Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa made a triumphant return to the presidential palace after loyalist troops rescued him from a police rebellion amid gunfire and street clashes that left at least two people dead.
The Red Cross said two police were killed and 37 people wounded in the operation late on Thursday that freed Correa from the National Police Hospital after 12 hours under siege by rebel police who he said wanted to kill him.
Hustled to safety by troops and an elite police special operations unit, Correa emerged on a balcony at the presidential palace to a hero’s welcome from cheering throngs of supporters.
“We will never negotiate anything under pressure,” Correa said, exultantly telling the crowd that he had told his captors: “I come out as the president of a worthy country or I come out as a corpse.”
South American heads of states yesterday denounced the police rebellion as an “attempted coup” and called for those behind it to be tried and punished.
The presidents “expressed the necessity of seeing those responsible for the attempted coup d’etat to be tried and convicted and reaffirmed support for the -constitutional government” of Ecuador, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said.
The presidents held an emergency meeting in Buenos Aires under the auspices of the South American Union, UNASUR, to show support for Correa.
The South American leaders “energetically condemned” the rebellion and said they were determined “not to tolerate any new assault against the institutional authority.”
Among those at the session were Presidents Alan Garcia of Peru, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Sebastian Pinera of Chile, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Jose Mujica of Paraguay and Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was unable to go because of elections to be held tomorrow.
The leaders sent their foreign ministers to Quito yesterday in a show of support for Correa and Ecuador’s democratic institutions.
Corea’s rescue capped a dramatic day of violence and confusion that began early on Thursday when police, angered over a law that would cut their bonus pay, rose up in rebellion and seized barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca.
Correa went to the police barracks to face down the mutineers, telling them he would not back down: “If you want to kill the president, he is here. Kill him if you want. Kill him if you can. Kill him if you are brave enough, instead of hiding in the crowd.”
However, tempers flared at the barracks, and the president had to leave when scuffles broke out and tear gas exploded near him. Overcome by the fumes, he was taken out by stretcher to the nearby hospital.
Once inside, though, Correa was unable to leave, surrounded by mutinous police as clashes broke out in the streets of the capital and rebels stormed the Congress and seized the main airport for several hours.
A loyal police special operations unit protected the president and kept the rebels out, Correa said after his rescue.
“If not for them, this horde of savages that wanted to kill, that wanted blood, would have entered the hospital to look for the president and I probably wouldn’t have been telling you this because I would have passed on to a better life,” he said.
With the president under siege, dozens of Correa supporters descended on the hospital, chanting, “Down with the coup, down with the enemies of the people.”
The Red Cross said 50 people were treated for injuries after clashes between the president’s supporters and the police, while an impassioned Correa vowed to keep course despite the protests.
“The president is governing the nation from the hospital,” Correa told local television by telephone during the siege, vowing not to negotiate, saying: “I’d rather die [than surrender].”
The government declared a state of emergency and ordered the military to restore order.
Correa, 47, a leftist ally of his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, charged that the rebellion was an attempted coup by elements of police and the military loyal to former president Lucio Gutierrez, a retired colonel who was overthrown in 2005.
Interviewed by CNN in Brazil, Gutierrez denied “the cowardly, false, reckless accusations of President Correa.” The chief of police, General Freddy Martinez, resigned, a spokesman said. And Correa vowed to purge the police force.
The White House expressed “full support” for Correa and called for a peaceful end to the crisis, while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged all sides to refrain from violence.
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