Unrest rocks Ecuador as troops seize airport

[Elmore Furth]

Source: MSNBC

QUITO, Ecuador — Rebellious police angered by a law that cuts their benefits plunged this small South American nation into chaos Thursday, roughing up the president, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

Incensed officers shoved President Rafael Correa around and pelted him with tear gas and water when he tried to speak at a police barracks in the capital. Correa, 47, was hospitalized from the effects of the gas.

Correa later declared a state of siege and said he was considering dissolving a deadlocked Congress. “It’s a coup attempt," he said in an interview with Radio Publica de Ecuador.

The state of siege puts the military in charge of public order, suspending civil liberties and allowing soldiers to carry out searches without a warrant.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39441275/ns/world_news-americas/

[Ian David]

1. Nothing good can come of this. n/t

[xchrom]

2. That's serious. Here's hoping it doesn't get uglier. Nt

[a la izquierda]

damn...

damn, damn, damn. things don't look good for Correa. i'll have to start paying attention to things further south.

[a la izquierda]

3. damn...

damn, damn, damn. things don't look good for Correa. i'll have to start paying attention to things further south.

[Turborama]

4. BBC: Ecuador declares state of emergency amid 'coup attempt'

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador after President Rafael Correa accused the opposition and security forces of a coup attempt.

Mr Correa was earlier forced to flee a protest in the capital, Quito, after tear gas was fired. Troops took over the main airport, forcing it to close.

Unrest was reported in several towns, as Peru closed its border with Ecuador.

The protesters are angry at a new law passed on Wednesday that ends bonuses and other benefits for public servants.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11447519

Quote from Rafael Correa's speech to soldiers from Quito's main barracks: "If you want to kill the president, here he is. Kill him, if you want to. Kill him if you are brave enough”

[Peace Patriot]

9. Wow! What a statement by Correa! "If you want to kill the president, here he is."

Spectacular footage of this statement! What a courageous leader! I promise you, this is going to end WELL for him and for the EIGHTY PERCENT of Ecuadorans who support him and his government.

[Turborama]

14. I have to admit to not knowing anything about Ecuador's politics but you have to admire his bravery

You've seen the footage of his statement? It was really powerful. I hope you're right about how this is going to turn out.

[Arctic Dave]

5. Why the fuck is this not at the front of the DU main page?

Who gives a fuck what that fucking idiot o'donnell did.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Most people don't give a fuck. Sad but true. nt

[ProudDad]

7. Your tax dollars at work... (n/t)

[ck4829]

8. 700 people are stuck in the airport that the police took over

These guys are getting increasingly violent, this could get bad.

[Supersedeas]

10. is this where Stossel wants to take all his rich people if the tax cuts are not extended?

[Imajika]

11. Wait, what is going on here?

from the bbc:

"The protesters are angry at a new law that cuts benefits for public servants."

So the police, some military, and some public servants are protesting and/or attempting to overthrow the government because of pay/benefit cuts in the public sector? Wouldn't this be like they are protesting austerity measures?

[Lucky Luciano]

12. Seems that way, but the truth is always very opaque. nt

[Turborama]

17. Something about Christmas bonuses and medals

I couldn't really make much of what he was saying as the translator was really slow.

[Bacchus39]

18. the Congress, controlled by Correa's loyalists, passed a law restricting bonuses and promotions

some police and military are in open revolt.

[Turborama]

19. By "loyalists", do you mean his party? I haven't heard about the military being in revolt

Have you got a link to that news?

[Bacchus39]

22. his party and/or coalition. I don't know if the coalition involves more than 1 party.

I do believe I said that some members of the police and military are in open revolt. not the military in general.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_ecuador_protest




More than half of the 124-member Congress are officially allied with Correa, but the president has blasted congressmen from his own Country Alliance party for not going along with his proposals for shrinking the country's bureaucracy.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/201093020411387309.html

Ecuador, an member with a population of 14 million, has a long history of political instability. Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power.

"The police are taking advantage of a political crisis in the National Assembly, the congress, in which the ruling party is split over legislation," Colin Harding, a Latin America expert, told Al Jazeera in London.



"They are taking the opportunity to take to the streets to press their demands."

Members of Correa's own left-wing party are blocking legislative proposals aimed at cutting state costs, prompting him to mull disbanding congress, a move that would let him rule by decree until new elections, one of his ministers said.

Ecuador's two-year-old constitution allows the president to declare a political impasse that could dissolve congress until a new presidential and parliamentary elections can be held.

The measure would, however, have to be approved by the Constitutional Court to take effect.

[Turborama]

28. "The armed forces commander, Gen. Ernesto Gonzalez, declared the military's loyalty to Correa"

From your AP link.

You said "some police and military are in open revolt." I can't find anything in that link about any military being in "open revolt".

[EFerrari]

20. It was reported that police bonuses had been cut

but that turned out not to be true.

So, at this point, the national police are demanding negotiations on no grounds and Correa is saying, nope, not appropriate.

[Turborama]

21. That must have been what he was saying, then

There were long gaps between what the translator was saying but I do remember him saying something about Christmas bonuses and medals. Thanks for helping with the context. :hi:

[Bacchus39]

24. do not believe her completely unsubstantiated claims

QUITO, Ecuador – Hundreds of police angry over a law that would cut their benefits plunged this small South American nation into chaos Thursday, roughing up and tear-gassing the president, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_ecuador_protest

[Turborama]

29. How do you expect anyone to "substantiate" anything they heard live 1/2 an hour before

As I said, we are discussing his live statement that was being broadcast about 45 minutes ago.

[Bacchus39]

31. well, maybe post a link???? n/t

s

[Turborama]

32. I heard it too and I'm sorry to disappoint you but all I could make out is what I've posted

The audio was bad and it hasn't been translated or transcribed yet. Hopefully it will be soon and we can all check out what he was actually saying.

(self edited to take out unnecessary sarcasm)

[EFerrari]

44. I can't read this entire thread but this is where I learned the cuts were bs:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=42266&mesg_id=42274

[EFerrari]

25. The audio has been hard to dicipher. n/t

[Bacchus39]

23. ???? every story posted has said that the police bonuses were being cut by the new law passed

where is your information???


President accuses the opposition of an attempted coup after being hospitalised as police protested over benefit cuts.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/201093020411387309.html

[Turborama]

26. We are talking about the live statement he gave from the hospital about 1/2 an hour ago

It hasn't been translated or transcribed yet.

[Mudoria]

36. Seems not so long ago

that when public servants in Greece wereup in arms about cuts to public workers some of these same folks were cheering them on. When it happens to one of their heroes it's time for the bus to roll over them.

[Imajika]

39. Yes, I wondered about that...

But I don't really know for sure what happened there.

I saw the video this morning and it looked like a bunch of pissed off police personnel swarmed him.

[EFerrari]

41. "The people" were not up in arms yesterday. The national police

were and attacked the president and held him hostage for nearly 12 hours. The people defended the president until the army could rescue him.

But, nice try.

[mikelgb]

13. coup coup ca choo

[Turborama]

15. The president is speaking live on TV. Link to live stream

Here: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

AJ English have been doing some really good coverage of this.

[bitchkitty]

16. Brains and balls.

I think I'm in love.

[EFerrari]

27. Where is Obama?

[Bacchus39]

30. Clinton's statement.

"We urge all Ecuadorians to come together and to work within the framework of Ecuador's democratic institutions to reach a rapid and peaceful restoration of order," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_ecuador_protest

[unhappycamper]

33. IIRC, we have a military base in Ecuador.

A few questions: How many CIA were there for the coup? Were the US Special Forces involved? How many School of the Americas graduates were involved?

[Peace Patriot]

35. President Correa kicked the U.S. military out of Ecuador last year. Thus, this coup attempt?

He promised to do so during his presidential campaign, in response to the OVERWHELMING wish of the Ecuadoran people, and proceeded to do it, once in office. When asked about this by a reporter in Miami, he replied that he would agree to a U.S. military base in Ecuador when the U.S. agreed to an Ecuadoran military base in Miami!

He's quite a card. (He also said, when he was asked about Hugo Chavez's comparison of Bush Jr to "the Devil" at the UN, that "It is an insult to the Devil." This occurred during his first campaign in 2006. He was in a tight race, neck and neck with Ecuador's richest man, a banana magnate, and I really don't know if this did it, but immediately after he said this, his numbers soared and he won by over 60% of the vote.)

The U.S. has been out to topple him from the get-go. He is second only to Hugo Chavez on the CIA target list. One reason is the above--kicking the U.S. military out. Another is his support for the 30,000 Indigenous people who have sued Chevron-Texaco over one of the biggest oil pollution disasters in the world, in the Amazon rainforest. (The Indigeous are on the point of winning their lawsuit.) Another is that our government much prefers to work with fascists and total assholes running Latin American countries. Correa is a good leader and very well liked. But probably the biggest reason is the oil. Ecuador also has a lot of oil (not as much as Venezuela, but a lot), is also a member of OPEC, and of ALBA (a Venezuela-organized small country trade group). Like Chavez, he believes in using his country's resources to benefit the poor majority. Our real rulers--the oil multinationals--absolutely hate this. They want to control the oil supply and take all the profits.

Like Venezuela, Ecuador borders Colombia where many horrible things are occurring, stoked by $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid. One consequence of the latter is that about half a million mostly poor Colombian farmers have fled across the borders into Ecuador and Venezuela, creating a huge humanitarian problem for Ecuador and Venezuela (which care about human rights) and--not incidentally--creating a border security problem for these countries, which Colombia/the U.S. has tried to use in various ways to paint Chavez and Correa as "terrorist lovers." Long story, but you get the picture: U.S. causes mayhem, blames leaders who control lots of oil.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the two masked operatives that we see in the BBC vid of the attack on Correa (whoever they were) crossed the border into Ecuador from Colombia (where rightwing death squads operate freely, with close ties to the U.S. funded/trained Colombian military, and where the U.S. military itself--including mercenaries such as Blackwater--is ensconced). You can see a great analysis of the stills from the vid here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9232087

It is totally possible, in my opinion, that these operatives--so calm amidst the melee--were not Ecuadoran police. Whoever lied to the Ecuadoran police that their bonuses were being taken away, stoked them up and instigated their riots and disorder, and who got one group in the AF to go along, but couldn't bend the military as a whole, would likely have their own operatives among the police rioters to accomplish certain things. They both try, from different directions, to rip off Correa's tea gas mask. They are close enough to try to do this, but they have to reach over Correa's body guards, and, if their next move was going to be to pull out guns and shoot Correa, they didn't have a clear shot at him. He was closely surrounded by brave guards (despite what looks like chaos), and I saw at least one Correa guard shove one of these two away. This could have been as assassination plot or it could have been "just" a destabilization plot. The plotters could not have predicted that Correa would so bravely confront the disgruntled/rioting police, and perhaps were not prepared for this opportunity to get at him with bullets, and their operatives did the next best thing: shot tear gas canisters at him, with these two trying to remove his mask.

Correa has since said that the police "didn't read the law"--referring to an anti-corruption law that Correa supports. The gist of the controversy is this: Someone told the police forces that the bill was taking away certain bonuses. But the bill is actually very supportive of the police and raises their salaries. Correa has more than doubled their salaries since he was elected. So, someone was spreading lies--and, NOT INCIDENTALLY, this lie appears in every corpo-fascist news article about this event, written out NOT as a quote from the police protestors, but AS FACT. ("The police were protesting austerity measures," NOT "The police were protesting ALLEGED austerity measures.") So, SOMEBODY was orchestrating this event IN THE PRESS, or rather, the corpo-fascist press was orchestrating this event on behalf of the coup plotters. They had a direct line to the coup plotters and gave it their spin.

Since the Ecuadoran military could not be bent, the coup failed. Now it will be spun--ad infinitum--as Correa's "troubles in Ecuador" in continuing efforts to topple Correa--for instance, to rattle investors--even though DEMOCRACY HELD FIRM, under assault, Correa behaved very well, indeed and has quite massive support among the people (many of whom surrounded the hospital where Correa was trapped, until the military arrived), and is already coming out of this more popular than ever. Notoriously unstable Ecuador has proven to be STABLE, with Correa as president. This is the true upshot of this story. You will NOT see this reflected in the corpo-fascist press. They want Correa OUT.

[EFerrari]

43. As you type, the presstitutes are spinning this story

as an incident Correa will use to "consolidate his power". You're are exactly right on the money, Peace Patriot.

[TexasObserver]

34. recommend

[Judi Lynn]

37. So now the death toll is officially TWO dead:Ecuador president safe after foiled coup

Ecuador president safe after foiled coup
Alexander Martinez
October 2, 2010 - 12:04AM
AFP

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is safe back in the presidential palace after loyalist troops rescued him from a police mutiny in a day of gunfire and street clashes that left two dead.

The leftist president is "safe and well", a sombre police chief Freddy Martinez said on Friday, adding that after the uprising by sections of his forces he will be offering his resignation.

A relative calm had returned to the streets of the capital, Quito, on Friday after the city descended into chaos on Thursday, when police protesting against pay cuts took over a barracks and besieged Correa inside a hospital for about 12 hours.

Hustled to safety by troops and an elite police special operations unit under cover of darkness late on Thursday, Correa was given a hero's welcome by cheering supporters when he appeared later on a balcony.

More:
http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-world/ecuador-president-safe-after-foiled-coup-20101002-161dk.html

[Judi Lynn]

38. CBS says the coup death toll is 3 now: Ecuador President: Rebel Cops "Wanted Blood"

QUITO, Ecuador, Oct. 1, 2010
Ecuador President: Rebel Cops "Wanted Blood"
President Rescued from Hospital Surrounded by Disgruntled Police Officers; Calls Uprising a Coup Attempt

(CBS/AP) Ecuador was under a state of siege Friday, with the military in charge of public order, after soldiers rescued President Rafael Correa from a hospital where he'd been surrounded by police who also roughed him up and tear-gassed him.

Correa and his ministers called Thursday's revolt - in which insurgents also paralyzed the nation with airport shutdowns and highway blockades - an attempt to overthrow him and not just a simple insurrection over a new law that would cut benefits for public servants.

At least three people - two police officers and a soldier - were killed and dozens injured, said Irina Cabezas. the vice president of congress. Dozens were injured.

At least five soldiers were wounded - two critically - in the firefight at the hospital before Correa was removed at top speed in an SUV, according to the military and Red Cross.

Correa, 47, speaking from the balcony of the Carondelet palace after his rescue, told hundreds of cheering backers that Thursday "was the saddest day of my life." He said 27 of his special forces bodyguards had been injured.

Correa thanked the supporters who converged on the hospital Thursday "ready to die to defend democracy" - his loyalists had hurled stones at police who repelled them with tear gas.

More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/01/world/main6917886.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

40. This video says the rebel cops took over pro-Correa radio & tv stations:

It would appear to confirm this was something a little more planned than some spontaneous uprising by the cops in response to grievances concerning the new austerity program:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5684&updaterx=2010-10-01+11%3A57%3A22

[EFerrari]

42. The airport, highways, tv stations. We've all seen this movie before.

Great catch, Judi Lynn.