With a "hasta la victoria siempre", Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa culminated his impassioned speech at the Carondelet Palace (government headquarters) where he was received in the midst of cheers and applause from a sea of people, following an Army operation to rescue him from a kidnapping of more than 12 hours’ duration at the Metropolitano Hospital, as part of an attempted coup d’état led by police officers in revolt, according to a Telesur broadcast.
The head of state described this Thursday as "a day of profound sorrow", and admitted that he never imagined that he would experience such a situation after all the Citizens’ Revolution government had done for the poorest sectors and for the police.
In an act of immense dignity, the president called for a one-minute silence to be observed for the victims of the mayhem unleashed by opposition elements, and mentioned former President Lucio Gutiérrez as being one of the ringleaders.
The impassioned crowd chanted "Lucio murderer", in reference to the ex-president, currently leader of the right-wing opposition party Partido Sociedad Patriótica, who is considered to be the political force behind the conspiracy and the attempted coup d’état.
From his platform on a balcony at the government Carondelet Palace, the president thanked the Ecuadorian sectors of state who supported him, the international community – particularly the presidents of UNASUR meeting in Buenos Aires in order to support his government – and the people who valiantly went out onto the streets to demand his liberation, thanks to which the attempted coup failed.
"No one and nothing can stop the Citizens’ Revolution," Correa affirmed in the midst of an ambience of popular rejoicing, where the notes of the national anthem were later heard. Ecuadorian military units launched an armed operation to rescue President Rafael Correa from where he was being held kidnapped, surrounded by police officers in revolt. According to the Red Cross, two people died and 37 were injured in the incidents.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his support for the constitutional president of our sister, the Republic of Ecuador, and condemned, in the name of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA), this attack against the constitution and the people of Ecuador. Chavez called on the Ecuadoran military to “not allow them to massacre the Ecuadorian people” and to “rescue President Correa.”
“It’s a coup attempt against ALBA... the countries who have raised the banner of democracy... the [coup] masters... we know where they are, they are in Washington,” he conclude.
Cuba, the European Union, the general secretary of the United Nations, Mexico, France, and Bolivia also declared their support for the democratically-elected Ecuadoran government.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Friday called the police mutiny turned apparent coup attempt in Ecuador a day earlier an act of stupidity.
Russia Today contributor Wayne Madsen argued that the US, via the CIA and other agencies, is behind the coups in Latin America and that it is visible through the continually used CIA playbook. Madsen said that in Latin America gunboat diplomacy simply will not work and that the people of Latin America have wised up to what is going on.
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