POLITICAL UPRISE IN ECUADOR

October 2

Today, the president addressed the Nation, as he does every Saturday morning. It's actually interesting that he does this ever single week. He has an informal address aired on almost every channel, letting the Country know what happened, what was discussed and what was done in government that week. Today's announcements were obvioulsy started with a review of the current situation. Things are beginning to normalize as the National Police sees that they no longer have the upper hand and will have to back down.

The military is trying to get control of the people, the Police and the rogue soldiers. The country is still under Marshall law until next week. Hopefully things will have been brought under control by then. The instability that the riots, kidnapping and military street presence has caused prompted the Branch to cancel all meetings Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but did encourage the Brothers to observe the meeting in each home, getting together in small groups where possible. So we went over to our friends, the Salazar family to have the meeting. We were about 10 people having the meeting in their living room. We were able to have most of the parts, as the 3 Salazar brothers, 2 Salazar sisters and 2 Suess sisters had been assigned almost all parts and demos anyway.

The Brother started the meeting out by reading a letter that the Branch made available to all Elders via the website. Within hours of the first riot in Quito, the Brothers found directions and instructions from the Branch on the website. It included a summary of what was going on, safety reccommendations and theocratic schedule changes. It's encouraging to know how concerned they are with are well being and how on top of situations like this they are. We can always count on them for direction.

It was a nice meeting done in Spanglish. As it was a bit more informal, people had a hard time sticking to English.  Our elders have decided to hold the meeting normally tomorrow while other congregations have cancelled theirs. Perhaps becuase ours is a smaller group. Anyway, looking forward to things getting back to normal, which we are hopefully for.

Thanks again for the comments and concern. Will be in touch soon!





If the Police are the rebels, who will control them?

 The entire Police force in Ecuador (40,000 police officers and 35,000 military officers supporting them) has gone on strike and is currently protesting polititcal changes the President Rafael Correa is trying to initiate as well as benefit cuts in the law enforcement field. Because of the inexistence of law enforcement around the country, banks are being robbed, protesters are riotting in the cities and all businesses and shops are closed.

We were sent a message via e-mail from the US Embassy to remain inside the home until further advised.

President Rafael Correa was attacked this morning by members of his own Security Detail. In Ecuador, if the people do not like something the President does, they simply run him out of the Country by any means necessary. 3 Presidents in the past 10 years have been "impeached" this way. President Correa continues to defend himself in front of crowds of thousands in Quito. It may have started as a protest against cut wages, but it has turned into a country-wide chaos and a possible coup attemp, according to the President.

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chaves posted on his twitter account (you heard that right) that this is clearly an attempt to oust the President. Either way, people are using the riotting spirit to jump on the band wagon and riot along side the police with any complaint against the Government they may have.

Even though Ecuador has gone through 8 Presidents in 10 years, three of which were forcefully ousted from office, Rafael Correa has been the most poplular and sincere President in decades, according to just about everyone. He's made excellent reforms that have helped many people, he is charasmatic, confident and smart. He has much support in Quito and other cities.In fact, people are now protesting the unjust treatment of the President. It is mostly the National Police force that is against him at this time and others who are jumping into the hype.

Not a great situation to be in. But as of now, we really haven't been adversly affected by these events except for the fact that we are house-bound and our friend from Peru who was on the bus on his way here to visit had to get off before the Ecuador border and turn around. (Since then, Peru has closed their border.) The next couple of days should let us know which direction this thing is going in. Some are saying they are using this situation to initiate a coupe effort, others that the President will give in and things will normalize. Time will tell. In the meantime, we are staying safe at home in our relatively calm neighborhood. We feel very fortunate to have chosen this place and to have left Quito when we did, which is where the situation is the most dangerous right now.

Our friends in Guayaquil and Quito say the streets are either in chaos or complete silence. People are told to stay at home and protect their houses from the thieves and rebels taking advantage of no law enforcement. So far everyone we've talked to says they are safe and staying home waiting for more direction.

The military's official statement is that its leaders are loyal to the President, although most of the actual soldiers are revolting against him.

On a happy note, we have been contacted all day by many different Brothers and Sisters checking on us, making sure we knew what was going on, that we were home safe and that we would be staying there. We've only been here a few weeks, but we can already see that we are well cared for and looked after here! What a blessing to be part of an organization that we can always feel safe in even under these circumstances.

On another happy note, the news just reported that even though supposedly all police forces country-wide are in unanimous accord on the protest/strike, in our province of Azuay, especially our city of Cuenca, the Cuenca Police Chief issued a statement that his forces have decided to serve the people of Cuenca and continue protecting the city from riots and crime instead of leaving their posts to protest with the rest of them. They have been seen all day driving around honking and doing other things in protest, but the city for the most part is being kept under control.

Supposedly Martial Law has been imposed, although since most of the military is riotting, I'm not really sure how that works.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Ecuador-Unrest-President-Rafael-Correa-Attacked-In-Unrest-In-Capital-Quito-Over-Potential-Cuts/Article/201009415749012?lpos=World_News_Top_St

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_ecuador_protest