QUITO (Reuters) – Unrest erupted in Ecuador on Thursday with troops taking control of the main airport and police protesting in streets as President Rafael Correa accused rivals of seeking a coup and considered dissolving Congress.
In confused and chaotic scenes in Quito, scores of soldiers swarmed over the landing strip of the international airport, which was closed to flights, and uniformed police burned tires in protest at a government proposal to cut their bonuses.
A visibly agitated Correa challenged the protesting police: "Gentlemen, if you want to kill the president, here he is. Kill me if you want to. Kill me if you have the courage," he shouted to supporters from a balcony.
Correa, a close ally of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, later said he was attacked by protesters and needed medical treatment.
"They threw tear gas at us. One exploded near my face. It stunned me and my wife for a few seconds, probably minutes," he told a local radio station from a police hospital in Quito.
Witnesses said there was looting in Quito and in the city of Guayaquil, and that many workers and school students were being sent home.
The OPEC-member country of 14 million people has a long history of political instability.
Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power.
Correa said he was looking at the option of dissolving Congress, where members of his own left-wing party are blocking legislative proposals aimed at cutting state costs.
Ecuador's two-year-old constitution allows the president to declare a political impasse, dissolve Congress and rule by decree until a new presidential and parliamentary election can be held. The measure would, however, have to be approved by the Constitutional Court to take effect.
Police apparently led the protests on Thursday but some soldiers joined in solidarity. Rank and file soldiers also complain that that their benefits have been cut under Correa.
"We are demanding that the president revoke the military service law," one uniformed soldier at the airport told Reuters, asking not to be named. The law, which was backed by the government, cuts benefits for the military.
"If he does not, protests will continue," the soldier said
Police in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil protested at their headquarters. Officers in Guayaquil blocked some roads leading to the coastal city, Ecuador's most populous.
"Respect our rights," uniformed officers shouted.
Armed forces' head Ernesto Gonzalez said troops remained loyal to Correa. "We are in a state of law. We are loyal to the maximum authority, which is the president," he told reporters.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino played down the severity of the protests. "This is not a popular mobilization, it is not a popular uprising, it is an uprising by the police who are ill-informed," he told TV network Telesur.
Central bank chief Diego Borja called for calm and urged Ecuadoreans not to withdraw money from banks.
POLITICAL IN-FIGHTING
More than half the 124-member Congress is officially allied with Correa, but the president has blasted lawmakers from his own Country Alliance party for not going along with his proposals for shrinking the country's bureaucracy.
Correa, a U.S.-trained economist, was first elected in 2006 promising a "citizens' revolution" aimed at increasing state control of Ecuador's natural resources and fighting what he calls the country's corrupt elite.
His government alienated international capital markets when it defaulted on $3.2 billion in global bonds two years ago. Correa declared the debt "illegitimate."
Cash has been tight since then as the country relies on multilateral loans and bilateral lending to meet its international financing needs.
"The (government) finally realizes that maybe their current spending could not continue but they don't really have a Plan B, nothing to cover shortfalls given the lack of investor friendly policies," said Roberto Sanchez-Dahl, portfolio manager at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh.
Correa is renegotiating contracts with oil companies in a bid to increase state revenues. But the talks have gone slowly while the government threatens to take over the operations of petroleum companies that do not sign the new pacts.
Private firms operating in Ecuador include Spain's Repsol,, Brazil's Petrobras and Italy's Eni.
Once in power, Correa backed the rewriting of the constitution to tilt the balance of power toward the executive. He easily won re-election under the new constitution in 2009, and he is allowed to stand again in 2013.
In confused and chaotic scenes in Quito, scores of soldiers swarmed over the landing strip of the international airport, which was closed to flights, and uniformed police burned tires in protest at a government proposal to cut their bonuses.
A visibly agitated Correa challenged the protesting police: "Gentlemen, if you want to kill the president, here he is. Kill me if you want to. Kill me if you have the courage," he shouted to supporters from a balcony.
Correa, a close ally of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, later said he was attacked by protesters and needed medical treatment.
"They threw tear gas at us. One exploded near my face. It stunned me and my wife for a few seconds, probably minutes," he told a local radio station from a police hospital in Quito.
Witnesses said there was looting in Quito and in the city of Guayaquil, and that many workers and school students were being sent home.
The OPEC-member country of 14 million people has a long history of political instability.
Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power.
Correa said he was looking at the option of dissolving Congress, where members of his own left-wing party are blocking legislative proposals aimed at cutting state costs.
Ecuador's two-year-old constitution allows the president to declare a political impasse, dissolve Congress and rule by decree until a new presidential and parliamentary election can be held. The measure would, however, have to be approved by the Constitutional Court to take effect.
Police apparently led the protests on Thursday but some soldiers joined in solidarity. Rank and file soldiers also complain that that their benefits have been cut under Correa.
"We are demanding that the president revoke the military service law," one uniformed soldier at the airport told Reuters, asking not to be named. The law, which was backed by the government, cuts benefits for the military.
"If he does not, protests will continue," the soldier said
Police in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil protested at their headquarters. Officers in Guayaquil blocked some roads leading to the coastal city, Ecuador's most populous.
"Respect our rights," uniformed officers shouted.
Armed forces' head Ernesto Gonzalez said troops remained loyal to Correa. "We are in a state of law. We are loyal to the maximum authority, which is the president," he told reporters.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino played down the severity of the protests. "This is not a popular mobilization, it is not a popular uprising, it is an uprising by the police who are ill-informed," he told TV network Telesur.
Central bank chief Diego Borja called for calm and urged Ecuadoreans not to withdraw money from banks.
POLITICAL IN-FIGHTING
More than half the 124-member Congress is officially allied with Correa, but the president has blasted lawmakers from his own Country Alliance party for not going along with his proposals for shrinking the country's bureaucracy.
Correa, a U.S.-trained economist, was first elected in 2006 promising a "citizens' revolution" aimed at increasing state control of Ecuador's natural resources and fighting what he calls the country's corrupt elite.
His government alienated international capital markets when it defaulted on $3.2 billion in global bonds two years ago. Correa declared the debt "illegitimate."
Cash has been tight since then as the country relies on multilateral loans and bilateral lending to meet its international financing needs.
"The (government) finally realizes that maybe their current spending could not continue but they don't really have a Plan B, nothing to cover shortfalls given the lack of investor friendly policies," said Roberto Sanchez-Dahl, portfolio manager at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh.
Correa is renegotiating contracts with oil companies in a bid to increase state revenues. But the talks have gone slowly while the government threatens to take over the operations of petroleum companies that do not sign the new pacts.
Private firms operating in Ecuador include Spain's Repsol,, Brazil's Petrobras and Italy's Eni.
Once in power, Correa backed the rewriting of the constitution to tilt the balance of power toward the executive. He easily won re-election under the new constitution in 2009, and he is allowed to stand again in 2013.