Ecuador U-turn on controversial austerity law

[Zorro]

Source: BBC

A senior minister in the Ecuadorean government says parts of a law which provoked a police rebellion earlier this week will be rewritten.

Policy Minister Doris Soliz also told Reuters news agency President Rafael Correa would not now dissolve Congress.

President Correa had reportedly suggested he could rule by decree to push through his austerity measures.

The president said Thursday's unrest amounted to a coup attempt.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11460231

[COLGATE4]

1. Correa had a real scare. He understand that he is skating on

very thin ice and that he is going to have to pick his way through the process very carefully if he chooses to continue aping Chavez's policies. The odds are against him being successful - the Army may have backed him this time but there's no guarantee that they will continue to support him if large segments of the population rise up against these new austerity measures he's pushing.

[DCKit]

2. From what I heard, he was giving the average policman a raise...

After they've already seen their wages rise by over 3x since his election.

The brunt of "austerity" was being borne by the CEOs and Executives of the police force.

As far as I can tell, it was a failure to communicate.

[Cal Carpenter]

3. Frankly I find this whole situation very confusing

Granted, we come from a place where there are only ever two (somewhat artificial) options to any issue, no nuance. So I can't figure this out.

This is being presented as if it was some rank and file protest, but that was also maybe a terribly bungled right wing coup attempt, with the latest buzzword 'austerity' (meaning 'you people are fucked') thrown in for good measure, and I don't know what to make of it.

The rather complicated recent political history of Ecuador doesn't help. What would help is knowing what exactly was in that bill because I've seen several vaguely conflicting summaries in the last few days.

[EFerrari]

13. There's another, easier angle. In 2008, an internal report

concluded that the security forces in Ecuador had been infiltrated by U.S. intelligence and that personnel were taking money for information. I don't know what else that report said but remember that much.

Now, that isn't surprising. Apparently the individual that led the unrest in Haiti that helped topple Aristide trained in Quito on the police force. The US basically hired him to go to Haiti and help get Aristide out. That's one example of why the infiltration of the national police shouldn't be a surprise.

So, one thing this new bill did, iirc, is restructure the pay and benefits to the national police to regularize them, not cut them. This can be seen in other than economic terms as a professionalizing measure to continue to ween the national police from more incidental pay, including whatever they might be getting from "the American Embassy".

Whatever the bill actually says, you have to know there will be push back from us as Ecuador tries to re-secure the integrity of its own forces. That is what is really at stake here, imho.

Correa has been a marked man since he bucked the IMF, refused to release Manta to the Pentagon and threw in his lot with the ALBA countries. I'm surprised he's not dead, frankly.

[naaman fletcher]

17. actually

the alleged infiltration was of the narcotics police. but you knew that.

[Imajika]

23. Are you saying the US is behind the coup?

I can't tell from your post exactly.

[EFerrari]

25. The State Department is engaged in ongoing efforts

to get Correa out of power. Did they do this? I don't know. It would be surprising if CIA or State had nothing to do with it. Do I think they were involved? Of course.

[boppers]

28. My first response to: "Frankly I find this whole situation very confusing"...

Was to hope Judi Lynn or Eferrari got into the thread.... lo and behold, one of them was your first reply. :)

[EFerrari]

11. Not a failure to communicate but deliberate misinformation

to create turmoil.

State pours millions into Ecuador for the opposition. The case against Chevron is looking bad for Chevron. The mining interests are mad that they can't simply hollow out Ecuador. Correa has a big fat target on his back. In fact, out of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, he's the easiest pickings because Ecuador is a small place.

[PufPuf23]

14. Also new oil and gas contract basis

Internationals now get paid "production fees" but title to the energy resources remains with Ecuador government.

Loss of Manta FOL.

Friends with Chavez and Morales.

[EFerrari]

15. Exactly. All the people that I usually go to for analysis

take it for granted that capital and the State Department want Correa out yesterday.

[naaman fletcher]

18. do any of them have any evidence?

In Venezuela in 2002 there was plenty of evidence right away of US involvement. So far there is nothing here, or at least nothing that I have seen. Please share if you have anything.

[ShamelessHussy]

8. i think the old master had a bigger scare, their old policy of murder and coups no longer work

sucks to be them

[EFerrari]

10. Bullshit. HIs popularity is close to 70% and THE PEOPLE

went to his rescue hours before the army did.

[UTUSN]

4. bwah-HAH!1 "rewritten" and "rule by decree" -just, bwah-ha-HAH!1 n/t

[rabs]

5. BBC misinformation or sheer incompetence?

(From the BBC story)

A senior minister in the Ecuadorean government says parts of a law which provoked a police rebellion earlier this week will be rewritten.

(But note that nowhere in the story is the lede graf backed up.)

It is also incorrect. Here is what Policy Minister Doris Soliz told Reuters about the law (and which the BBC did NOT include.)

---------------
Soliz added the government planned to rewrite the austerity law to clarify it, rather than make any major changes.

----------------

"TO CLARIFY IT, RATHER THAN MAKE ANY MAJOR CHANGES"

------------------------

About the possibility of dissolving Congress, Doris Soliz told Reuters:

She did not rule out using decree powers if the Congress continued to block laws. "The option is there, it has no expiry date."

(Which the BBC story also omitted.)

So it is no wonder there is confusion. The BBC is contributing to it big time.

[Judi Lynn]

7. The first reports I saw right after the rough stuff started was that Rafael Correa told the cops

when he went to confront them, that it was clear none of them had even READ the law yet. That's about par for reactionaries, isn't it? React first, find out the truth much, much later. Who has time to get it right the first time?

As the old advice to tailors goes, "Measure twice, cut once."

It looks as if they were easily, deftly manipulated.

Very interesting information from the Policy Minister Solis, that the government intends "TO CLARIFY IT, RATHER THAN MAKE ANY MAJOR CHANGES."

Thank you for adding some of the obviously needed information for those of us who prefer to learn the truth.

[naaman fletcher]

19. to be clear..

When the cops started this "coup" as you call it, is it true that rather than going to find correa to kill him, it was in fact correa who went to them? The different stories seem to be conflicting.

[EFerrari]

12. I thinks it's purposeful by BBC.

I noticed it that very night.

[Turborama]

20. They have an editorial complaints procedure, if you have any proof from that night

Details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/

And here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/complaints_fr_work_ed_complaints.txt

[EFerrari]

22. I emailed them that night

Pointing out that their anchor asked repeatedly if Correa had any proof that Lucio Gutierrez was involved and how she and the three reporters she spoke to ignored the fact that the rioting police chanted his name outside the hospital and that his lawyer led the break in at TV Ecuador.

That last was a little weird because why would journalists ignore violence against other journalists?

[Turborama]

24. Good one

Please pass on what excuse they come back to you with, I'd be really interested to hear what they've got to say for themselves regarding that obvious slackness of journalistic integrity.

[Turborama]

21. Good catch! You can send in a complaint and they have to respond

Details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/

And here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/complaints_fr_work_ed_complaints.txt

[girl gone mad]

6. This is why police must always be payed well.

If they aren't invested in the status quo, what reason do they have to defend it?

[EFerrari]

9. Under Correa their pay went from $150 to $600 or so per month.

They have no real beef with him.

[naaman fletcher]

16. Do you have a source for that?

I have seen it written quite a bunch, but googling yields nothing one way or the other.

[Judi Lynn]

27. If you simply slow down and read the links people post with their communications with

other literate DU'ers, you would have gotten those links, and read the information for yourself already in the last few days.

Don't ask people to drop everything and go back to locate material they already posted days ago. It's YOUR job to read for yourself, not have people post things several times to make sure you see it.

Take the same initiative and responsibility the rest of us do, or start doing your homework.

[naaman fletcher]

29. ill take that as a no.

you posted some video by some dude who said that, but i have seen no good source.

[Judi Lynn]

34. You saw no good source because you don't read the links. Period.

You're probably going to find fewer and fewer people answering your posts as time goes by, since clearly you intend to claim they are lying if they don't drop everything and go look up links, and most of us don't have unlimited time to #### around doing other people's work for them.

There are other links already available, and your reference to one video I posted doesn't begin to cover what has already been offered right here on the subject.

A strike against democracy

Sep 30th 2010, 23:43 by S.K. | QUITO

~snip~
Mr Correa has antagonised many powerful groups during his presidency, but the police have fared fairly well. In a bid to reduce corruption, he increased their salaries from $700 a month to $1,200. He has also bought them new equipment, including Austrian-made Glock pistols. Nonetheless, the overall increase in government spending led some officers to fear that Mr Correa would use their pensions to fund infrastructure investments. On Wednesday night, he used a line-item veto to change a civil-service law that had been passed by Congress, which had the effect of changing the accounting regime for police officers' bonuses. Although his ministers said that the new policy would not harm officers' benefit packages, they still went on strike in response.

More:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/09/ecuadors_striking_police

[naaman fletcher]

37. its not all that controversial

to ask people to cite sources for numbers. Check out any message board at the internet. It's only a problem for you.

[Judi Lynn]

38. So you've been provided with a link. There have been others posted here earlier.

You should have been able to read them, or, god fobid, do some reading on your own, as the rest of us do.

[Judi Lynn]

26. And another raise was part of the last deal, as well. From the Miami Herald,

such as it is, as a right-wing pandering wreck of a newspaper:

The Ecuadorean National Assembly Wednesday passed a civil service law that raised salaries but eliminated bonuses. Police were so ill-informed about it that hundreds protested in the streets and walked off the job, closing two international airports.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/01/1853257/ecuadors-leader-finds-new-strength.html?asset_id=1852112&asset_type=gallery

[rabs]

30. Law calls for allocating 320 million dollars to modernize National Police

Spotted this story in Spanish last night. It details what the new law will do to help the rank-and-file police. I have not seen any English-language MSM publish this. (caps, translation mine)


This paragraph is especially relevant:

El Plan Estratégico contempla la racionalización de los pases en procura de que los uniformados permanecen en sus lugares de origen, un sistema justo de remuneraciones y la modernización de los servicios sociales en beneficio del personal policial.

-- The Strategic Plan contemplates ... transfers so that the (police) can stay in the places of origin, A JUST SYSTEM OF SALARIES, and modernization of social services to benefit police personnel.

-----------------------

http://andes.info.ec/actualidad/320-millones-asigno-el-gobierno-para-el-mejoramiento-logistico-y-tecnologico-de-la-policia-32054.html

----------------

ah ha, the Spanish story has a translation function at the bottom.

$ 320 million allocated by the Government to the logistical and technological upgrading of the Police
by ALPS / AR '15:34 - October 2, 2010

QUITO.- Ensure the provision of financial resources, logistics and technology for the National Police to carry out its mission of protecting citizens in the fight against crime, contemplates the Strategic Plan for the Modernization and Integral Transformation (2010-2014).

The Government allocated $ 320 million, according to Interior Ministry data. In 2007, 114 policemen were killed by lack of protection. And, only 9,000 of the 38,000 soldiers had bulletproof vests operational and had only 19,000 weapons, according difudió official newspaper The Citizen.

After three years, the Government has delivered 30,610 pistols, 27,022 bulletproof vests, 30,610 Glock pistols, 2,035 motorcycles and 70 Cuadrón. Also included vehicles, helmets, shields and communication equipment.

"While crime is organized and technologically advanced ... the police had neither the most basic tools of defense, but now the situation is different and this allows us to counteract the insecurity," said Interior Minister Gustavo Jalkh.

Besides investing in equipment and infrastructure (40 Mobile Units Citizen, 1,461 patrols and 6 mobile units of Criminology), the Government allocated $ 10 million FOR A PROJECT OF 2,500 (housing) UNITS FOR THE POLICE.

[Judi Lynn]

31. Interesting paper which has its own multi-lingual translation tool. Cool!

According to that article, the government gave these adjustments for police a LOT of thought, bringing absolutely essential changes over a broad area. Too bad the idiots didn't take the time to look into it more deeply. So sad when people look superficially, or take the word for it from other people who have a superficial, or erronious grasp themselves, isn't it?

Thanks for that link. Looks like a good one for English speakers to check whenever they think of it!

[Judi Lynn]

33. Here's something from a blogger which says opposition & media spread disinformation on the new law

Ecuador: Bloggers Try to Make Sense of Chaos Caused by Police Strike
Posted 3 October 2010

Now I also remember that many politicians from the opposition printed papers with misrepresentations of the law to be distributed among members of the police troops. Why are they not convicted for spreading incendiary information? ..Why are the MDG-PSC Assembly members and others requesting amnesty for these criminals? …. to blame Correa and complain about the intrusion of TV channels and forget the role of criminal assembly members and irresponsible police is simply unfair.

Blogger Juan Cabrito wrote:

Have you forgotten when doctors (yes the physicians!) paralyzed hospital attention to protest about their unpaid wages? Have you forgotten about the delay to start classes because of the strike by unpaid teachers? Let me stress the word UNPAID. Today THOSE THINGS DON'T HAPPEN ANYMORE, but idiotic people forget. And they didn't care that this time it wasn't a protest because of nonpayment, but to add extra money to their salary, that salary that they not only receive as they should, but that was also increased.

More:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/10/03/ecuador-bloggers-try-to-make-sense-of-chaos-caused-by-police-strike/

~~~~~
Here's something which gives a clear picture, hopefully, of the police salary situation:

A strike against democracy

Sep 30th 2010, 23:43 by S.K. | QUITO

~snip~
Mr Correa has antagonised many powerful groups during his presidency, but the police have fared fairly well. In a bid to reduce corruption, he increased their salaries from $700 a month to $1,200. He has also bought them new equipment, including Austrian-made Glock pistols. Nonetheless, the overall increase in government spending led some officers to fear that Mr Correa would use their pensions to fund infrastructure investments. On Wednesday night, he used a line-item veto to change a civil-service law that had been passed by Congress, which had the effect of changing the accounting regime for police officers' bonuses. Although his ministers said that the new policy would not harm officers' benefit packages, they still went on strike in response.

More:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/09/ecuadors_striking_police

As I understand it, they have had at least two different pay raises since he took office in 2007, and were making around $150.00 per month when he came into office.

Other sources available say this law "streamlines" the process, incorporates the bonuses WITH their salaries, so there isn't a lot of additional work involved in keeping additional records and all the crappola involved in the old way of accounting.

Once they figure this out they are going to realize they were WILDLY off base.

[Judi Lynn]

35. Nope, they don't have any beef with the elected President.

Here's a statement from the government published last Thursday night for the world to see:

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PRESIDENCY OF ECUADOR ON THE CURRENT SITUATION
Thursday, September 30th, 2010

FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR TO THE WORLD:

In light of the current attempt to destabilize democracy in Ecuador through the illegal actions of elements of the police force, the international community should know that:

Today, a group of police officers decided to violate the constitution and the law through an act of mutiny with the excuse of rejecting the approval by the National Assembly of a new law regulating the public sector. This illegal action, pushed by groups seeking the rupture of democratic order, has as its end goal the disruption of a historical process of political, economic and social change supported by the vast majority of Ecuadorian citizens.

The struggle of the Ecuadorian Government to create a revolutionary citizens movement transcends the national arena and is based on universal principles of democracy and the dedication to the equality and sovereignty of all people. The government’s commitment to these principles has been made manifest through social policiesrepresenting unprecedented milestones in the history of this country:

1. More than US$6 billion invested to ensure free, high-quality public health care.
2. The defense of labor rights, including the elimination of all forms of worker exploitation and an increase in salaries to provide a fair, living wage for all Ecuadorians (including the police force, whose salaries doubled under this administration).
3. More than US$5.6 billion in credit for private enterprise development, with an emphasis on small and medium-sized businesses.
4. More than 200,000 families benefiting from housing subsidies.

More:
http://www.ecuador.org/blog/?cat=8

[Judi Lynn]

36. Their salaries are mentioned on an interview on Democracy Now,

which you posted on the Democracy Now link, in the Latin America forum, by Miguel Tinker Salas, Professor of Latin American history at Pomona College.

I have a feeling his numbers are the literal trade across numbers to US currency, but they don't reflect the buying power of that amount in Ecuador, which would be far greater. I'm sure that's the difference in two sets of numbers we've seen!

Here's the same interview from Democracy Now, carried at another site:

Ecuador Declares State of Emergency as President Correa Escapes Attack from Rogue Armed Forces
Publicado en octubre 01st, 2010 en Ecuador, English

~snip~
Miguel Tinker Salas:

MIGUEL TINKER SALAS: Good morning.

I think that for many of us who were following the events yesterday, they were eerily familiar. That is, by the morning, it was clear that the police were rebelling, that they had been manipulated. In fact, their salaries have increased from $150 now to $650 a month. Their bonuses was an effort to streamline the public service salaries. It wasn’t a question of austerity measures. In fact, they were being actually regularized across the entire board for everybody, so there wouldn’t be simply a privileged class. And what began as, seemingly, at first, as a police revolt—very well organized, establishing in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, was later joined by the Air Force, young Air Force individuals who stormed the Mariscal de Sucre Airport, taking the runway—eventually merged and began to look like—increasingly like a coup. So it looked very much like Honduras.

More:
http://www.macondoonline.com/?p=1635

[sabrina 1]

32. Sounds like some 'agents provocateurs' were busy

riling up the police to start a riot by giving them wrong information about their pay. Easy for infiltrators to do.

I hope they catch the traitors (assuming they were from Ecuador and not some our CIA guys) who were seen assaulting Correa in the video clips. Hopefully those pictures can enhanced enough to identify them.

It seems the old CIA method of affecting Coup D'Etats in South America are failing. The people have a taste of real Democracy and in both Venezuela and now Ecuador, came out and restored their elected Presidents to power.

I am so glad it failed. I hope he has trustworthy people around him and lots of security. He's going to need it, or become a puppet of the U.S. and hand over Ecuador's resources to Multi Nationals.