Explaining away a failed coup

[Hannah Bell]

IT IS not difficult to see that the events of September 3 in the Latin American country of Ecuador amounted to an attempted right-wing coup d'état.<1>

Mass mobilizations in the streets and plazas of Quito (the capital) and other cities--in conjunction with action by sections of the armed forces which stayed loyal to the government--stopped the coup before the day was out. But those few hours highlighted, again, the deep dangers facing those fighting for progressive change in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Remarkably, the first task is to reassert that in fact a coup attempt took place. In the wake of the failure of the coup, commentator after commentator was trying to minimize what happened. Peruvian "libertarian" Álvaro Vargas Llosa--darling of the World Economic Forum and outspoken critic of Che Guevara and the current governments of Bolivia and Venezuela--insists that it was not a coup, just an "ill-advised, violent protest by the police against a law that cut their benefits."<2>

WHEN THE democratically elected president of a country is attacked, injured and confined against his will; when police take over towns and sections of the air force take over and close the country's major airport; when pro-business political figures try to storm the national television statement--that is called an attempted coup d'état. If it were to happen in Ottawa, Washington or London, there would be no dispute...

http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/08/explaining-away-a-failed-coup

[rpannier]

1. Thanks for sharing

Interesting article

[laughingliberal]

2. A bright spot to see some of these coups are now failing. There was a time they were universally...

successful.