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.

Social Movements to Go Ahead with Int'l Meetings Despite Crisis

By Gonzalo Ortiz

QUITO, Oct 7, 2010 (IPS) - "What lies ahead in Colombia is an increase in the number of refugees and displaced persons, while in Guatemala and Mexico people are going to continue leaving their countries in difficult conditions in which they face dangers to their lives," said Nelsy Lizarazu, one of the spokespersons for the Fourth World Social Forum on Migration.

"The flow of people between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is not going to let up until conditions for people in Haiti improve, which does not look like it's going to happen," the Colombian expert added, in her summary of some of the most pressing concerns to be discussed at the meeting, which opens Friday in Quito.

Delegates from "some 650 organisations and more than 1,200 other people," have registered for the gathering, which will run through Tuesday, Oct. 12, and "will discuss the question of human mobility at a very complex moment for Latin America."

But this is not the only international meeting to be hosted by the Ecuadorian capital, which is still reeling from the events of Sept. 30, when President Rafael Correa was held captive for 11 hours by rioting police, and had to be rescued by loyal police and troops amid a hail of gunfire.

According to official figures, five people were killed and nearly 300 were injured over the course of the day, as the protesting security forces closed down airports and set up roadblocks, and thousands of people took to the streets in support of Correa. However, the media put the number of fatalities at 10.

A state of emergency will remain in force at least until Friday, and troops are patrolling the streets by foot and in vehicles mounted with machine guns.

Although several international meetings have been cancelled, including the 42nd period of sessions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that had been scheduled for Oct. 4-8, the Fourth World Social Forum on Migration "will go on as planned, and all of the organised events will take place," Paul Salas, in charge of media relations, told IPS.

Friday will also be the start, in Quito, of the fifth congress of the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organisations (CLOC)-Via Campesina, which will bring together 800 delegates from 18 countries, as well as 300 national representatives, Luis Andrango, CLOC secretary of operations and the president of Ecuador's National Confederation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organisations (FENOCIN), told IPS.

And on Wednesday night, the 10th International Indigenous Peoples' Film and Video Festival opened in the capital, with some 250 entries from the Americas and Europe to be shown through Monday, Oct. 11.

These three international meetings, and the Ecuadorian organisations and institutions that are organising them, plan to hold a march by members of social movements from all around the world on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 delegates from other countries will take part in the joint demonstration, as well as thousands of Ecuadorians, the organisers say.

"We have applied for the necessary permits, and we will be holding the march," Andrango told IPS.

One of the common issues held by the different groups participating in the march will be the integration of different peoples, "beyond the mere economic integration of nations," he said.

"An overlapping of the agendas of rural movements, indigenous nationalities, and people concerned about human mobility is only natural," and strengthens the different groups and people and their social development and organisational capability, Janeth Cuji, communications director for the powerful Ecuadorean Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), told IPS.

The Fourth World Social Forum on Migration will be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador and the CLOC-Via Campesina congress will be hosted by the Central University of Ecuador.

There will be four main themes in the seminars and panel discussions at the Fourth World Social Forum on Migration: "Global crises and migration flows", "Human rights and migration", "Diversity, coexistence and sociocultural transformations", and "New forms of slavery, servitude and human exploitation".

The opening conference will be given by Stephen Castles, a British sociologist who is one of the most prominent scholars on international migration.

The other keynote speakers will be Mexican activist Rufino Domínguez Santos, director of the Binational Centre for Oaxacan Indigenous Development, and Professor of International Relations Aurora Javate de Dios, director of the Migration Studies Department at Miriam College in the Philippines.

Presentations on "Global crises and migration flows" will be given by Alberto Acosta, the former president of the constituent assembly that drafted Ecuador's new constitution and a professor in economics at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences; Victor Nzuzi-Mbembe, a farmer from the Democratic Republic of Congo and social activist with Via Campesina, the global peasant movement; and Brazilian sociologist and philosopher Ivo Poleto, head of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change.

On Saturday, the main speakers on the theme of "Human rights and migration" will be Abdelhamid El Jamri from Morocco, the chair of the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers; Hana Cheikh Ali, a Palestinian lawyer with the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid; and Sara Prestianni from Italy, the head of the Migreurop Euro-African network.

"Diversity, coexistence and sociocultural transformations" will be the focus of presentations by U.S. labour and racial justice activist William Fletcher; Luis Macas, an indigenous leader of Ecuador who was formerly president of CONAIE and is the founder of the Intercultural University of Indigenous Peoples; and Bela Feldman, director of the Centre of International Migration Studies at the University of Campinhas in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"New forms of slavery, servitude and human exploitation" will be addressed by Bandana Pattanaik of Thailand, the international coordinator of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women; Priscila González, head of the National Domestic Workers Alliance in the United States; Eve Geddie of Belgium, a representative of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants; and Alberto Soteres, director of Save the Children Spain.

In Latin America, "the smuggling and trafficking of persons is closely intertwined with drug trafficking, which makes migration even riskier -- and the dangers will only grow in the immediate future," said Lizarazu.

"The war on drug trafficking has not worked in either Mexico or Colombia," she said. "Drug trafficking is still going strong, and has penetrated the fabric of societies, and only through the mobilisation and socioeconomic development of society itself will it be possible to extirpate it."

The Fourth World Social Forum on Migration forms part of a series of events held this year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the World Social Forum.

Andrango, meanwhile, said they were expecting Bolivian President Evo Morales to make an appearance at the CLOC-Via Campesina conference on Tuesday. Morales, an Aymara Indian, is a leader of Bolivia's coca farmers. (END)

SOA Graduate Involved in Coup Attempt in Ecuador

Written by Lisa Sullivan
Attempted Coup in EcuadorA School of the Americas graduate has been charged for last Thursday's unsuccessful coup attempt in Ecuador. Colonel Manuel E. Rivadeneira Tello, a graduate of the SOA's combat arms training course, is one of three police officials being investigated for negligence, rebellion and attempted assassination of the president.

Rivadeneira was the commander of the barracks where President Correa was attacked by protesting police. The injured Correa was taken to a police hospital were he held hostage by police who threatened to kill him if he escaped. After 12 hours, 500 elite forces stormed the hospital and organized a fiery rescue. By the end of the day 4 people lay dead and over 200 wounded.

This is the second coup attempt led by SOA graduates in a little over a year. The June 2009 in Honduras led by SOA graduates General Vasquez Velasquez and General Prince Suazo was successful in overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya. At the time, President Correa expressed concern that this opened the possibility of future coups in the continent acknowledging that he might be a possible target..

The defense of Ecuador's democracy was achieved by its citizens, who poured into the streets in defense of their popular president. Their voices were joined by an international chorus of support for Correa, including the OAS, UNASUR and Secretary of State Clinton. Ecuadorians, however, were not convinced that the U.S. was an innocent bystander. A poll indicated that over 50% of Ecuadorians felt that the U.S. had some involvement in the coup based, perhaps, on experience in their country where evidence has pointed to past U.S. involvement in coups and presidential deaths.

Both presidents of Honduras and Ecuador had recently challenged the use of their military bases by the U.S. military. President Correa ended a lease to the US to use it's Manta base in 2009, and President Zelaya had indicated his support for turning the Palmerola base used by the US into a civilian airport shortly before he was deposed. Likewise, both countries were members of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) when the coups were attempted. A third ALBA country, Venezuela, was the target of the third Latin American coup of the past decade, in 2002, also led by SOA graduates.

The Alleged Coup d’Etat, Democracy, and the Indigenous Organizations

By Marlon Santi

President, CONAIE

We, the Federation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE, in its Spanish initials) and the Pachakutik Bloc, in response to the events of September 30, 2010, and the claims made in recent days about the alleged support by USAID-NED to indigenous organizations, standing firmly on our historic process of bringing about a true Pluri-national State, announce:

The struggle of the peoples and nationalities is not an individual one, rather, it corresponds to the collective dream of constructing a diverse country, inclusive of the diverse popular and social organized sectors that seek a real change to end the old neoliberal, exploitative structures and the decolonization of the institutions of the State. We seek a pluri-national democracy, respectful of the rights of individuals, of collective organizations and of nature.

We energetically announce that there never was any attempted coup d’etat, much less a kidnapping, but an event that responded to the uncertain political management of the government that causes popular discontent through permanent aggression, discrimination and violations of human rights consecrated in the Constitution.

We do not recognize this dictatorial “democracy” because of its lack of freedom of speech, the kidnapping of all the powers of the state by the executive branch in its political system of one government, that does not generate spaces to debate the projects, and laws elaborated from the indigenous movement and other social sectors.

We categorically refute claims that the CONAIE, the Pachakutik Political Movement, the peoples and nationalities have any relationship at all with the organism known as USAID, previously NED, not today nor ever. To the contrary, we know that this organization finances the “social programs” of this government like the forest partnership and that, yes, is condemnable.

We demand the constitutional suspension of the National Congress for its failure to comply with the constitutional mandate that it legislate much less audit as it is well known that all laws are approved by the president’s legal minister.

We condemn the usurpation of press freedom when on September 30 all media not allied with the government was forced to broadcast government news in “cadena nacional,” a means by which all access to information is controlled and manipulated with a version of the facts that does not inform about the real dimensions of the situation on that day in the country.

Quito, Ecuador, October 6, 2010

Government of the Peoples and Nationalities,

Marlon Santi

President, CONAIE

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Dozens Arrested in Ecuador Police Revolt

QUITO – Ecuadorian police have detained almost 50 people for their alleged role in last week’s violent uprising by disgruntled cops, the first large-scale arrests in the wake of what President Rafael Correa labeled an attempted coup.

Interior Minister Gustavo Jalkh told Efe that most of the detainees are police who are being held in 24-hour preventive detention.

Also detained was a close ally of former President Lucio Gutierrez, Fidel Araujo, who can be seen in television footage of the start of the mutiny at Quito Regiment Number One.

“It’s a savage persecution. All due-process rights have been trampled upon,” the attorney for the detainees, Patricio Armijos, told reporters.

The government is trying to identify what it considers the focal point of the insurrection, a group of police “with no limits or scruples, with clear political ties, that doesn’t hesitate to kill, kidnap or torture,” the leftist president said Wednesday in a session with foreign correspondents at the presidential palace.

“We won’t allow these types of far-right paramilitary groups to be created in Ecuador,” he added.

Indeed, a main concern of the government is that a mass purge of the police will drive rogue officers to form illegal armed groups, a senior government official, who requested his name be withheld, told Efe.

Correa has denounced the existence of the so-called Police Armed Group, or GAP, which he said sent messages and posters to officers in the days prior to the revolt to stir up discontent.

The government did not detect this “disinformation campaign” prior to the uprising, the president acknowledged.

“The intelligence services failed,” said Correa, who added that he went in person to Regiment Number One because he believed the officers who had occupied those installations on the capital’s north side were merely staging a protest.

“We didn’t gauge the magnitude of the problem,” said Correa, who was roughed up while trying to reason with the rebellious police before being effectively held hostage at a nearby hospital for more than 12 hours until loyal police and troops rescued him amid a hail of gunfire from the mutinous cops.

He said Ecuador’s intelligence services had previously depended financially on the U.S. embassy and that his administration is acting autonomously in reconstructing those agencies.

He also linked Washington to a subversive core of police that he said is upset over investigations into human rights abuses and angered about the cutting off of some units’ ties with the U.S. embassy, adding that “those people received a lot of funds unofficially.”

However, Correa made it clear that the revolt “had nothing to do with the government of (Barack) Obama,” who, a U.S. official told Efe, telephoned the Ecuadorian leader Wednesday to express support.

Obama “reiterated the United States’ support for President Correa and the Ecuadorian democratic institutions,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

A state of emergency remained in effect Wednesday in Ecuador and soldiers were in charge of protecting the National Assembly and other institutions.

The police unit assigned to the legislature has been relieved of its duties because of suspicion it collaborated with the mutinous police.

The ostensible cause of last week’s rebellion was the National Assembly’s failure to override Correa’s veto of a measure exempting police and the military from an overhaul of public-employee pay.

While the plan, which became law Monday, eliminates various annual bonuses automatically paid to police, soldiers and other civil servants once they achieve specified levels of seniority, the government points out that cops have seen their base pay doubled since Correa took office in 2007.

One soldier and a civilian supporter of the president were killed by gunfire from the police rebels during the operation to rescue Correa from the hospital.

Nationwide, eight people died and 274 others were wounded in incidents related to the mutiny.

Correa has publicly blamed the Sociedad Patriotica party, founded by former President Gutierrez, for the rebellion, though the erstwhile head of state – living in exile in Brazil – denies any involvement. EFE

Police discussed killing Ecuador's president, radio transmissions show

By the CNN Wire Staff
October 6, 2010 -- Updated 1901 GMT (0301 HKT)
President Rafael Correa has called Thursday's police uprising an attempted coup.
President Rafael Correa has called Thursday's police uprising an attempted coup.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • "They should kill Correa so this will end," man is heard saying on tape
  • Another says Correa "leaves dead" if he doesn't sign a decree
  • Threats were made while national police held Correa captive at a hospital
  • Fifty police have been arrested, the government news agency said

(CNN) -- Rogue national police who held Ecuador's president captive for 11 hours last week talked about killing him, according to an audio recording the state-run Andes news agency said were police radio transmissions.

President Rafael Correa has called Thursday's police uprising an attempted coup, a characterization supported Wednesday by Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States. Police had taken to the streets to protest government austerity measures they said would limit bonuses and compensation.

Correa had gone to meet with some of the protesters but was surrounded by a heckling crowd that jostled him and hurled insults. Someone then fired a tear gas canister at Correa and a man was seen on TV video punching the president and trying to yank his gas mask off.

Correa was led away and taken to a hospital, where he was held until the military attacked the police and liberated the president several hours later.

The reported police radio transmissions released by the Andes news outlet late Tuesday night took place while Correa was being held at the hospital. CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio material.

"They should kill Correa so this will end," an unidentified man said on the recording. "Kill Correa and this demonstration will end."

Another man on the recording indicates that police wanted Correa to sign a decree guaranteeing unspecified benefits, but which likely refers to the austerity measures.

"The gentleman who is supposedly president will not leave without signing the attributions that correspond to the national police," the man says. "That gentleman has to assure our complete amnesty."

Yet another man threatens Correa, calling him a vulgar name.

"Don't let that [expletive] leave," the man says. "First, he has to sign and then he can leave. If not, that [expletive] leaves dead."

But not all the voices heard on the recording urged violence against Correa.

"Let's not talk about assassinations," a man says. "We are police. We are representatives of authority. Let's defend our rights, but that gentleman has to leave, to quit being president."

Fifty police officers have been arrested, the Andes agency said Wednesday.

Among those arrested was retired army Maj. Fidel Araujo, who was seen in a video instigating the protesters, Andes said.

Araujo has denied any connection with the uprising, said CNN affiliate Ecuavisa TV.

Araujo is connected to the Patriotic Society political party, led by former President Lucio Gutierrez, Ecuavisa said.

The suspects are being held for 48 hours while authorities determine whether to file charges.

Correa has said Gutierrez, who was president from 2003 to 2005, was behind the uprising.

Gutierrez told CNN en Espanol last week he was not involved. He has been out of the country but was expected to return to Ecuador on Wednesday.

The government said at least four people were killed in the firefight between the military and police -- two soldiers, a police officer and a university student. Nearly 200 others were injured in unrest throughout the country, Ecuador's health minister said.

In response to the deaths, the government declared a one-week state of emergency Thursday afternoon and put the military in charge of security. That state of emergency was extended through this Friday.

Mass protests stop police coup in Ecuador

Published Oct 6, 2010 6:19 PM

The Ecuadorean people came into the streets by the thousands to confront the national police and prevent a coup and possible assassination of President Rafael Correa on Sept. 30. A section of about 800 of these police had kept the president captive for 14 hours at the Police Hospital in Quito before military units brought him back to the presidential palace.

Like the rightist coup that kidnapped and overthrew legitimate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009, this latest coup attempt targets a country that chose to join the Bolivarian Alliance of Our Americas (ALBA). It was a blow directed at the progressive political developments taking place in Latin America that challenge U.S. imperialist interests.

U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, is a notorious right-wing anti-Cuban diplomat once closely associated with the genocidal Ríos Montt dictatorship in Guatemala. In 2008 she defended the U.S. role when Ecuador’s Defense Minister Javier Ponce revealed that U.S. diplomats were involved in corrupting the police and officers from the armed forces.

Most progressive analysts attribute the Sept. 30 coup’s defeat to three factors: first, the mass response in Ecuador; second, the immediate international support for constitutional rule from the progressive governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba followed by all others in Latin America along with mass mobilizations throughout South America; and third, Correa’s courageous refusal to bow to the police threats.

Since details of this outrageous act have been broadly publicized, this article will try to present the most important developments that will help put the attempted coup in the context of political developments in Ecuador and Latin America. Vice president of the Ecuadorean Workers Confederation (CTE), Edgar Sarango, gave Workers World some of that context in an Oct. 4 interview.

“The CTE has been firm about the latest developments,” said Sarango. “The CTE follows the political position of the Communist Party, and as you saw, we were on the streets responding against those opportunist sectors that wanted to take power through a coup.

“We are very clear about the position, the character of the Citizens’ Revolution and President Correa; we understand it is not a truly leftist government, but a reformist government with clear intentions to go forward to the left. It is up to us, the social movements, the left parties, to support and above all, organize so that the real conditions are set so that the government does not go to the right, because it is a government that although not left, has not closed the doors to the sectors from the left.

“In that sense, we, the left, must do the political-organizational work. We are very clear about that.”

It was an assassination attempt

Now for the events of Sept. 30.

Using the excuse that a new law changed some of their salaries and benefits, a sector of the national police rebelled against Correa’s government on Sept. 30. Correa went to the Police Regiment building in an attempt to negotiate with these disaffected police. Police then rioted, shouting insults at Correa. They called for his resignation and praised former President Lucio Gutiérrez.

Many Ecuadoreans consider Gutiérrez a traitor, because he had run on a progressive platform opposing neoliberal policies, but almost immediately reversed himself, embracing a free trade agreement with George Bush. A mass uprising ejected Gutiérrez in 2005.

An angry police mob surrounded Correa and his small team of bodyguards as they left the building, throwing tear gas canisters at his head and attempting to suffocate him by removing his gas mask. While the president was walking with a cane because of a recent knee surgery, they also tried to hit his knees. Correa’s bodyguards were able to rush him to the hospital, where he was surrounded by rioting police who threatened to kill him.

When people learned what had happened, thousands began gathering in front of the Carondelet Presidential Palace, hoping to liberate him. Many also defied pepper and tear gas to surround the rioting police at the hospital.

The army was slower to respond. Correa had said he wanted the army to hold off to prevent a bloodbath, but that the generals stood silently for so long while their President was in real danger indicates ambivalence. Correa’s personal guard and hospital personnel prevented any attack on him.

Only as night fell, did some 600 elite troops storm into the hospital while the police fired at them. Police continued shooting at an armored van removing Correa, hitting it with five bullets and killing one of his guards when a powerful shell perforated his bulletproof vest. As of Oct. 4 CNNE reported 10 deaths, including a young Correa supporter.

Destabilizing forces

As the police were rioting in Quito, rightist political and social groups around the country were calling for a revolt against the government. They closed Quito’s international airport and the main highways to the capital. Privately owned media misreported the events. One of Lucio Gutiérrez’s lawyers tried to silence the government’s national TV, storming into TV Ecuador’s offices and breaking their glass doors.

Gutiérrez, who has opposed Correa since the latter won the 2006 presidential elections, called for the dissolution of the National Assembly and the holding of immediate presidential elections. Correa was re-elected in 2009.

But in spite of this climate of chaos, the people around the country rallied in support of their president, passionately defending the Constitution and their Revolución Ciudadana (Citizens’ Revolution).

Popular and international response

The governments in Latin America quickly condemned the coup attempt. UNASUR called an emergency meeting for Oct. 1. The Organization of American States met urgently in Washington. Condemning the coup were not only Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, but even the rightist regimes in Peru and Colombia were constrained to criticize the police revolt. Washington, albeit lukewarmly, was also forced to condemn the actions against Correa.

Throughout Latin America people held immediate demonstrations in many countries, including a massive one in Venezuela. Organizations in many countries sent messages of support to Correa, including one from the International Action Center.

At a press conference at the United Nations Ecuadorean Mission a day later on Oct. 1, attended by members of the Spanish language media, some 85 members of the New York metropolitan area Ecuadorean and Latin American communities and four Ecuadorean consuls from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey condemned the police actions, calling them a coup attempt. Members of the International Action Center’s Latin America and Caribbean Solidarity Committee participated.

The Ecuadoreans distributed copies of their Constitution, which guarantees the right of Ecuadoreans to control their own land, as well as guaranteeing the rights of the Indigenous peoples. The Ecuadorean Constitution is a small booklet imprinted with the statement, “from the Citizens’ Revolution with infinite love.”

After the press conference, 100 people marched to the United Nations, where they stood in front of the General Assembly building waving Ecuadorean flags and chanting, “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” (The people united will never be defeated!) and “¡Correa, amigo, el pueblo está contigo!” (Correa, friend, the people are with you!)

Back at the Ecuadorean Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Francisco Carrión told some of those invited, “History was made today in Ecuador. The people were unafraid. They demonstrated their love for their president and their nation. A coup cannot happen again in Ecuador,” he said.

“Democracy and constitutional law have prevailed, and the Ecuadorean people were vigilant in the face of this threat to their sovereignty. Those who are responsible will be punished.”

Why the coup attempt?

The current government of Ecuador is on imperialism’s hit list. Just like ALBA members Bolivia in 2008, Venezuela in 2003 and Honduras in 2009, the pro-U.S. oligarchy in Ecuador wants no part of a participatory democracy where the government aids the most dispossessed sectors of society. They want a regime working directly for the oligarchy’s or transnational corporations’ interests.

Since Correa took office, there have been important and progressive changes in Ecuador. The government cancelled the Pentagon’s contract for the use of a military base in Manta. It enacted a new very progressive pro-people constitution. And Correa has refused to accept a “free trade” agreement with the U.S. Ecuador even joined the ALBA.

U.S. imperialism still holds much power in Ecuador as the country’s main trading partner and financer and trainer of Ecuador’s police force. Washington’s CIA-related organizations like USAID have given millions of dollars to so-called “pro-Democracy” organizations in Ecuador that seek the ouster of Correa. The Voice of America has many affiliated stations throughout Ecuador that feed disinformation about the government to the poor and the Indigenous masses, trying to turn them against President Correa.

Whether or not Washington was “actively” involved in this attempt, its support for the Honduran coup and the current government of illegitimate Porfirio Lobo has encouraged the oligarchy and right-wing forces in Ecuador and in the rest of the region.

NYC WW correspondent Heather Cottin contributed to this article.

Next: U.S. role in Ecuador.


Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Mass protests stop police coup in Ecuador

Published Oct 6, 2010 6:19 PM

The Ecuadorean people came into the streets by the thousands to confront the national police and prevent a coup and possible assassination of President Rafael Correa on Sept. 30. A section of about 800 of these police had kept the president captive for 14 hours at the Police Hospital in Quito before military units brought him back to the presidential palace.

Like the rightist coup that kidnapped and overthrew legitimate Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009, this latest coup attempt targets a country that chose to join the Bolivarian Alliance of Our Americas (ALBA). It was a blow directed at the progressive political developments taking place in Latin America that challenge U.S. imperialist interests.

U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, is a notorious right-wing anti-Cuban diplomat once closely associated with the genocidal Ríos Montt dictatorship in Guatemala. In 2008 she defended the U.S. role when Ecuador’s Defense Minister Javier Ponce revealed that U.S. diplomats were involved in corrupting the police and officers from the armed forces.

Most progressive analysts attribute the Sept. 30 coup’s defeat to three factors: first, the mass response in Ecuador; second, the immediate international support for constitutional rule from the progressive governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba followed by all others in Latin America along with mass mobilizations throughout South America; and third, Correa’s courageous refusal to bow to the police threats.

Since details of this outrageous act have been broadly publicized, this article will try to present the most important developments that will help put the attempted coup in the context of political developments in Ecuador and Latin America. Vice president of the Ecuadorean Workers Confederation (CTE), Edgar Sarango, gave Workers World some of that context in an Oct. 4 interview.

“The CTE has been firm about the latest developments,” said Sarango. “The CTE follows the political position of the Communist Party, and as you saw, we were on the streets responding against those opportunist sectors that wanted to take power through a coup.

“We are very clear about the position, the character of the Citizens’ Revolution and President Correa; we understand it is not a truly leftist government, but a reformist government with clear intentions to go forward to the left. It is up to us, the social movements, the left parties, to support and above all, organize so that the real conditions are set so that the government does not go to the right, because it is a government that although not left, has not closed the doors to the sectors from the left.

“In that sense, we, the left, must do the political-organizational work. We are very clear about that.”

It was an assassination attempt

Now for the events of Sept. 30.

Using the excuse that a new law changed some of their salaries and benefits, a sector of the national police rebelled against Correa’s government on Sept. 30. Correa went to the Police Regiment building in an attempt to negotiate with these disaffected police. Police then rioted, shouting insults at Correa. They called for his resignation and praised former President Lucio Gutiérrez.

Many Ecuadoreans consider Gutiérrez a traitor, because he had run on a progressive platform opposing neoliberal policies, but almost immediately reversed himself, embracing a free trade agreement with George Bush. A mass uprising ejected Gutiérrez in 2005.

An angry police mob surrounded Correa and his small team of bodyguards as they left the building, throwing tear gas canisters at his head and attempting to suffocate him by removing his gas mask. While the president was walking with a cane because of a recent knee surgery, they also tried to hit his knees. Correa’s bodyguards were able to rush him to the hospital, where he was surrounded by rioting police who threatened to kill him.

When people learned what had happened, thousands began gathering in front of the Carondelet Presidential Palace, hoping to liberate him. Many also defied pepper and tear gas to surround the rioting police at the hospital.

The army was slower to respond. Correa had said he wanted the army to hold off to prevent a bloodbath, but that the generals stood silently for so long while their President was in real danger indicates ambivalence. Correa’s personal guard and hospital personnel prevented any attack on him.

Only as night fell, did some 600 elite troops storm into the hospital while the police fired at them. Police continued shooting at an armored van removing Correa, hitting it with five bullets and killing one of his guards when a powerful shell perforated his bulletproof vest. As of Oct. 4 CNNE reported 10 deaths, including a young Correa supporter.

Destabilizing forces

As the police were rioting in Quito, rightist political and social groups around the country were calling for a revolt against the government. They closed Quito’s international airport and the main highways to the capital. Privately owned media misreported the events. One of Lucio Gutiérrez’s lawyers tried to silence the government’s national TV, storming into TV Ecuador’s offices and breaking their glass doors.

Gutiérrez, who has opposed Correa since the latter won the 2006 presidential elections, called for the dissolution of the National Assembly and the holding of immediate presidential elections. Correa was re-elected in 2009.

But in spite of this climate of chaos, the people around the country rallied in support of their president, passionately defending the Constitution and their Revolución Ciudadana (Citizens’ Revolution).

Popular and international response

The governments in Latin America quickly condemned the coup attempt. UNASUR called an emergency meeting for Oct. 1. The Organization of American States met urgently in Washington. Condemning the coup were not only Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, but even the rightist regimes in Peru and Colombia were constrained to criticize the police revolt. Washington, albeit lukewarmly, was also forced to condemn the actions against Correa.

Throughout Latin America people held immediate demonstrations in many countries, including a massive one in Venezuela. Organizations in many countries sent messages of support to Correa, including one from the International Action Center.

At a press conference at the United Nations Ecuadorean Mission a day later on Oct. 1, attended by members of the Spanish language media, some 85 members of the New York metropolitan area Ecuadorean and Latin American communities and four Ecuadorean consuls from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey condemned the police actions, calling them a coup attempt. Members of the International Action Center’s Latin America and Caribbean Solidarity Committee participated.

The Ecuadoreans distributed copies of their Constitution, which guarantees the right of Ecuadoreans to control their own land, as well as guaranteeing the rights of the Indigenous peoples. The Ecuadorean Constitution is a small booklet imprinted with the statement, “from the Citizens’ Revolution with infinite love.”

After the press conference, 100 people marched to the United Nations, where they stood in front of the General Assembly building waving Ecuadorean flags and chanting, “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” (The people united will never be defeated!) and “¡Correa, amigo, el pueblo está contigo!” (Correa, friend, the people are with you!)

Back at the Ecuadorean Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Francisco Carrión told some of those invited, “History was made today in Ecuador. The people were unafraid. They demonstrated their love for their president and their nation. A coup cannot happen again in Ecuador,” he said.

“Democracy and constitutional law have prevailed, and the Ecuadorean people were vigilant in the face of this threat to their sovereignty. Those who are responsible will be punished.”

Why the coup attempt?

The current government of Ecuador is on imperialism’s hit list. Just like ALBA members Bolivia in 2008, Venezuela in 2003 and Honduras in 2009, the pro-U.S. oligarchy in Ecuador wants no part of a participatory democracy where the government aids the most dispossessed sectors of society. They want a regime working directly for the oligarchy’s or transnational corporations’ interests.

Since Correa took office, there have been important and progressive changes in Ecuador. The government cancelled the Pentagon’s contract for the use of a military base in Manta. It enacted a new very progressive pro-people constitution. And Correa has refused to accept a “free trade” agreement with the U.S. Ecuador even joined the ALBA.

U.S. imperialism still holds much power in Ecuador as the country’s main trading partner and financer and trainer of Ecuador’s police force. Washington’s CIA-related organizations like USAID have given millions of dollars to so-called “pro-Democracy” organizations in Ecuador that seek the ouster of Correa. The Voice of America has many affiliated stations throughout Ecuador that feed disinformation about the government to the poor and the Indigenous masses, trying to turn them against President Correa.

Whether or not Washington was “actively” involved in this attempt, its support for the Honduran coup and the current government of illegitimate Porfirio Lobo has encouraged the oligarchy and right-wing forces in Ecuador and in the rest of the region.

NYC WW correspondent Heather Cottin contributed to this article.

Next: U.S. role in Ecuador.


Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Ecuador Will Deepen and Radicalize Citizens' Revolution

The popular mobilization that defeated the September 30 coup attempt in Ecuador will allow the radicalization and deepening of the political project of the Citizens' Revolution, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño affirmed in a press conference.

Ecuador Will Deepen and Radicalize Citizens' Revolution

President Rafael Correa during the attempt of coup.

However, the crisis is not over because those who attacked constitutionally-elected President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadorian people are still free, which is why the state of emergency was extended until Friday, Patiño said.

The legal system has a lot of work to do, given the amount of suspicion and circumstantial evidence, he said.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Patriotic Society Party were arrested and escorted to the district attorney's office to have them clarify their participation in the events.

Patiño noted that while Correa, who was democratically elected and re-elected, was being held prisoner, the members of parliament from the Madera de Guerrero Party were requesting amnesty for the kidnappers instead of asking for the president's liberation.

Patiño recognized that "we have been too naive, since we thought that there could be a revolution without a counterrevolution, but that seems unlikely."

Report Confirmed: U.S. Intelligence has Penetrated the Ecuadorian Police

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD

The uprising by elements of the Ecuadorian police against President Rafael Correa confirms an alarming report, released in 2008, on the infiltration of the Ecuadorian police by U.S. intelligence services, which indicated how many members of police forces had developed a "dependency" on the U.S. Embassy.

The report stated that police units "maintain an informal economic dependence on the United States for the payment of informants, training, equipment and operations."

The systematic use of techniques of corruption on the part of the CIA to acquire the "good will" of police officers was described and reported on numerous occasions by former CIA agent Philip Agee who, before leaving the ranks of the agency, was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Quito.

In his official report, released in late October 2008, Ecuador's Defense Minister Javier Ponce, revealed how U.S. diplomats were involved in corrupting the police and also officers of the Armed Forces.

Confirming the fact, the headquarters of the Ecuadorian Police then announced that it would penalize agents who worked with the U.S., while the U.S. Embassy proclaimed the "transparency" of its support for Ecuador.

"We work with the government of Ecuador, with the military, the police, for purposes very important for security," said U.S. Ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges.

However, the diplomat told reporters she would not comment "on intelligence matters."

For her part, the press attaché, Marta Youth, flatly refused to refer to the complaints of the Ecuadorian government, including CIA involvement in a deal with Colombia that led to the Colombian military attack against the FARC, in Ecuadorian territory on March 1of that year.

The Army's intelligence chief, Mario Pazmino, had been dismissed for withholding information related to the attack on the FARC.

In recent months, U.S. officials appeared in Ecuador, under the pretext of deepening relations between Ecuador and the U.S.

Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere of the Department of State, Arturo Valenzuela, visited and re-visited President Correa, with a view to a visit by Chancellor Hillary Clinton.

Valenzuela was accompanied by Tedd Stern, "special representative for climate change," also known for his affinity with the CIA.

Ecuador: Right-wing coup attempt defeated

Sunday, October 3, 2010
Demonstration against the coup attempt outside the Ecuadorian embassy in Sydney, October 1. Photo by Pip Hinman

On September 30, Ecuador descended into chaos as a protest by sections of the police force and army turned into a potentially bloody coup against left-wing President Rafael Correa.

At about 8am, sections of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces and the national police went on strike, occupying police stations and barracks in the capital Quito, in Guayaquil and in at least four other cities. They set up road blocks with burning tyres, cutting off access to the capital.

They also stormed and occupied the National Assembly building and took over the runway at Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport.

Schools and many businesses in Quito shut down early, as opposition protesters attempted to take over and sabotage broadcasts from television station Gama TV.

The protests were in response to a new public service law designed to harmonise income and benefits across the Ecuadorian civil service. Many police and troops, however, believed the law would remove their benefits and bonuses, as well as delay promotions.

In an attempt to end the strike, Correa went in person to the main police garrison in Quito to convince the police there was a misunderstanding — and their benefits were safe and their wages would in fact increase.

The situation spiralled out of control when a number of rebel police pointed their guns at Correa and threatened him. A tear gas canister was thrown, exploding only centimetres from the president’s head.

When Correa donned a gas mask, it was ripped from his head.

Stunned and overcome by the gas, the president was rushed to a nearby hospital. The hospital was soon surrounded by rebel police and opposition protesters. The rebels refused to allow anyone to enter or leave the building — imprisoning the elected, constitutional president.

As news got out, tens of thousands of Correa’s supporters took to the streets across the country, chanting “Correa, hang in there, the people are rising up!” and demanding that Correa be freed.

Rebel police attempted to force their way into the hospital through windows and the roof.

In a phone interview with Radio Publica from the hospital, Correa said he would refuse to negotiate with the rebels, despite the danger to his life, for as long as they held him captive.

Correa insisted he was still the president and the “citizen’s revolution” of social justice reforms that began with his 2007 election would continue — with or without him.

“I'm not going to back down”, Correa said. “Kill me, but as [Chilean poet] Pablo Neruda said, ‘You can cut all the flowers but you cannot hold back Spring’.”

Correa blamed the attempted coup on Patriotic Society Party leader Lucio Gutierrez, a former neoliberal president overthrown in a popular uprising 2005.

The Army Chief of Staff declared his support for Correa. However, the president refused to call on the army to rescue him until he discovered that government supporters outside the hospital were under fire from the rebel police.

A state of emergency was declared and loyal sectors of the army finally launched an attack on the hospital, forcing their way through the protesters and rebels, and freeing the president.

During the day’s violence, at least five people were killed and about 200 injured. Bullets were fired into the hospital room where Correa was holed up. Bullets also hit the army vehicle carrying Correa after his rescue.

After his release, Correa was greeted by a crowd of thousands of supporters chanting “the people united will never be defeated”.

Speaking from the Presidential Palace that evening, Correa said there would be "no pardon or forgiveness" for those involved in the coup and promised a deep “cleansing of the national police".

The national police chief General Freddy Martinez has already resigned, citing the insubordination of junior officers.

Some analysts have argued the incident was merely a protest that got out of control. Correa and his government, however, insisted it was a coup attempt — including an attempt to murder the head of state.

Prominent opposition leader and Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nesbot denied any involvement in the protests. However, foreign minister Ricardo Patino joined Correa in accusing Gutierrez of initiating a coup d’etat.

Gutierrez, who implemented polices favourable to US corporations during his time in power, described the accusation as “totally false” in an interview from Brazil.

However, Gutierrez said “the end of Correa’s tyranny is at hand”. He called for the National Assembly to be dissolved and early presidential elections as a “solution” to the “crisis”, for which he blamed Correa.

The United States has also been accused of involvement in the attempted coup against Correa.

After the US-backed 2009 military coup in Honduras against elected left-leaning president Manuel Zelaya, Correa claimed to have intelligence that “after Zelaya, I am next”.

The initial reaction of the US to the coup attempt was non-committal, as it was during the Honduras coup. Other countries, such as France and even Colombia, immediately condemned the actions against Correa, but a US state department spokesperson merely said the Obama administration was “closely monitoring” the situation.

A statement in support of Ecuadorian democracy was made only several hours later.

Correa was elected in 2006 promising to lead a “citizen’s revolution” to eradicate poverty, deepen grassroots democracy and build a “socialism of the 21st Century” — echoing his allies Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales.

All three oppose US domination of the region and support Latin American unity and integration.

As in Venezuela and Bolivia, the Correa government opened the way for a constituent assembly to draft a new progressive constitution then approved by popular vote.

In 2009, Correa removed an unconstitutional US military air base from the coastal town of Manta, removing US forces from the country.

Correa had offered the US government, which wished to keep its presence, a choice: the US military could stay if Ecuador was allowed a military base of its own in Florida.

However, US presence in Ecuador continues, mainly through two key sources of US government funding for Ecuadorian non-governmental organisations — the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Both are run out of the US Embassy and have been implicated in coup attempts against Chavez and Morales.

Correa has also repeatedly accused the US of infiltrating his security and public services.

Journalist Jean-Guy Allard said an official 2008 report from Ecuador’s defence minister Javier Ponce revealed how “US diplomats dedicated themselves to corrupting the police and the Armed Forces” — including providing independent training, funding and equipment.

US infiltration of the Ecuadorian military has a long history. Thousands of Ecuadorian officers have been trained at the infamous US-run School of the Americas (SOA), which has been involved in military coups and dictatorships across the continent for decades.

Interior minister Miguel Carvajal said: “We're faced with a process of destabilisation of the national government and democracy in Ecuador.”

The attempted coup in Ecuador took place in a volatile regional context. On September 26, pro-Chavez forces won hard-fought parliamentary elections in Venezuela against the US-funded right-wing opposition.

The following day, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, a strong proponent of a peaceful resolution to Colombia’s decades-long civil war, was dismissed as a senator by Colombia’s inspector general, on the basis of falsified evidence.

The violence in Ecuador appears to be part of a regional offensive to roll back the gains of Latin America’s progressive movements and governments.

The rebellion also exposes some of the weaknesses of Correa’s “citizen’s revolution”.

Ecuador’s powerful indigenous federation, the CONAIE, issued a statement strongly condemning the coup attempt and declaring its support for democracy. But the CONAIE was also highly critical of Correa, accusing him of undermining the social movements while not weakening the forces of the state that oppose them.

“While the government has dedicated itself exclusively to attacking and delegitimising organised sectors like the indigenous movement, workers' unions, etc.”, the CONAIE said, “it hasn't weakened in the least the structures of power of the right, or those within the state apparatus.”

Correa has clashed repeatedly with the CONAIE — who supported his election — over a number of issues such as mining, indigenous rights and water.

The CONAIE, which represents Ecuador’s forty percent indigenous population, helped lead the overthrow of the three Ecuadorian presidents before Correa.

Correa’s popular support is likely to increase as a result of the coup attempt, giving him an opportunity to drive his reform agenda further. However, the ambiguous position of the CONAIE underscores the weak relationship Correa enjoys with Ecuador’s important social movements.

If Correa fails to keep them on side, a better coordinated coup attempt may well be successful, and the revolutionary project in Ecuador could falter.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Ecuador unrest: Rafael Correa returns to presidential palace

Ecuadorean army troops have stormed a hospital in Quito and rescued President Rafael Correa, who had been trapped inside and surrounded by renegade police protesting against government austerity measures.

By Ben Westwood in Guayaquil
Ecuadoran troops took over the main international airport in the country?s capital Quito while police protested in the streets over benefits.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa runs away from tear gas during a protest by police officers and soldiers against a new law that cuts their benefits Photo: REUTERS

Mr Correa arrived back at the presidential palace in the capital, where local television images showed a large crowd of supporters cheering and waving Ecuador's flag.

He said one police officer had "fallen" during fighting around the hospital where he remained for hours during a day of turmoil in the South American nation.

He had been freed moments earlier amid gunfire after soldiers raided the building where he spent most of the day.

Mr Correa had been prevented from leaving the police hospital after he was attacked with teargas as he attempted to negotiate with the police.

Walking on crutches after a recent operation, he arrived at a police barracks to talk about a strike over pay but was jostled and pushed by angry policemen. He was then fired on with teargas.

For the next few hours, nothing was heard from the president and rumours circulated that he was being held against his will. At 6pm, Mr Correa telephoned state television station ECTV to confirm that the police had taken away his bodyguards and he had been "practically kidnapped".

Police chiefs denied this but protesters attempting to free him were also fired upon with teargas as they tried to reach the hospital.

Mr Correa remained defiant in the face of the police action, saying: "I will not take a single step back. I will not sign any agreement under pressure. I would die first. I thank my compatriots for their support and ask citizens to remain calm."

As night fell in Quito, the capital faced the unprecedented situation of the army and police fighting each other in the streets. At 9pm, the army attacked the police guarding the hospital with teargas and rubber bullets. Several soldiers are reported to have been injured in the fighting.

The president was seen leaving in a convoy half an hour later and returned to the presidential palace where a crowd of supporters had gathered.

He said from the palace: "This has been a very sad day."

He quickly moved to blame former President Lucio Gutierrez, who himself was removed in a coup in 2005.

"Lucio Gutierrez's people were behind this. His supporters have manipulated it all. They twisted everything in a conspiracy."

He then criticiced the policemen who held him, labelling them "cowards". He vowed to continues with his policies, adding: "Nobody will stop the citizen's revolution. We will never give in."

World leaders have rallied around Mr Correa. Venezuelan President, a close ally, condemned the "coup attempt", while Bolivian President Evo Morales spoke of a "vengeful conspiracy" against Mr Correa, comparing the situation with the coup d'etat in Honduras earlier this year.

This unprecedented situation began with a dispute over police pay.

Ecuador woke up on Thursday to news that thousands of police officers had decided to strike in protest at a public service law passed by the country's Assembly which removed bonuses for good performance and long service.

For most of the day, Ecuador was without a working police force as policemen mounted a nationwide strike, blockading bridges and seizing control of Quito airport. Countless robberies were reported at shops and banks in Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. In one incident in Guayaquil, a mob of 30 people armed with hammers looted an electronics store. Police chiefs and army chiefs meanwhile refused to support the strike and pledged support to the president.

According to the Red Cross, 51 people have been injured in the protests and there has been at least one unconfirmed death. A state of emergency was declared in the early afternoon and the army was deployed to remove barriers and reopen the airport. The government station ECTV then assumed control of all news communications in a controversial move. This prompted an angry mob to storm the station, breaking glass and assaulting security men.

Fighting continues between the police and army.

Related News: * Executive · * Latin America Ecuador's Correa Vows Not to Negotiate, Thanks Security Forces for Rescue

Correa Freed by Troops in Battle with Protesting Police

Ecuadorian President Rafael Vicente Correa. Photographer: Katsumi Kasahara/AFP/Getty Images

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was freed by security forces amid gunfire after protesters and police massed around a hospital building in a bid to keep him inside, state television reported.

At least one person died in clashes involving the military and police officers, who are protesting a plan to cut their wages, according to the Telesur network. Correa called the acts against him treason and said police had “stabbed me in the back,” according to remarks broadcast from the presidential palace.

Ecuador had declared a state of emergency after hundreds of police protesting wage cuts blocked roads, shut the airport for several hours and sprayed teargas on Correa.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez backed Correa’s claim that he was the target of an organized coup attempt, even though none of the protesters or members of the opposition have demanded he step down. He and other regional leaders traveled to Buenos Aires for a meeting to show support for the embattled leader.

The president was taken to a hospital after scuffling with the police and was holed up as officers surrounded the facility, refusing to let his personal security forces escort him out of the building. Looters ransacked banks, supermarkets and shopping malls in the port city of Guayaquil, the country’s largest, and 51 people were injured amid the violence, the Red Cross said.

“Here I am. If they want to kill me, go ahead,” Correa said after protesters hurled a tear-gas canister at him and doused him with hot water. “I won’t back down.”

Ecuador, which has defaulted on $3.2 billion of international debt since 2008, has seen three presidents ousted in the past 13 years. Correa, a 47-year-old economist who took office in 2007, brought a modicum of stability to the politically tumultuous nation of 14 million, becoming the first president to win two terms when he won re-election last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Gill in Quito at ngill4@bloomberg.net; Alexander Emery in Lima at aemery1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Chavez condemns attempted coup in Ecuador

Friday, October 1, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mérida, September 30th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – As a coup attempt takes place in Ecuador, Venezuela and regional organisations of Latin America have come out in solidarity with Ecuador, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on the people and military of Ecuador to defend President Rafael Correa and their country’s democracy.

Ecuador is a close ally of Venezuela, and a fellow member of the progressive Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA).

Early this afternoon the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released an official statement condemning the coup attempt and expressing its solidarity with President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people.

The statement said, “A few minutes ago President Hugo Chavez Frias talked with President Rafael Correa, who is being held in the National Police hospital in Quito. President Correa confirmed that what is taking place is a coup attempt, given the insubordination by a section of the National Police towards the authorities and the law”.

“Commander Hugo Chavez expressed his support for the constitutional president of our sister, the Republic of Ecuador, and condemned, in the name of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA), this attack against the constitution and the people of Ecuador,” continued the statement.

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its confidence that President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people will overturn this coup attempt and, together with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, we will be alert and accompanying them with solidarity in this historic moment,” the statement concluded.

Correa: 'I'm not going to give up'

Later this afternoon, Chavez talked on the telephone with Telesur, commenting on the coup attempt as he prepared to travel to Argentina to meet with other presidents of UNASUR and discuss the situation in Ecuador.

“According to what our ambassador [in Ecuador] has reported, the airports have been taken. It’s an operation that has been prepared. They are the forces of... the extreme right,” he said.

“The president [of Ecuador] is alone [in the hospital] with just an assistant and a few security members. Our ambassador Navas Tortolero tried to enter the hospital but they impeded him. There is a lot of police violence and its clear they received instructions from above.”

Correa “told me, ‘I’m ready to die, I’m not going to give up’,” Chavez said.

Chavez argued that a peaceful march needs to support the president, and the military needs to guarantee the peace. “Only Ecuadorians can neutralise the coup attempt... and can save democracy in Venezuela,” he said.

“Correa is a man of great dignity, we’ve seen him confront this situation despite his physical condition, his knee [which was operated on recently]... I have faith in President Correa, who has already suffered attacks from outside Ecuador in the sad case of Colombia’s incursion... he knows how to respond and how to plant peace in Ecuador,” Chavez said.

Chavez also commented that it was “strange that the military hasn’t appeared... their president is kidnapped... they aren’t letting him out, hopefully there’ll be a reaction... I’ve talked with Venezuelan military in Ecuador who tell me that the military there are in their barracks but they aren’t active... the situation is very very bad.”

Chavez called on the Ecuadoran military to “not allow them to massacre the Ecuadorian people” and to “rescue President Correa.”

“It’s a coup attempt against ALBA... the countries who have raised the banner of democracy... the [coup] masters... we know where they are, they are in Washington,” he concluded.

Already, Venezuelans are mobilising outside the Ecuadorian embassy in Caracas.

Regional response

The Organisation of American States (OAS) is holding an emergency meeting and ALBA and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) are making arrangements to hold emergency meetings.

However, Chavez commented on Telesur that the OAS is “impotent” in the face of such situations. “Beyond chest beating”, nothing will come out of it, he argued, sighting the case of Honduras.

To date in the OAS meeting, all government representatives who have spoken, including those from the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, have said they reject the coup attempt.

Cuba, the European Union, the general secretary of the United Nations, Mexico, France, and Bolivia also declared their support for the democratically-elected Ecuadoran government.

The US ambassador to the OAS, Carmen Lomellin, stated, “We condemn any attempt to violate or alter the constitutional process and constitutional order in Ecuador”.

ALBA has also released a formal statement, manifesting “solidarity with the legitimate government of President Rafael Correa and with the sovereign people of Ecuador”.

Nestor Kirchner, general secretary of UNASUR, expressed his total support for and “absolute solidarity” with the Ecuadorian government.

Events in Ecuador

This morning police forces in Quito, Ecuador, took over strategic sites, including an airbase, airports and parliament. President Correa immediately went to the military base to work out a solution. Police claimed they were protesting a law passed on Wednesday that allegedly would reduce their work benefits.

Correa argued that his government had doubled police wages and that rather the law just restructured the benefits.

He also denounced that ex-President Lucio Gutierrez, who, following large protests, was removed from office by a vote of the Ecuadorian congress in 2005, was behind the protest and using it to justify a coup.

Police forces attacked Correa with tear gas and the president was hospitalised shortly after in a military hospital, which coup forces subsequently surrounded. Since then he has not been able to leave.

Supporters have gathered around the presidential palace, and the Ecuadoran government has declared a state of emergency.

In a nationally televised press conference, Ecuador’s top military officials declared their support for the constitutional order of Ecuador. The top commander, General Ernesto González, demanded the police cease their subversive activities. However, the military has yet to intervene to end the police’s occupations, and only Ecuadoran civilians have taken to the streets to confront the police.

The coup attempt is not the first against an ALBA country, countries which challenge US domination in Latin America. In June 2009, Honduras, an ALBA member at the time, was subject to a coup d’état that forced its president Manuel Zelaya from power. In 2004, a coup similar to the one in Honduras was carried out in Haiti with US backing. In 2002 Venezuela was also subject to a coup, but a huge mobilisation by Venezuelans combined with military support for Chavez, defeated the coup.

Source: Venezuelanalysis.com

Coup Attempt in Ecuador Today Update Eight: The Ecuadoran MiMilitary Move Against the Police to Free President Correa.

By Les Blough in Venezuela. Axis of Logic.
Axis of Logic
Thursday, Sep 30, 2010

Watch the coup d'etat unfolding in
Ecuador live, in Spanish, on
TELESUR

Update Eight

The Ecuadoran Military Move Against the Police to Free President Correa.

We have been wondering all day, "Where is the military!?" Well, now we know, they have been planning, under the direction of their Commander in Chief, President Correa, how to crush this coup d'etat. As I write this update, they are doing it. Under the cameras of TeleSur, the Ecuadoran Military are making their move against the police who have inititated and carried out this coup attempt since early this morning. Oh! This is real time. The Military has rescued Correa and he is addressing the people. He says that only one part of the Ecuadoran police has been involved in this coup attempt. Under the administration of Rafael Correa, the US-backed Coup d'etat has been utterly destroyed. Unlike the US-backed coup against Zelaya in Honduras in 2009, this one is not going to fly my friends. As I write, I have a Venezuelan revolutionary sitting by my side. He just said to me, "The people are waking up". Go to the TeleSur site linked above for live action. Stay tuned for our next update.

- Les Blough in Venezuela

Update Seven

The Venezuelan People Stand With Their Sisters and Brothers in Ecuador.

On the streets of Caracas tonight, thousands of Venezuelan people have come out in support of the Ecuadoran people and their president, Rafael Correa. They are gathering in front of the Ecuadoran Embassy in Caracas cheering and supporting their sisters and brothers in the war against US imperialism. Venezuelans remember all too well the US-backed coup against the president they elected into office in 1998, Hugo Chavez. They remember April 11, 2010 when the corrupted Venezuelan military officers kidnapped their president and tried to overthrow their government. What is happening today in Ecuador strikes chord in their hearts. And the people of Ecuador have taken a lesson from Venezuelans. They too remember. They remember how the people came down from the barrios by the tens of thousands to Mira Flores and demanded that the Golpistas return their president (see The Revolution Will Not Be Televised). Today, the people of Ecuador went to the presidential palace to demand that the criminals return their president to his elected position. When they learned that the criminals had their president trapped in a hospital in Northern Quiito, they went there and they are there now, armed with nothing but their honor and dignity - confronting a well-armed right wing police force but they are not backing down. Nowhere on the planet will one find greater dignity, greater honor, greater morality than here, among "el pueblo" in ECuador, Venezuela ... Latin America.

- Les Blough in Venezuela 8:55 PM EST

Update Six:

President Correa broadcasts radio mssg. from hospital. Refuses to negotiate with Golpistas... more

A few minutes ago, President Correa spoke live on radio from the hospital where the right wing has him trapped. He stated that he will not, under any circumstances, negotiate with the criminals who are attempting to overthrow the government. Following his radio broadcast, the right wing broke down the doors of ECUATV (public tv) and shut it down but thus far are not attempting to use the station to address the pubic. Earlier today on public television (VTV), President Chávez addressed Venezuelans about the coup in Ecuador. Among other things, he stated that he does not understand what the Ecuadoran military has not intervened. But that was before ECUATV reported that Correa ordered the military NOT to intervene in order to prevent bloodshed.

- LMB 7:15 PM EST

Update Five

The Ecuadoran Ambassador to Venezuela confirmed that President Correa is in a good state of health, even as he is being held hostage in a hospital in North Quito by rebel police. Colombia & Peru have sealed their borders to Ecuador in support of Ecuadoran govt and Pres. Correa, who remains sequestered by police forces who are executing the coup. (TeleSur)

- LMB 5:15 PM

Update Four: Eva Golinger reports that the police who are involved in the coup are "violently repressing" the thousands of Ecuadoran people who have come out in support of their president. President Correa continues to be trapped, apparently in the hospital where he was taken after the police attacked him earlier today (read about the attack below). At 4:15 p.m. a military spokesman appeared on TeleSur stating that the Ecuadoran military supports the government and continues to recognize President Correa as their Commander in Chief. Why the military has not yet intervened and put down the rebel police is not clear. At this moment the people who went earlier to the Presidential Palace to rise up in support of their president - have now arrived at the hospital where the rebel police have Correa sequestered.

This is obviously a dangerous situation with the unarmed people confronting the police. The obvious question is this: If the Ecuadoran people can march to the hospital to attempt a rescue of their president, why is the Ecuadoran Military NOT there to put down this coup, take President Correa out of this dangerous situation and restore order?

Meanwhile, according to Golinger, governments throughout Venezuela have condemned the coup in Ecuador but the U.S. State Department has only said that it is "monitoring the situation in Ecuador." This mirrors the U.S. involvement and response to the kidnapping of President Zelaya and overthrow of the Honduran governement in June, 2009 and the attempted coup against President Chávez in April, 2002.

- LMB 4:30 PM EST

Update Three

The People Arrive at the Hospital to Protect Their President.

TeleSur reports that the Ecuadoran government has declared a state of emergency for 5 days and the military is supporting the government. Cesár Rodríguez, Vice President of the National Assembly reports that President Correa is in the hospital and that the rebel police are attempting to gain access to him, presumably to assassinate him. He was injured when he was attacked by the police as he attempted to speak with them. TeleSur broadcast live video just after the attack on his car, showing the president wearing a gas mask as he escaped the police mob. He was on crutches (due to surgery on his leg a few days ago). The nature and extent of his injuries from today's attack are unknown at this time.

Rebel Police Attack President Correa and
the People Rally to Support the Government

September 30, 2010

Update Two

Police Golpistas Attack President Correa's Car

1:30 PM TeleSur is reporting that when President Correa went to the largest police barracks in the north of Quito to speak with the golpistas, the police launched tear gas at his vehicle. Correa was taken to the hospital, apparently with injuries. He is currently in the hospital and some police are attempting to enter the hospital, reportedly through the roof of the hospital to execute the president. President Correa just issued a message in a radio broadcast from the hospital bidding farewell to the Ecuadoran people.

- LMB 1:30 pm Thursday.


This morning a blogger posted the following message on the internet:

USA makes coup in Ecuador?

The USA are promoting a coup in Ecuador.

We in Latin America are tired of USA imperialism!!!!!!!! First it was Honduras now Ecuador??? (excerpt deleted)

Until when will theUSA abuse the people of the World????

Here in Venezuela we request that ALL Latin American nations break ALL diplomatic and commercial ties with the USA!!!

Here in Venezuela we request that Russia breaks all diplomatic and commericial ties with the USA!!!

USA imperialism has got to stop already!!!!!

Here in Venezuela we are watching this counter-revolutionary action unfold on TeleSur. The corporate media is reporting that both, the military has seized the main airport in Quito and that the police have fired tear gass, burned tires "after taking over bases in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities." They also claim that an Associated Press photographer "witnessed soldiers participating in the action that shut down the main terminal at Quito's Mariscal Sucre airport."

On the other hand, TeleSur reports that the police have indeed launched a possible coup attempt but that the response by the military is yet unknown. At this moment TeleSur is showing footage of an angry President Correa speaking to a group of police protestors with the protestors shouting back at him.

Ostensibly, they are protesting a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador's military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. The law would also require police and military to wait for 7 years, rather than 5 for subsequent promotions. However, TeleSur is reporting that the "protests" are in fact a coup attempt. TeleSur is also broadcasting live video, showing large masses of the civilian population who arriving at Palacio Carondelet (Presidential Palace) and Plaza de Centro in Quito, waving flags in counter-protest against the police ... against the coup.

It is much to early to document any involvement in this coup attempt by Washington as claimed by the blogger quoted above. However, given the recent history of U.S.-instigated coups against revolutionary governments in Venezuela and Honduras and their century of imperialist attacks on Latin American countries, it's a safe bet that they are behind what is happening today in Ecuador.

As of noon today, the response by the military to these counter-revolutionaries is unknown and will be critical to the outcome. The Ecuadoran military is under civilian control. Axis of Logic will be following these developments closely, updating this report throughout the day.

You can also follow these developments in real time at the TeleSur link located in the left column of the front page of Axis of Logic.

- Les Blough in Venezuela

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