Presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia accuse U.S. of coup attempt against Ecuador

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-03/u-s-is-behind-failed-ecuador-coup-chavez-writes-in-his-column.html
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the U.S. was behind a failed uprising in Ecuador, in which President Rafael Correa claims he was held against his will in a hospital by police and soldiers protesting wage cuts.

Washington is supporting coup d’etats against an alliance of Latin American left-wing countries, known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, or ALBA, which was formed by Chavez to counter U.S. influence in the region, he wrote in his weekly column “The Lines of Chavez.”

“Let’s not forget, the failed attempt, manufactured by Washington, was looking not only to bring down Correa’s government but also the ALBA and Unasur (Union of South American Nations),” Chavez wrote in the column. The U.S. “has revived the old measure of coup d’etats to spoil plans of governments that don’t subordinate to it.”

“In response to the events that happened in Ecuador, Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton immediately came out expressing our support for President Correa,” said Thomas Mittnacht, head of the press section at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. “Any accusations that the U.S. had anything to do with what happened are without foundation.”

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http://en.mercopress.com/2010/10/04/bolivia-s-morales-accuses-washington-of-encouraging-failed-coup-in-ecuador

“Since 2002 there have been four coup attempts, in 2002 in Venezuela, in 2008 in Bolivia, Honduras in 2009 and now in Ecuador, but of the four attempts in three of them the peoples of Latin America defeated the US imperialism”, said Morales in a Sunday interview with the government financed media.

For this circumstance “I’m happy, very much encouraged because in this decade from 2002 to 2010 the peoples of Latin America on three occasions have defeated the dictatorships prepared by the administration of (George) Bush before and currently by (Barak) Obama”, underlined the Bolivian president.

Morales said he was disappointed because in Honduras “there’s a president born out of a coup” and announced that in the coming regional leaders’ summits “wherever this gentleman Porfirio Lobo is present, obviously I will not be present”.

Honduras former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted last year by a civilian coup, implemented by the military, who then called elections in November 2009 when Lobo was the winner.

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