To Top
Chaos erupted in Ecuador yesterday as members of the police and military protested budget cuts proposed by the government. 150 troops occupied Quito (Ecuador’s capital) airport to contest the move made by Congress, but it was when President Correa became involved that things truly got ugly. At an address to the disgruntled police and troops outside the Presidential Palace, a volley of tear gas canisters were fired at the President’s entourage, and members of the police were caught on video attempting to assault him. Clearly struggling to breathe from behind his gas mask, the President was bundled from the scene to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for tear gas inhalation. He immediately responded to what many have commented on as the early tremors of a coup attempt:
PRES. RAFAEL CORREA (VOICEOVER TRANSLATION): If you want to kill the president, here I am. Kill me. Kill me if you’re not happy. Kill me if you’re brave. But we will continue with one policy, one of justice, dignity, and we will not take one step backwards.
Thankfully, Ecuador didn’t follow Honduras’s lead (for more on the 2010 military coup that ousted President Zelaya, visit the Honduras page) as one of the top military chiefs has come out in defense of Correa. Let’s hope he doesn’t go the same way as Chilean Army Chief of Staff Rene Schneider, who was murdered in a bungled kidnapping attempt co-sponsored by the CIA for standing behind Chilean President Salvador Allende. His death led the way for Augusto Pinochet to take the reins and lead the now infamous coup that plunged Chile into a military dictatorship. To read that story in comics form, click here. For an interesting debate on the US’s level of involvement, read this post from Foreign Affairs.
Courtesy of SOAW (School of the Americas Watch):
In his radio address the President did talk about this being a Coup attempt lead by the Police, Military close to an ex-President, but also by the Opposition and the ex-President Lucio Gutierrez. He stated that there is an attempt to destabilize the democratic citizen revolution that has happened in Ecuador. At this moment, the pro-democracy movement is gathering in the thousands in the capital but in all the plazas across the country. There are also people marching to the hospital to protect the President.
For more on the story, check out Narco News’s coverage here.
The last page of the prologue seals the perhaps predictable fate of Rene Schneider as part of a botched kidnapping attempt. Almost 40 years later there is a case still pending as Schneider’s family attempt to bring Kissinger to justice for his part in Schneider’s murder. Review the court documents here or find a more comprehensive overview here.
Many thanks to Adam Johnson for the pointer about spent Uzi rounds (and everything else!) and a hearty morale-boosting salute to the Stanford Graphic Novel Project Team, who are sweating away on their congolese graphic novel as I tap. The newest edition of my minicomic is almost done now so I’ll post snippets of it soon – and of course, feel free to get your orders in via the store page above!
So much for my regular post promises – but it’s been worth it to focus on the first splash panel in a while. For those new to the site, this is the 2nd page of the prologue, featuring Chilean Army Commander Rene Schneider. As you can tell, things aren’t about to end well.
All sorts of other gigs on at the mo, likc illos for Profile books in the UK and the Stanford Graphic Novel project, now at the 30 inked page mark. In other news, my now ancient piece in Julia Wertz’s missed connection anthology (published by Random House) has finally seen the light of day!
For regular readers of this strip, pretend that the next three pages come before everything else you’ve read. I won’t give the game away about what happens – but the Army General in question is Rene Schneider
so feel free to follow that link and spoil the surprise for yourselves. And welcome to new readers – you’ve joined at the perfect time. I’ll post the correct page order soon once more of the strip is up.
