| | |  Americas & Beyond 
Debate Over Meaning of Standoff in Ecuador
 Simon Romero - The Real News Network
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October 04, 2010
| | Ecuadorean soldiers stood guard at Independence Square in Quito on Sunday, days after an uprising by police officers during which the president was hurt. (Eitan Abramovich/Agence France-Presse) | |
Quito, Ecuador — The clock had struck 9 p.m. last Thursday. President Rafael Correa had been holed up on the third floor of the police hospital here for more than 10 hours after being assaulted by a clutch of rebellious police officers. Dozens still lurked near the entrance, quarreling with security forces that had arrived to free the president.
This Andean nation was on tenterhooks. It was time to act.
Amid the din of gunfire, an elite special operations squad entered the hospital, grasping M-16 assault rifles. Their voices crackled over Motorola radios. Arriving at Room 302, they put a helmet on Mr. Correa. Electricity in parts of the hospital went down. Using night-vision goggles, the soldiers guided him to his vehicle.
“God! An intense exchange of bullets is under way, I’m stuck in a bathroom,” Susana Morán, a reporter for the newspaper El Comercio, frantically wrote in a Twitter message shortly before 9 p.m. Her followers on Twitter climbed to more than 6,000 from 600 as she sent updates from inside the hospital.
By the time the rescue operation was over, five men had been shot dead: a policeman, two soldiers, a police officer escorting the president and a student who had showed up to support Mr. Correa. At least 38 people were wounded. The president’s armored Nissan sport utility vehicle showed bullet damage, including a shot to the windshield.
As dust settles from the episode, many here are still trying to make sense of what happened, including some who were at the scene of the standoff with the mutinous police and the ensuing firefight.
Debate rages over whether the uprising — which seemed to crystallize as a protest against a law that would reduce benefits, like year-end bonuses, for the security forces — was intended to oust Mr. Correa. Beyond that, some here are questioning whether Mr. Correa augmented the tension by wading into the protesting scrum and, at one point, challenging the officers to kill him. Regardless, his daring action seems to have bolstered his popularity.
In an interview here on Sunday, Doris Soliz, a top aide to Mr. Correa and his policy minister, said the uprising was “clearly a coup attempt.” Ms. Soliz said that intercepted communications from within the police force had indicated in recent weeks that destabilization efforts were being planned and that the protests offered the spark to put them in motion.
“We awoke with all the barracks taken over by the police and various airports in the country shut down,” she said.
“This was something that went beyond a mere protest over salaries into the realm of destabilizing the system and attempting to assassinate the president,” she added. “But it was the president’s unexpected move of going to the barracks and confronting them that thwarted this project.”
Others here beg to differ, pointing out that the high command of the armed forces did not break with Mr. Correa, even after top generals had suggested that he should consider revising the austerity law. “At no time did Correa lose control of the government, nor did anyone attempt to succeed him,” said César Montúfar, a prominent opposition legislator.
While Mr. Correa emerged politically strengthened, Ms. Soliz said the government would consider revising the austerity law. And despite the polarization that persists in the country, prominent opposition leaders like Jaime Nebot, the mayor of Guayaquil, supported the government as the chaotic events unfolded Thursday.
Still, the fog of that day’s events makes various interpretations possible. Gustavo Larrea, a former security minister under Mr. Correa, said the uprising could be called an attempted coup because those involved tried at one point to kill the president and “interrupt the rule of law.”
“But the president’s own temperament is partly responsible for this situation,” Mr. Larrea said. “Even after being gassed, he insisted on returning to the scene after his bodyguards had removed him. That error put our democracy at risk.”
Oscar Bonilla, an official in Mr. Correa’s government, accompanied the president throughout much of the day Thursday. The events included the confrontation that morning with the police officers, the president’s convalescing in the police hospital after being tear-gassed and pelted with water and the tense moments leading up to the rescue. Mr. Bonilla said that the belligerence of the rebellious policemen made a smooth exit impossible.
“Some of the police were drunk, and many were armed,” Mr. Bonilla said in an interview. “They prevented a helicopter from landing and quickly succeeded in blocking possible escape routes. We felt trapped inside the hospital and threatened by the men outside.”
What is more, police officers near the hospital grounds clashed with supporters of Mr. Correa who congregated nearby, beating some with batons and lobbing tear-gas canisters in their direction. At one point amid the chaos outside, the protesting police wounded Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño as he left the hospital until his head was bleeding.
As night descended on Quito, Mr. Correa and his aides weighed their options and decided on a rescue by special forces. Bullets were flying overhead, presumably from police sharpshooters, by the time the forces involved in the operation arrived at the hospital. News photographers captured images of rebellious police officers hiding amid trees.
Inside the hospital, doctors, nurses, patients and journalists lay on the floor, hoping to avoid getting shot. As Mr. Correa’s S.U.V. drove away, a volley of gunfire fell on the scene.
Television cameras captured the killing of Froilán Jiménez, 29, a uniformed member of the president’s security team who was shot as he trotted alongside the vehicle. It did not stop until it reached Carondolet Palace, where Mr. Correa delivered a resounding speech denouncing his critics.
But the bloodbath at the hospital was not over yet. Shots still rang out, according to an account by El Comercio. People outside the hospital heard shouting from the police, including “Kill the chuspangos,” a slang word used here to refer to military men, before the gunfire finally subsided.
In the days since the standoff, a sense of calm has prevailed on Quito’s streets, with soldiers enforcing a state of emergency. Lessons for Ecuador’s fragile democracy seem to be emerging, albeit haltingly.
The authorities arrested three police colonels in connection with the uprising. Then a judge ordered them freed on the condition they remain in the country and report to him every 15 days.
Others whose lives were upended pondered the reasons.
“My brother died while saving President Rafael Correa,” said Carlota Jiménez, the sister of Froilán, the president’s fallen guard. “He is a hero.”
Maggy Ayala Samaniego contributed reporting.
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