A coup d'état in Ecuador?

The following is my guestblog for TVO's The Agenda. The article originally appeared here, but I've also posted it here. Read on for more:

The news of the attack on President Rafael Correa by protesting police in Quito last Thursday came as a surprise to the international community. Like most countries left out of the elite G20, most of the national politics and news in Ecuador go completely unnoticed in North America until something boils over. Sometimes, it’s only when we have a personal connection to world news that we want to find out more. In my case, I have family and friends in Ecuador. Though I was born in Toronto, my father was born in Ecuador and lives there now. I knew there would be several perspectives circulating amongst media sources and my friends and family in Quito. The first news I heard was reports of President Correa being rushed to hospital after he was tear-gassed by police protestors. The attack came after he yelled to them “If you want to kill me, kill me,” according to an article by Eduardo Tomayo G. on Vancouver.MediaCoop.ca. BBC journalist Irene Caselli wrote it was the lower ranks of police and military rebelling against Correa's presidency. Under a new law it would take seven instead of five years for a policeman or woman to get a promotion. However, government ministers pointed out that during Correa's presidency, salaries for police increased from around US$700 to US$1200 a month. Despite the improvement overall, police want to maintain their additional benefits. According to Caselli's report, the protests on September 30th occurred after growing controversy over civil service laws that Correa proposed many months ago. The initial deadline to pass the laws was mid-October 2009 but it was repeatedly pushed back because Correa lacked a majority within his assembly and even within his own party, Alianza Pais. “Earlier this week Mr Correa was, according to the local press, considering the possibility of dissolving the assembly and ruling by decree until new elections because of the deadlock,” writes Caselli. “This move would have to be approved by the Constitutional Court first, and this seems more likely after Thursday's events.” There are many opinions about whether escalating violence against Correa was actually a failed coup d'etat, as President Correa has claimed. The questions of whether a coup had been planned and whether Correa is manipulating a volatile situation in order to gain more control are being hotly debated. I found a range of opinions from family and friends in Quito. Jose Unda, a visual artist and my dad, was at his home in a small town outside of Quito yesterday when the protests started. He is adamant that Correa’s version of the events is correct: there was an attempt at a coup and that former President Lucio Gutierrez, who is supported in the assembly by the Patriotic Society Party, was likely involved. According to the BBC, Gutierrez denied the accusation by Correa, although it is noted that Gutierrez was prominent in an uprising in 2000 that brought down then-President Jamil Mahuad. Meanwhile Guitierrez himself was ousted by massive protests in 2005. Back in 1995 former Vice-President Alberto Dahik Garzozzi was charged with embezzlement. As history reveals, Ecuador is not immune to corruption and popular uprisings that get rid of presidents. Some people are concerned about what kind of power Correa will exert after the events of September 30, 2010. Daniel Fernando, my cousin who is studying journalism in Ecuador said, “What happened yesterday was a big problem, but it was also bad for people like me who don't like the president. … Now our president is kind of like a victim and he will have more power than he had one day before.” Carmen Carreño Ossa, an artist in Quito, said she does not agree with Correa's twentieth century socialism, but believes that the police protesting violently was not the way to move forward. “Besides we already have enough security problems every day and now that we have problems with police it means that we are totally unprotected,” she said. She emphasized that she doesn't like the polarizing division between left and right ideologies that often come up when discussing politics. “We just need to solve our problems and forget about political names,” she said. “We do not need to change presidents every time we have problems because that means we are very unstable and immature. … Violence is never a good solution. Never, even if we do not agree with his ideology.” Melinda Maldonado, a Toronto-based freelance journalist and Spanish-English interpreter, also with family in Ecuador, said she had been in contact with relatives. Maldonado said Ecuadorians were already disappointed in the country’s police. “Expectations of corruption run rampant in a country where when you're stopped for something minor you can say, 'how can we work this out?' and pay your way out,” she said. The majority of people in Ecuador want to respect democracy while maintaining a right to protest and the ability to go about change in a transparent way. But in a country that is often polarized along political lines with serious policy issues and people's livelihoods at stake, all we can do is work toward calm negotiations and greater social justice.