Rafael Correa warns about destabilization plans in Ecuador

By Telesur

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said Tuesday that destabilization processes “similar to those in Venezuela” are being carried out in his country, referring to an opposition protest that will be held tomorrow in the capital city of Quito.

“They want to see if it works here,” the president said during the inauguration of a bridge linking the coastal town of Duran with Santay Island, about 420 miles south of Quito, referring to the destabilization plans.

The president called on Ecuadorans who support him to take to the streets to show solidarity.
The president called on Ecuadorans who support him to take to the streets to show solidarity.

Correa said the organizers of the protest are “alleged” union leaders, opposition indigenous leaders and students, suggesting that they are not what they pretend to be and instead are members of an interest group seeking to affect his government and the people of Ecuador.

The president questioned the reasons given by them to carry out the protest, such as being against presidential reelection and his administration’s labor policy.

Correa stressed how contradictory the union leaders position is, by saying that they are then against his government for having eliminated outsourcing and having raised wages at the national level, making the minimum wage the highest in the Andean region.

He also said that during his administration, companies are required to declare their profits and distribute 15 percent of them among their workers.

Correa also said that institutions were forced to affiliate their employees to the Ecuadoran Institute of Social Security, as well as guaranteeing them retirement benefits.

The president called on Ecuadorans who support him to take to the streets to show that “we are more, we are many more.”

“We will not give in to absurdities and injustices… we will also protest against this illegitimate past that wants to return and the double standards of some union leaders,” he said.

Last year, a Chilean journalist told Andes, an Ecuadoran news agency, that the CIA was planning to murder Correa and destabilize the country in retaliation to the president’s decision to remove a U.S. military base from the country and because he gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum.

(From Telesur)