President Correa warns of soft coup attempts in Latin America

Andes.info.ec reported that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, alerted citizens to be aware of new forms of destabilization and coups against progressive governments of Latin America.

“All attempted coups in 21st century Latin America have been against progressive governments, left wing governments. We must be alert in light of new forms of destabilization and coups underway in Latin America”, he said.

The President recalled the attempted coups against late Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez (2002), against Evo Morales (2006), against Manuel Zelaya (2009), Fernando Lugo (2012) and against his own administration in 2010, on September 30th.

In Ecuador, like in other countries of the region, opposition groups spend time thinking, planning, organizing and implementing the strategy of a “soft coup”: a coup that consists of the gradual transition from democracies into dictatorships.

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Ecuador’s President referred to strategies like the one denounced by Andes Agency, the “Soft coup” strategy, a concept introduced by U.S. citizen Gene Sharp, who leads the Albert Einstein Foundation.

Sharp proposes five stages for these “soft” attempts at destabilization: softening, delegitimization, warm up in the streets, combining different forms of struggle and institutional fracture. A minimum analysis of what’s going on in Ecuador reveals how this strategy is already underway in the country and how the private media make it viable.

“Let’s be alert, don’t let the same old (people) use you. On September 30th they tried to destabilize the government. The opposition destabilized a police segment”, said the President during the weekly address to the nation – Enlace Ciudadano (Citizen Link) from Peguche, in the province of Imbabura, in the Northern Andes.

According to Correa, the coup was stopped in Ecuador for three reasons: the people went out on the streets, even risking their lives to rescue the President; the quick reaction from UNASUR that joined to reject the coup and the President’s frontal position, who decided to face the problem directly. Read Article