Amazing footage of attack on Correa from BBC & analysis of attack(s)

[Poll_Blind]

I just saw some amazing footage of the the attack on Correa from the BBC. You can watch it here. The footage is incredible but on a cursory viewing it is so chaotic it's difficult to tell what exactly is going on. After you've watched it, check out these stills, which have been enhanced to show what's going on.

In the space of a few seconds, he is attacked by at least two different individuals as well as almost being hit in the head by a launched (teargass?) grenade.

Note the time in the play bar at the bottom of the images so you can review the BBC footage and actually see this go down:

In this pic, Correa is in the center and the first attacker is in the upper LEFT of frame.


Here you can see the attacker a little better, including his general age, smart haircut and bandanna covering most of his face


Here is the attacker, at an opportune moment, trying to rip the gas mask from Correa's head.


After the first attacker is pushed away a rocket grenade flies directly over the head of Correa, moving from right to left and missing his head by a few feet at most. The orange cone is the propellent moving the fist-sized grenade, just to it's left. Correa's ear is just visible a few feet under the grenade and a little to the left.


Everyone scatters because of the grenade fired into the crowd. But there's someone who's not running. In fact, he's staring at the president and nervously toying with the lid of his (military? police?) helmet and he's standing in the middle-right of frame. Only a bit of Correa's neck is visible, lower center of frame.


Here is the second attacker, still toying with his helmet. In less than a second or so, he's going break into a run, come up behind the bald man who is standing "behind" Correa as we view him, reach around the bald man so it's unclear who's doing it and also try to rip of Correa's gas mask.

Here is the second attacker, in uniform, reaching around from behind the bald man in an attempt to rip Correa's gas mask from his face. You can clearly see the camouflage arm coming from behind the bald man, the bald man's neck, and Correa who is trying to prevent his gas mask from being pulled off by holding onto it himself. The red around the second attacker's arm is actually the shirt of the person behind him which I was not able to digitally grayscale all the way. It's not red on his uniform.


After the second attacker is swatted off, he trots back to where he came from where he meets up with another camouflaged and helmeted compatriot and the two walk out of frame in the chaos.

Absolutely incredible bit of video. So much confusion it's hard to tell what's actually happening but in just a few seconds, a hell of a lot is.

Cheers, and spread these pictures or links to this message far and wide.

PB

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. We had a coup attempt and my mooze has not gone into breaking

news?

Oh wait, why am I not surprised?

[Arctic Dave]

2. Seen the video footage earlier, wonder what will happen to the guy that did it.

Attempted assassination of a President probably comes with more then a slap on the wrist.

[Tatiana]

3. Our country will likely not denounce this right-wing coup.

It will be up to the other latin american countries to lend assistance.

I swear, the neoliberal corporatists never give up, do they?

[sabrina 1]

4. Hillary Clinton has made a statement saying the U.S.

supports the democratically elected president. Words are one thing though, they said the same about Honduras. Obama so far, has not said anything.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/30/ecuador.violence/?hpt=T1

There's video and an article at the link ....

Peru closed its border with Ecuador, and messages of support for Correa came from 10 Latin American nations: Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Honduras. The Organization of American States also voted to support Correa.


The support from Honduras came a little over a year after a military-led coup toppled the democratically elected president there. Correa had criticized that coup, as did most nations in the world. Honduras has held elections since then and elected a president.
At the United Nations, a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon said the secretary-general "expresses his strong support for the country's democratic institutions and elected government," was concerned about Correa's physical condition and personal welfare and called on all involved "to resolve the current crisis peacefully, within the rule of law."

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said U.S. officials were closely following the events. "The United States deplores violence and lawlessness and we express our full support for President Rafael Correa, and the institutions of democratic government in that country," she said. "We urge all Ecuadorians to come together and to work within the framework of Ecuador's democratic institutions to reach a rapid and peaceful restoration of order."

Can't help smiling at that statement 'the U.S. deplores violence and lawlessness'. Right, that's why we are killing people on their own soil in two countries every day.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Four countries.

[Billy Burnett]

8. After Honduras ...

I know that the new boss is just like the old boss.

[sabrina 1]

21. What happened to her? I remember when she used to be

sympathetic to the Palestinians. She made a comment after the shooting of a little Palestinian boy, a picture of whom in the arms of his devastated father had been shown around the world. Almost immediately afterwards there was criticism of her comment. She was still First Lady then. That seems to have been a different person altogether. Do you put something in the water in DC?

[EFerrari]

11. A lot of the guys that planned the Bay of Pigs moved on to Iran Contra

and then deeper into our government. BushCo's government was something like 1/3 Iran Contra bastards. Why should they give up, they've been in power for half a century with very little push back at all.

[sabrina 1]

6. That's incredible footage. I hope this helps to catch the perpetrators.

Those two have committed treason and there is no way that this government can support any government that topples the elected government without revealing something about themselves.

This was clearly a crime and should be treated as seriously as it would be in this country.

I am finding it difficult to get news on this story. It's not clear whether or not the Correa is still in power.

I have read that his second in command is now running the government, but it wasn't clear if that was just temporary.

He is a very brave man, a hero. I wish we had leaders with half the courage he has displayed.

[flamingdem]

7. This is disgusting, another right wing coup no doubt supported by the wingnuts in Miami nt

[a la izquierda]

9. how?

enlighten me (and trust me, i have absolutely zero love for the rightwing Cuban expat community).

[flamingdem]

10. They were behind the coup in Honduras, made a little road trip there

right in the middle. Ros-Lehtinen, etc.

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, OCTOBER 5, 2009: Two days prior to the scheduled visit to Honduras of a delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS), an abridged version of international diplomacy arrived in Tegucigalpa yesterday morning in the form of Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who was nonetheless defined as US Senator by prominent Honduran newspapers. Ros-Lehtinen starred in a mid-day press conference at the presidential palace, an event also qualifying as abridged based on the lack of representatives of the anti-coup press.


In happier times for the right-wing ex-Cuban Congressional Caucus, US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart got to endorse the kidnapping of five-year-old Elián González. Today they’re in the minority party and reduced to promoting coup regime tourism in Honduras.

The absence from the conference of Channel 36 TV and Radio Globo – the two media outlets forced off the air last week with coup president Roberto Micheletti’s decree of a state of emergency – was called into question when Micheletti assured the audience that his decree had been completely revoked. The possibility that the coup government might thus return confiscated broadcasting equipment to its rightful owners was promptly declined, however, when Micheletti declared that said owners would have to earn back their rights in a court of law.

The stated purpose of Ros-Lehtinen’s visit to Honduras was to assess the current state of affairs in Honduras, something coup president Roberto Micheletti has repeatedly accused the rest of the world of being blissfully oblivious to. Evidence suggesting that the assessment was conducted prior to arrival includes Ros-Lehtinen’s introduction last month of a House resolution urging recognition of the legitimacy of the upcoming Honduran elections without the restitution of legitimate President Mel Zelaya as a prerequisite, and Ros-Lehtinen’s silence yesterday at the selective lifting of emergency decrees.

Ros-Lehtinen nonetheless stressed her commitment to Honduran democracy and conviction in the sacred nature of the Honduran Constitution – a categorization that had recently been challenged by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who had described it as the worst such document on the face of the earth. The Florida Representative proceeded to express her concern that US withholding of select funds and travel documents from the coup government was only harming the citizens of Honduras, although she later conceded that it was also harming the US war on drugs as narcotraffickers would quickly discover that a Honduras without funds was incapable of purchasing radars.

Accompanying Ros-Lehtinen to Honduras were her south Florida congressional companions Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart. Micheletti failed to establish whether the poster proclaiming “Alianza de Miami, por Honduras” had been hung outside the presidential palace in honor of their visit, although he did refer to Ros-Lehtinen as an illustrious woman whose presence in Honduras was a reward from God. Ros-Lehtinen returned the cordialities by proclaiming that Micheletti was not at all de facto and that presidential succession in Cuba would hopefully one day produce a leader like him. MORE

http://www.narconews.com/Issue60/article3858.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Correa mentioned the bidness community

at the begging of his address to the nation.

That said, I doubt it had anything to do with Miami... but a lot to do with the local right wing bidness community that does not like him in particular.

Translation of his address to the nation (as full as I could get it)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4560146&mesg_id=4560178

[Judi Lynn]

24. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Letinen must have broken the sound barrier getting to Honduras

right after the military coup to huddle with that scum, coup President Micheletti.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn.nyud.net:8090/dataimages/200910/original/images1866489_3.jpg
She originally ran for office on her promise she would get Cuban "exile" Cubana air liner bomber/mass murderer Orlando Bosch admitted back to the U.S., and her campaign manager, _{Jeb Bush} helped her persuade his dad to overturn the acting Attorney General Joe D. Whitley's exclusinary finding against Orlando Bosch, when Whitley had stated Bosch was a pure terrorist.

On edit, just saw you covered Ileana in post #10, which I hadn't read at the time I responded to your earlier post. Sorry.

[Billy Burnett]

25. It was Floriduh Dem Claude Pepper who supported her 1st run.

One of her main campaign slogans (I'm not kidding) was: "FREE ORLANDO BOSCH".

:puke:

Years later, Orlando Bosch was chosen as Elian's pediatrician, and was seen regularly at the drunken uncle's house during the hostage crisis. Right after Cubans in Cuba saw Bosch's involvement on TV is when the Cuban mobilization to return Elian went ballistic.

[mitchtv]

12. thank god for the foreign press

The US mainstream media blackout on Latinoamerica continues as usual.

[EFerrari]

13. There was nothing? I watched the fire fight on Telesur.

The reporter was hiding in a garage. :scared:

[mitchtv]

17. well I was watching msnbc

Cnn probably had something

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. If this coup succeeded all channels would have

gone into breaking nooze...

[flamingdem]

20. Arg. Exactly.

Though they did cover Zelaya because he was so dramatic with the white cowboy hat and cheering crowds. For five minutes anyway. They used the story about the special vote to justify the coup but what will they use with Correa. Is there more on underlying dissent and previous attempts?

[EFerrari]

16. That is amazing footage! Thank god Rafael Correa wasn't killed right there. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

18. Indeed. And I never really understood how much could be gotten away with in chaos.

I don't know about the first attacker, but the second attacker just basically saunters off. Really freakish. Then again, when you're at the center of a group people who are having rocket-propelled teargas rounds shot at them I can imagine everyone's got major tunnel vision.

Especially that second attacker, he could just as easily (if not more easily) just reached under with a knife and stabbed him. Scary stuff.

PB

[EFerrari]

22. DUer rabs reports that as the president's car was leaving the hospital

it was struck four times by bullets.

Very scary.

[me b zola]

19. K&R

[Hannah Bell]

23. good work.

[bherrera]

26. Seems like a figment of imagination

I don't think this shows very much. Correa was very stupid to walk in there, he had reduced those men's social security and other benefits.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

29. Wrong. Under Correa, their basic wage went from $150 to $600 dollars.

The government was looking to restructure, not reduce. The national police were misinformed, likely on purpose, and you are repeating the misinformation. Who is stupid?

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. Exactly how is going from 200 \month pay

to 700\ month pay reducing benefits?

[RainDog]

27. I saw that last night on bbc video -

saw the attack - and it was confusing, but I could clearly see that someone was trying to tear off his gas mask.

incredible.

Thank you for posting this because it really does help illustrate this attack. Hopefully that person will be found and put on trial for attempted murder.