SOA Graduate Involved in Coup Attempt in Ecuador

Written by Lisa Sullivan

A
School of the Americas graduate has been charged for last Thursday's
unsuccessful coup attempt in Ecuador.  Colonel Manuel E. Rivadeneira
Tello, a graduate of  the SOA's combat arms training course, is one of
three police officials being investigated for negligence, rebellion and
attempted assassination of the president.

Rivadeneira was the commander of the barracks where President Correa
was attacked by protesting police. The injured Correa was taken to a
police hospital were he held hostage by police who threatened to kill
him if he escaped. After 12 hours, 500 elite forces stormed the
hospital and organized a fiery rescue. By the end of the day 4 people
lay dead and over 200 wounded.

This is the second coup attempt
led by SOA graduates in a little over a year. The June 2009 in Honduras
led by SOA graduates General Vasquez Velasquez and General Prince
Suazo  was successful in overthrowing President Manuel  Zelaya. At the
time, President Correa expressed concern that this opened the
possibility of future coups in the continent acknowledging that he
might be a possible target..

The defense of Ecuador's democracy
was achieved by its citizens, who poured into the streets in defense
of their popular president.  Their voices were joined by an
international chorus of support for Correa, including the OAS, UNASUR
and Secretary of State Clinton. Ecuadorians, however, were not
convinced that the U.S. was an innocent bystander. A poll indicated
that over 50% of Ecuadorians felt that the U.S. had some involvement in
the coup based, perhaps, on experience in their country where evidence
has pointed to past U.S. involvement in coups and presidential deaths.

Both presidents of Honduras and Ecuador  had recently challenged the
use of their military bases by the U.S. military.  President Correa
ended a lease to the US to use it's Manta base in 2009, and President
Zelaya had indicated his support for turning the Palmerola base used by
the US into a civilian airport shortly before he was deposed.
Likewise, both countries were members of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance
of the Americas) when the coups were attempted. A third ALBA country,
Venezuela, was the target of the third Latin American coup of the past
decade, in 2002, also led by SOA graduates.