Wow. Was today exciting or what?

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Sabina Becker

correa-gasmask.jpg

Even in a gasmask, yowza.

Holy fucking moly. Just when I thought nothing was going on in the world, a fascist coup decided to go down (and fuck up) in Ecuador. The federal police took the president prisoner in the military hospital where he’d recently had knee surgery, and tear-gassed rioting ensued. So far, the Red Cross reports two dead (both police) and 88 injured. (Sadly, we can expect these tolls to rise.)

President Correa finally made it out of the hospital, with the help of a hefty contingent of loyal soldiers and citizens who fought it out barrel-to-barrel with the police in an intense firefight; he was spirited out from an underground parking garage in a grey truck. His rescuers pulled him out in a wheelchair with a gasmask on his face to protect him against the tear gas which the cops were shooting with no regard for the other patients at the hospital (including at least 20 newborn babies, so’s you know. Yeah, those fascists value human life so much!)

I ended up spending the night hunched over a hot (and often balky) tweeter, RTing and translating headlines from Spanish to English. And biting my nails for President Correa, and vowing to kill anyone who harmed one hair on that fine head of his. And cursing the crappy reporting from all the Anglo sources, including the usual shitty suspects (Chicken Noodle Network; the fucking Torygraph, with its creative use of quotation marks) and the otherwise excellent (Al-Jazeera, HOW COULD YOU?) They all wrongly reported that Correa had cut police salaries; in fact, he has doubled them. And there is ample evidence that the CIA was behind this one, too…where is it ever not?

Anyhow, other than my own frenetic tweetlings, there was Otto, keeping score here, here, here and here. He was awesome in his own right, and I was thankful he was still tweeting when my birdie temporarily lost its cheep.

And how about those UNASUR leaders? In spite of tremendous political differences, they were unanimous in condemning the coup. They are meeting in Buenos Aires as I write this. Chavecito was first and loudest in condemning the coup; Fidel predicted it would fall apart quickly, and it did. Evo even suggested, in a ballsy move, that they all fly to Quito to make clear to the police that Correa was to be freed at once, no fucking around. (Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly love those guys any more than I already did. That’ll teach me.)

Needless to say, tomorrow’s FLFB entry is all sewn up, and I won’t be left scrounging for material as I’d feared I might. If anything, I’ll have a surplus. Can you guess what I’ll be blogging, kiddies? (Hint: Diabetics, please have your insulin syringes handy. You’re gonna need ’em.)

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8 Responses to Wow. Was today exciting or what?

  1. Mitchel Cohen says:
    October 1, 2010 at 7:14 AM

    Great Comments, THANK YOU!

  2. Slave Revolt says:
    October 1, 2010 at 1:50 PM

    This was too sweet!
    That said, my heart goes out to the forces loyal to the government, the dead and the injured.
    Yes, Bina, you will never see balanced and edifying reportage in the capitalist media. Just won’t happen. Like expecting a child molester to reform.
    Correa will come out of this event strengthened considerably. This is the chance to take notes as to who supported the coup.
    I have no doubt that Obama and the evil empire were hoping for the right wing oligarchy to take over.
    Last night I watched Correa’s speech at the presidential palace. The crowds were invigorated.
    Indeed, I think Correa is positioned to be a major voice for sanity and justice in the coming years.
    Correa has guts–and so do the Ecuadorean people that rallied to counter this coup.
    Hasta la victoria siempre! (Correa’s parting salvo to his supporters last night.)
    Too eff’ing sweet. After the tragic and ongoing repression in Honduras, the Latin American left needed this type of victory.
    Come out swinging people.

  3. Jim Hadstate says:
    October 1, 2010 at 2:31 PM

    Wow! That came out of the blue! I guess the CIA and the State Department are still fighting the Cold War. Someone ought to tell them that the USSR has fallen apart which is why the world has all those —stan countries. Well, leave it to the CIA to be 20 years behind on everything.
    Hillary the Frump and Barack the Beatified better start getting a handle on some of this shit trickling out of the State Department, the Pentagon and Dept. of Home. Shenanigans or they will be as hated as Nixon, Reagan and both Bush 1 and Bush 2.
    How much you wanna bet that they fascists behind this were graduates of our own SOA in good old Fort Benning, Georgia, US of A? A big part of the curriculum is how to destabilize a democratically elected government if it gets to anti-neoliberal capitalist.

  4. Paul Escobar VeeeeATCH! says:
    October 1, 2010 at 4:24 PM

    Missed the fucking rescue.
    I got home around 11:00 pm, and didn’t see shit about it on CBC or CTV.
    Fucking Peter Mansbridge talking about his last prostate exam, and maybe some clips here and there.
    Lucky I shelled out that extra two bucks for Al-Jeezy Engly every month, or I wouldn’t have even gotten the highlight reel.
    Gotta see if Rogers cable has Telesur or something.

  5. Slave Revolt says:
    October 1, 2010 at 5:35 PM

    Roger, check out aporrea.

  6. Manaat says:
    October 2, 2010 at 3:07 AM

    Paul: I left some linkies on Otto’s “I am tweeting tonight” post. The rescue, and Correa’s speech. (43 mins. and 30 mins. respectively)

  7. Luis Cayetano says:
    October 3, 2010 at 8:04 AM

    Hi Sabina. You said that Correa had actually doubled police pay. Obviously, something different has been said, as you mentioned, in much of the media. Here is the Sydney Morning Herald: “Mr Correa was greeted by cheering crowds and cries of “Viva Ecuador” outside the presidential palace after security forces whisked him out of a Quito hospital that police demonstrating against wage cuts had laid siege to.” All the outlets I’ve read so far, including the progressive Upside Down World, claim that the rebel police were protesting at pay cuts.
    Just what the fuck is going on down there?

  8. Paul Escobar VeeeeeATCH! says:
    October 3, 2010 at 10:06 PM

    Slave Revolt & Utpal,
    Hey homies, sorry for the confusion. I should have written more clearly.
    I know about all that stuff.
    But I was actually bitching about not being able to watch the spectacle on a TV (the way you’re meant to experience coups).
    Had to watch shitty streams on my shitty little laptop.
    P.S.
    “Rogers” is actually the cable provider here in Ontario, not my name.
    And I called, they don’t offer Telesur nor do they expect to.
    Life behind the iron curtain…

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