Did U.S. Support for Brutal Honduran Coup Encourage Ecuador Coup?

[Judi Lynn]

Did U.S. Support for Brutal Honduran Coup Encourage Ecuador Coup?
By Conn Hallinan, October 8, 2010

A police riot over an austerity bill, or a failed attempt to oust leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa from office? In the aftermath of the Sept. 30 attack on Correa by police in Quito, it is looking more and more like this was an orchestrated coup. And while there is no evidence that the U.S. was directly involved, the Obama administration’s strong support for the current Honduran government may well have encouraged the plotters to expect similar treatment by Washington.

The police attack on Correa was co-coordinated with similar takeovers in several other cities, the seizure of Ecuador’s two largest airports by army troops, and the occupation of the National Assembly. In the end the Ecuadorian Army supported the President, freed him from the police hospital where he was being held, and whisked him to safety, but only after a firefight killed one soldier and a student who had turned out to support Correa. The President’s car was struck by five bullets. According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, eight people died and 274 were wounded in incidents nationwide.

Suspicion has fallen on former president and army colonel Lucio Gutierrez, who led a 2000 coup and has called for Correa’s ouster. Gutierrez currently lives in Brazil and denies any link to the attempted coup. Correa also charges that Gutierrez’s brother Gilmar, a member of the National Assembly, supported the coup.

Last year’s coup in Honduras that ousted Manuel Zelaya has cast a shadow across the region, raising up the ghosts of a previous era when military takeovers routinely toppled governments in Latin America, including those in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. According to The Guardian, Correa said in the aftermath of the Honduran coup, “We have intelligence reports that say after Zelaya, I’m next.”

After Zelaya was ousted, the coup-led government of Roberto Micheletti organized elections—boycotted by most the population—and put Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo into power. Most countries in the region refuse to recognize the Lobo government, including the region’s major players, Brazil and Argentina.

More:
http://www.fpif.org/blog/did_us_support_for_brutal_honduran_coup_encourage_ecuador_coup?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FPIF+%28Foreign+Policy+In+Focus+%28All+News%29%29

[rabs]

1. Did you notice

(From the article)

Suspicion has fallen on former president and army colonel Lucio Gutierrez, who led a 2000 coup and has called for Correa’s ouster. Gutierrez currently lives in Brazil and denies any link to the attempted coup. Correa also charges that Gutierrez’s brother Gilmar, a member of the National Assembly, supported the coup.

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The author says Lucio Gutierrez lives in Brazil? That is new, if it is certain. All along media in Ecuador reported Gutierrez had been in Brazil to "observe" the recent elections, but I did not find a single word in the Brazilian media about him being there.

Lucio G. was to have returned to Quito three days ago, on Oct. 6. I had wondered that if he returned, he could be a target for arrest.

So, where is he?

[EFerrari]

2. Judi found an article that said he'd been in Miami with Montaner

in late September. And I've read that he was given "asylum" in Brazil. So, it could be he has a residence there but has been traveling?

[Judi Lynn]

3. He was in an interview with Montaner from a Bogota tv channel several days ago,

but, as EFerrari mentioned, it's actually hard to know if HE was in Bogota himself, or if he was on a satellite transmission from somewhere else during the interview.

Since he's been advocating throwing over Correa, I guess it's likely he's staying out of the country. I'll be keeping an eye out for anything on him. Since his name has been raised because of this coup, and his brother, he's going to be a high profile character for a while.

[rabs]

4. Just scanned the Quito newspapers

Nada about Lucio G.

Guess eventually he will show up. Probably Miami ...

[Judi Lynn]

9. It's crazy trying to find out where he lives now!

Found this concerning the time he fled to Brazil:

Last Updated: Thursday, 21 April, 2005, 19:14 GMT 20:14 UK
Ex-Ecuador leader granted asylum

Ecuador's ousted President Lucio Gutierrez has been granted political asylum by Brazil, a day after he was removed from office by Congress. Mr Gutierrez has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Quito, and is expected to be allowed to fly to Brazil later.

Vice-President Alfredo Palacio, sworn in on Thursday as the new president, has ordered Mr Gutierrez's arrest. Mr Gutierrez was ousted following a week of escalating protests.

Protesters were angered by his attempts to overhaul the Supreme Court and apparently pack it with supporters. The court had always been dominated by Mr Gutierrez's critics.

The former president was removed by a unanimous vote in Congress over the violent crackdown on the demonstrations, in which at least one person was killed.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4468917.stm

Then, I looked up Alvaro Noboa's Wikipedia, and learned Lucio Gutierrez ran in the Presidetial election last year in Ecuador!
Clearly he wasn't still hiding out in Brazil then, either!

Alvaro Noboa Wikipedia:

~snip~
Noboa ran for President for the fourth time in 2009, when Correa called an early election. This time, Noboa only received 11% of the vote, coming in a distant third place, behind Lucio Gutierrez, who came in second place, and Correa, who was reelected without a runoff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Noboa

Lucio Gutierrez' Wikipedia:

~snip~
On April 20, 2005, following a week of massive demonstrations, the Congress of Ecuador (meeting in a special session in a private building, CIESPAL, with opposition delegates only), on the grounds that Gutiérrez had abandoned his constitutional duties, voted 60-2 (38 members, including the great majority of PRE/PRIAN/PSP deputies, did not vote) to remove Gutiérrez from office and appointed Vice President Alfredo Palacio to serve as President. At the same time, the Ecuadorian Comando Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas, (a military body equivalent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff), publicly expressed that they were withdrawing their support for Gutiérrez, who had no option but to leave the Presidential Palace on a helicopter. He sought political asylum in the house of the Brazilian Ambassador in the north of Quito, after his attempt to leave the city aboard a plane at Quito International Airport was thwarted by hundreds of angry protesters that breached airport security and blocked the airstrip.

Post-Presidency
Brazil offered Gutiérrez asylum and arranged air transport out of Ecuador for the former president.<2> He arrived in Brasília via Rio Branco on April 24, 2005. He renounced his asylum, then went to Peru and the United States. In September he was reported to be seeking political asylum in Colombia. This was offered on October 4 only to be refused by Gutierrez on October 13. Then on October 15 he voluntarily returned to Ecuador vowing to "use all legal and constitutional means to retake power." He was arrested at the "Eloy Alfaro" Manta Airport<3> in Manta and taken to a prison in Quito. He was locked in a maximum security cell on charges of attempting to subvert Ecuador's internal security by repeatedly proclaiming to the international media that he continued to be the legitimate President of the Republic of Ecuador.

On March 3, 2006, a judge in Ecuador dismissed the charges against Gutierrez. A very notorious political agreement ensued between Gutierrez and the PSC (Partido Social Cristiano). Gutierrez and the deputies of PSP sided with the PSC in order to gain a majority for controlling the country's Constitutional Court. Upon his release, Gutierrez thanked the Ecuadorian people for their support and vowed that he would participate and win the presidential election in October.

On October 15, 2006, his Patriotic Society Party (PSP), led by his brother Gilmar Gutierrez, got the third place in the national election with 17% of the total votes, with the support of the economically disadvantaged, landless farmers and indigenous population.

In the 2009 Presidential Election, Lucio Gutierrez ran for president of Ecuador under the flag of PSP. In the presidential election held on April 26, he came in second with 26.8% of the vote, losing to Rafael Correa. Lucio declared election fraud even though all the polls conducted well before election day gave a great advantage to Rafael Correa, and even when international observers from the European Union declared total transparency of the election process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucio_Guti%C3%A9rrez

[EFerrari]

5. That's a very clear analysis and spot on, imo.

Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia. :shrug:

[OregonBlue]

6. This appears to be idle speculation. Any actual evidence?

[L Cutter]

7. It looks more like ideal speculation.

The evidence is in the abundant verifiable facts in the OP. Have you drawn something that you believe to be a superior conclusion from those facts, or, was this just a drive-by innuendo to muddy the waters?

[OregonBlue]

8. I went to the site and read the article. Some verifiable facts but speculative conclusions!!