Reply #6: "...blamed him for further provoking and upsetting the police force by addressing them ... [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

... with no intention of reaching any consensus or settlement whatsoever; but to impose his authority. "

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How does Montaner (the CIA agent) know what went down between Correa and the police rioters just before the riot--that is, when Correa was talking to them and asking them if they had read the legislative bill, etc.? Montaner is speaking on Colombian TV --in Colombia (?) --in the midst of the riot in Ecuador. Nobody knew what had happened at that point. Or was he in Ecuador? In either case, he is not an Ecuadoran policeman, so how does he know what sparked the riot? I don't know this for sure--haven't seen any reports about it--but I believe that Correa's dramatic statement--"You want to kill the president? Well, here he is...etc."--came AFTER the police refused to talk to him and instead physically attacked him and were shouting things at him (like "Lucio!"--meaning Lucio Gutierriz, a rigthtwing opposition presidential candidate). His dramatic statement makes the most sense as an answer to something shouted by the rioters--like, "We're going to kill you!" (and Correa replies, "You want to kill the president? Well, here he is...".) But I still don't have the sequence of events quite clear from the news reports, even after reading numerous news reports. So how does Montanet know, as the event was occurring?

The answer may be that he was on the phone to the coup plotters (if he was in Colombia or somewhere other than Quito), getting the "spin" they wanted (and colluding with them in additional ways?), or, if he was there, directly colluding?

Of course, he had no way at all of knowing what Correa may have been intending to offer the police, so his statement that Correa had "no intention of reaching any consensus" is a fabrication In fact, Correa going to the police barracks points more to an intention to compromise than an intention to merely stand on his authority as president. The police never gave him a chance to present any compromise, if he was intending one. And maybe he just went there to explain the bill to them, which they also didn't let him do. (It's interesting that Correa later said that none of them had read the bill.) As is typical of the rightwing and other 'Big Lie' propagandists, Montane projects the intentions/methods of the coup plotters--to manipulate ignorant people--onto Correa. Montane says that, "...this kind of attitude seems to win him popularity and sympathy among the few uneducated." (Correa's popularity soared to 75% after the coup attempt; it had been 65% before.)

This reminds me of FDR's statement: "Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred!" Yup, the poor majority, the screwed over, the downtrodden, do love to have a champion in government, for once. It so rarely happens. But it's the rightwing/fascist minority that tries to manipulate the ignorant; the left plainly, demonstrably, supports literacy and education--in Ecuador, throughout Latin America, and, I dare say, everywhere. Correa has poured significant resources into education. And it is virtually a "watchword" of the leftist democracy movement of which he is a part.

Another thing he has poured resources into is the police--for instance, doubling their salaries. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the bonus system--that allegedly sparked this riot, assassination attempt and attempted overthrow--is a corrupt patronage system of interest and benefit to senior officers, who stirred up the lower ranks about it, in a deliberate disinformation campaign (on the part of the coup plotters). Correa was trying to get rid of the patronage system by doubling police salaries and other support (better equipment, etc.)? That's my guess. In any case, the rightwing appears to have been manipulating and stirring up the lower ranks of police, using their ignorance of the reform bill--and so Montaner turns it around--"Alice in Wonderland"-like (or George Orwell-like)--and accuses Correa of manipulating "the uneducated."

It's very difficult to counter lies like this, as we found out with the Iraq War. It was the Bush Junta who had the intent of mass murder, not Saddam Hussein. But they successfully projected their intent onto Saddam Hussein and Iraq, in the narrative that the corpo-fascist press colluded on. It was a complete fabrication, as is the bullshit that Rafael Correa "manipulates" the "uneducated." Looking at the vids of the assault on Correa, it's impossible to believe that he had any such intent--stirring up the masses with a "macho" display. He was facing rioters, who very nearly took him out. And the truth about it is more like this: In imminent physical danger, when everything that you have trusted to that point is crumbling all around you--the police rioting and attacking you, your body guards nearly overwhelmed--in those instants when you "life flashes before your eyes"--your real character comes out. Correa was willing to die for legitimate, inclusive and consensus government in Ecuador. "You want to kill the president? Here he is...".

It is that clear sense of his character--fiery courage under threat of death--that the failed coup plotters would now like to sully and erase, probably because they are of the opposite character: cowards.