seemed to support Correas ouster have ties to the US, as Oscar Heck shows:

    'Now, since I highly suspect that CONAIE is financed, influenced,
    controlled or infiltrated in some fashion by the US government, I
    decided to go through the NED’s website. I found the following
    (and more):

    Grantor: NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY (NED)
    Grantee: Corporación Instituto Empresarial Indígena del Ecuador
    (Indigenous Enterprise Institute of Ecuador) (IEIE)
    Country(ies): Ecuador
    Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
    Subject(s): Business and Economics
    Grant Awarded: 2006
    Amount: 67,955

    Grantor: NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY (NED)
    Grantee: Fundación Q’ellkaj (Q’ellkaj Foundation)
    Country(ies): Ecuador
    Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
    Subject(s): Youth
    Grant Awarded: 2006
    Amount: 91,256


    So what is the, Corporación Instituto Empresarial Indígena del
    Ecuador?

    And what is Fundación Q’ellkaj (Q’ellkaj Foundation)?

    I decided to look into it and found more than I expected. I went
    to the website of Corporación Instituto Empresarial Indígena del
    Ecuador, which is actually Corporación Empresarial Indígena del
    Ecuador … or CEIE … a not-for-profit organization founded in 2005
    by Ángel Medina, Mariano Curicama, Lourdes Tibán, Fernando
    Navarro, and Raúl Gangotena. Their website also states that
    Norman Bailey is one of their honorary members.

    First, who is Norman Bailey?
    etc
    http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=84531

    SO who IS Norm Bailey?

    ReplyDelete