Saturday, October 02, 2010

What really happened in Ecuador?

A coup, sez Correa (people, what the heck do they teach folks in Illiniois' econ PhD program?)!

A US backed coup, sez Hugo and Evo (still waiting to hear from Oliver Stone on this).

But it actually doesn't appear to have been anything so grand. Correa and his congress passed a law cutting police bonuses. He then went to a police barracks to "address" them. Apparently he taunted some of them saying stuff along the lines of "Kill me if you're so brave". They didn't kill him but they did tear gas him and "pelt him with water" (people, does this mean shoot him with a water cannon? or just dump a bottle of Perrier on his person?), and then hold him hostage in a hospital for a while.

No evidence of a pre-meditated plot, no evidence of a plotter who planned to take over post coup. Just a hot-headed econ PhD president and a shockingly undisciplined, unprofessional, and disrespectful group of cops.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Almost. After the 'kill me with a water canon' accident, he was brought to the nearest hospital by his bodyguards....which turned out to be a police hospital (so at that point he felt there was no coup, only an isolated accident). Once inside, he was kept hostage.

Matt Gilliland said...

He says he was held kept hostage. That report has been contradicted by many observers.

Anonymous said...

Yes, that was a self-inflicted "coup de etat" The whoe entire country knows it but are afraid to be persecuted, put on jail, etc. If you are really interested in learning the true facts, I recomend you to read the article "Witch hunt is underway on Ecuador",By Juan Carlos Hidalgo at CATO.ORG