Cuba Press Reports Correa Is Back

HAVANA TIMES, Oct. 1 – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, is back in his offices late Thursday as a police uprising in the afternoon appears to have been squashed.  The 47-year old Correa returned after being rescued from the hospital where he was held up after being attacked by the police. 

Cubadebate.cu reports that hundreds of soldiers arrived on the scene and battled with the police who had risen up against the constitution and the Correa government.  Correa, the website notes, was awaited by a large mass of supporters at Carondelet Palace. 

Meanwhile, CNN wrote from Quito: “A defiant Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa returned safely to the presidential palace late Thursday after spending hours held by police inside a hospital room outside Quito.”

“Minutes earlier, members of the Ecuadorian army — wearing gas masks — rescued him, a reporter for Ecuadorian Television reported.

“Speaking from a balcony, Correa told thousands of jubilant supporters that he saw one person who was shot during the rescue, which he regretted.  He thanked his supporters — in particular his bodyguards — for standing behind him and said the rebel police effort to oust him had failed.

“Nobody has supported the police as much as this government, nobody has increased their salaries as much,” he said about police protests about what they thought were salary cuts. “After all we’ve done for the police, they did this!” he said, adding that he was held inside the room and not allowed to leave, noted CNN.