masacre en quito Ecuador

by - Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:31

the report :-
massacre in progress in Ecuador
by Indy - Indymedia ecuador Wednesday, Apr 20 2005, 7:44am
international / rights and freedoms / news report
journalist dead, an imc-er wounded
130 suffocated, 116 wounded, including pregnant women, elderly, babes in arms, physically handicapped
it was a peaceful demonstration.
the authorities are going at it hammer and tongs with tear gases, dogs and firearms at a crowd in a park who can not disperse-
this protest (of all ages) was a peaceful protest against the corrupt government of Lucio Gutiérrez.
this government doesn't stop to stain its hands with blood and now is not only corrupt but murderous.

The denouncement:-

Gutiérrez and all co-responsibles for Eyerbe, (Prime Minister), police and military for protecting a murderer. for firing on an unarmed and peaceful crowd- long list.

they decry the amount of wounded and suffocated amongst them a child of 2 years of age.

they denounce infitration of violent "agent provacateurs"

they denounce the TV for not broadcasting the true facts.

They are asking "SOLICITAMOS"
that the channels of alternative media,
transmit this news item, and offer solidarity to the ecuadorian people and demonstrate,
and communicate to the People (ecuadorian and ye) the truth which is being stopped by the state / commercial TV in Ecuador.

*^***********************
which is what we do.

by - Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:44

Ecuador has been in a state of emergency since last saturday when the president and his government suspended the state of law.
the people have been protesting.
its very ugly.

The dead Chilean photographer who has died from a heart attack after the teargas attack by security forces who by all non-ecuadorian accounts are presently marauding through the cities of Quito and the capital was
Julio Augusto García Romero.

He had been in Ecaudor for several years in exile from the dictatorship in Chile according to the Franciscan provincial superior Walter Heras.
http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/fotografo_ecuador_muerto_llego_huyendo_257640.htm

http://www.lanacion.com.py/noticias/2005/04/20/mundo/102880.html

Info from US and australian sources on the tear gas attack-
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=686262
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=109906®ion=4
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs20.1apr20,1,3022911.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

guardian report-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1463674,00.html

Reuters feed syndicated & translated by swissinfo-

Ecuadorean police fired tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters marching on the presidential palace on Tuesday night to demand the resignation of President Lucio Gutierrez.

A 70-year-old man died of a heart attack after being gassed, the first death in a week of protests against Gutierrez' for stacking the Supreme Court with political allies last December.

Police fired the gas just blocks from the palace in colonial downtown Quito to break up the crowd shouting "Lucio out!" to demand Gutierrez quit for interfering with the court.

Demonstrators, who had been peaceful, responded to the gas by throwing stones at police.

The president, a former army colonel turned politician once briefly jailed for a coup attempt, has refused to quit.

The protests, which flared earlier in April after the court threw out corruption charges against former president Abdala Bucaram, a key Gutierrez ally, have awakened memories of unrest which led to the overthrow of two presidents since 1997.

A Red Cross spokesman identified the dead man as Julio Augusto Garcia, whom hospital officials said was a Chilean news photographer covering Ecuador's political crisis.

He died of a cardiac arrest while he was being taken to a Red Cross unit for treatment for gas inhalation, Red Cross and hospital officials said.

Hours earlier, a smaller group of native Indians marched through central Quito in support of the embattled president.

The president and the opposition each accuse the other of trying to take control of the judiciary to persecute their enemies.

Congress fired the Supreme Court on Sunday, just four months after pro-Gutierrez legislators stacked it with allies.

The opposition accuses the president of acting like a dictator and says it wants to impeach him in Congress and oust him from office for meddling with the courts.
****************************

the protests are spreading to other cities.
including Guayaquil.

quito ecuador

by -benedict lachrymae xvi Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:57

here's a local radio stream / news site-
http://www.radiolaluna.com/
"neustro estilo no es el silencio"
=
"silence aint our our style"

here's the indymedia org stuff - (english translation under spanish text)
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/04/822012.shtml

indymedia ecuador on thier dictatorship
http://ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2005/04/8911.shtml

here's another radio stream.-
http://www.ecuadirectorio.info

by - Wed Apr 20, 2005 21:38

general Jorge Poveda, the Ecuadorian police chief has resigned.
In his press conference he said "I am not a man of violence", he has insisted on the need to seek conciliation instead of confrontation (in reference to the attack by the forces he heads last night) on the people "to whom I belong" [his words].
"i resign with a clear conscience" he confirmed and has ruled out a return to the post. " i have always struggled stoically in the interests of my institution and my people".

The post has been temporarily filled by general Marco Cubero under the orders of the beleagured president, Lucio Gutiérrez, who sources indicated then intends to appoint his cousin general Marcelo Vega Gutiérrez to the vacant position.

Independent and international observers have commented that such action by a senior police officer in South America (or anywhere) is stunningly un-unusual or "an act without precedent".

International human rights groups and oppostion political groups have confirmed the "exaggerated" use of tear gas in the protests which have now lasted 6 days.

source peru-
http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/EdicionOnline/Html/2005-04-20/onlPortada0293139.html
source ecuador
http://www.elcomercio.com/noticias.asp?noid=125784

more updates later.

by habemus papa Wed Apr 20, 2005 21:56

he Ecuadorian Congress has voted to sack the president, Lucio Gutierrez, amid growing protests sparked by his attempts to overhaul the Supreme Court.

In a motion accusing Mr Gutierrez of "abandoning his post", Congress members voted 62-0 to replace him with Vice-President Alfredo Palacio.

report just in :-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4466697.stm

by - Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:19

and is now in the Brazil diplomatic legation where he has been given political asylum.

3 people have died in the protest to oust his regime.

a chilean (mentioned above)
a woman who was crushed when a bus was overturned by a police riot van (according to the red cross)
a youth who fell from an upper storey window when the social security building was set on fire.

The situation is now reported to be calmer with many protesters returning to their homes.

The new president Alfredo Palacio was sworn in at the (CIESPAL) building (centre for higher studies in communication of south america) in a televised and web cast press conference, in an attempt to re-inforce calm.

Not withstanding, a group of protesters chanting "que se vayan todos!" (that they all go/ fuck off / resign) gathered at both that building and stayed at the presidential palace and the brazilian embassy compound.

For his part, a former president Abdalá Bucaram who had been in Panama for 8 years in exile was reported by his fellow party member Emilio Espinoza of the Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano (PRE), to have returned yet again to Panama. Espinoza assured press that the deposed former dictator had returned to Panama, in fear of the recent attempt to put him to trial for corruption.
He had arrived in Ecuador on the 2nd of April and had stayed only 18 days. During which time the old can of corruption worms and "caudillo / dictator" candidate games were played.

No explanation of his flight into exile again has been offered, but his house was searched and found empty.

The vice-minister of social affairs Bolívar González, also saw his house searched by the authorities, he's wanted for corruption charges and as one with prime responsibility for the deplacements of thousands of indiginous persons from the centre of the country to participate in the recent demonstrations. [there have been large numbers of opposing demonstrators on the street, and the presence of the indiginous groups has swayed the security forces. Note the resignation yesterday of the police chief in the comments above].

The new president Palacio has said he will govern with the constitution, and in the communal interests of the parties and social assemblies.
And will not be manipulated by anyone. It remains to be seen though, with opposing factions who are "thought to be" capable of moving ex-dictators around by helicopter, and mobilising protesters, how peace and justice may be delivered promptly to the Ecuadorian peoples, urban poor of the cities or indiginous groups of the interior.
It will have something to do with "truth", "honesty", "food" surely.

**************************************

The mobilisation of the World's Medias organisations and networks has undoubtedly played a role in Ecuador's history these last few days. This is what we were asked to do in the article above. We play our part by watching, by listening, by copying info, noting the background noise and responding. In such a way the internet links peoples across the world. From at least this "contributor" "writer/translator" of this "collective" I wish our brothers and sisters in Ecuador "indymedia" and their "peers" peace and solidarity.

= You do not walk alone now.

Today's Ecuadorian daily's editorial comment on the "real time" reporting / diffusion of the crises as it turned through internet -
http://www.elcomercio.com/noticias.asp?noid=125865

at 13:55 local time 18:49 GMT the presentation of the previous comment on the BBC world site was just one example of the new awareness amongst cyber-journalists of their role in real time "newswire" response. We are coming to realise the potential of our "web pages" are to be more valued than the pulp paper or tv the commercial organisations we may work for- produce. And the "horizontal relationship" between the open content and copyleft cyber media organs and the commercial organisations is now a good one.

last link to Ecuadorian indymedia "our peers'" overview (in spanish).
http://uruguay.indymedia.org/archives/display_by_id.php?feature_id=835

they say they want food. & peace. & friends - we can give you our friendship.

by - Sat Apr 23, 2005 15:31

As protesters continue to surround the embassy compound in Quito, thus not allowing his "safe passage" to Brazil.
Bolivia and Peru also offered diplomatic assistance yesterday as the ousted president began to make declarations that the new government is illegal.
He's shut up a little since then.
This is a magnificent opportunity for Michael Mcdowell to prove to the world, the non bias of his asylum polices, if you think Michael should send some gardaí over to clear safe passage for Lucio out of the embassy and offer him a home in Ireland (well out of potential for a quick dictator's return helicopter trip) write him a postcard.
que se vayan todos!
sort of means that they all fuck off, not that they get limosine treatment to another state. So remember tell Michael _no limosine treatment_ on your postcard.
Let this asylum seeker be treated like any other.
Meanwhile the german pontiff benedict xvi has said nothing of these events, because though they happened in latin america, they son't actually speak that language there.