UPDATE: At approximately 9:20 pm Quito time, President Correa was rescued from the police hospital where he had been held prisoner for most of the day. Several hundred military troops entered the building by force and escorted him out of the hospital after a gun battle. He returned to the Presidential Palace where he was greeted by thousands of supporters, and denounced his political foes on the right for having infiltrated the police and organized an insurrection that “needlessly spilled Ecuadorian blood.”
As darkness falls on Ecuador’s capital city of Quito, the only police presence in the streets is that of a group of insubordinate officers who staged a national police strike today that shattered a recent relative political calm in this Andean nation. President Rafael Correa continues to be surrounded by the insurgent forces in a Quito hospital where he sought treatment for injuries sustained in a confrontation with the rebel officers in their barracks. According to Correa, who gave several interviews by radio, he will not negotiate any change in the law while he continues to be held against his will.
It was a roller coaster day marked by confusion and chaos. The nearly million and a half residents of Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, awoke this morning to learn that police forces had shut down the airport, while others refused to leave their barracks in protest over legislation passed last night that approved cuts to their benefits.
By mid morning, the police strike turned violent, with reports of aggression against journalists and the first civilians who took to the streets to denounce any break in the constitutional order, and what is being viewed as an attempted coup. Reports began trickling in from other provinces that a national police strike was under way, with other airports closed and police forces taking over public buildings and blocking streets. Ecuador has a history of relatively bloodless political upheaval, having had seen eight presidents in the last fourteen years, with three being ousted by popular indigenous and civil society uprisings. But insurrection by the national police against a democratically-elected president who not only completed his first term but was recently elected to a second – a political anomaly in recent Ecuador history – ignited a strong popular rebuke as well as concern from the international community.
With no security and the threat of the country falling into lawlessness, President Rafael Correa confronted the police outside of their barracks, where a physical altercation broke out. Police launched a tear gas attack, and Correa was carried away and put into an unmarked, civilian car in order to flee to safety. A Quito radio station reported that Correa was pursued by some 50 police cars as he was hurried to the nearest hospital to seek treatment for injuries sustained in the melee. In a live radio interview with Latin American broadcast network Telesur, Correa described efforts by the police to enter the hospital by force. He said, “If anything happens to me, I give my infinite love to my homeland.” While officials outside Ecuador have been reluctant to call this a coup attempt, Correa has accused his political foes on the right of coordinating with insubordinate police to mount a coup to oust him from the presidency and threaten his life.
Supporters of Correa and of Ecuador’s democratic process began taking to Quito’s plazas and streets, and marched to the hospital where Correa is currently trapped by surrounding rebel police forces. But according to reports, police violently repelled the marchers and blocked the streets leading to the hospital.
School children were sent home, workers were evacuated from factories and office buildings, and stores were closed. Banks were shuttered, though some too late, as robberies and looting has been reported throughout the country. At least one person has been reported killed, and some 51 others injured.
At 2 pm central time, the government declared a state of emergency, to last five days. The government has commanded the military to “restore order”, though they have yet to appear in Quito, and are also calling for a review of the controversial law that catalyzed today’s unrest. Ecuador’s congress was set to review the law at 5:30 pm this evening, but refused to meet under the current conditions. Meanwhile, the Organization of American States has called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, as has UNASUR, the Union of South American Nations. Ecuador’s neighboring countries have closed their borders, and many governments have publicly declared their support for President Correa, including the United States, Spain, Germany, and most Latin American countries. Bolivian President Evo Morales has urged all UNASUR presidents to travel to Ecuador in support of Correa.
CONAIE, the country’s powerful national indigenous federation which itself has toppled several governments, issued a press statement explaining that while they continue to oppose much of the government’s policies, they also reject today’s actions. CONAIE, declared its opposition to “the actions of the right which form part of an attempted coup against the state. We will continue to fight for the construction of a pluri-national state and a true democracy.” According to indigenous leader Delfin Tenesaca, “We have our differences with the government, but we do not support a dictatorship nor our arch enemies on the right.”
