- Title: Ex-Ecuador president Correa denies planning coup attempt from exile
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) FORMER ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA GIVING INTERVIEW CORREA TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FORMER ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT, RAFAEL CORREA, SAYING: "They are such liars that they contradict themselves. They said that I was over, destroyed (but) now I am so powerful that from Brussels with an iPhone I can direct demonstrations across the country (Ecuador). They are lying, as they have lied for two and a half years. The truth is there is a great deal of discontent in the country because of the treason, not to me, but to the whole program of government and democracy, because of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, and the implementation of harsh measures such as the doubling of the price of diesel, while reducing taxes for the rich and eliminating tariffs. People can't take it anymore. That is the reality." VARIOUS OF CORREA TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FORMER ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT, RAFAEL CORREA, SAYING: "It was already a clinically dead government, with a president who, by the way, had 14 percent popular support and eight percent credibility. He was clinically dead. With this situation, (Ecuador's President Lenin) Moreno won't even be able to return to Quito. Unless he shields the entire capital, the government palace, for the next two years. That is why it is unsustainable. Either he resigns or he asks for early elections, which would be the constitutional and democratic way to overcome this very grave situation." CORREA GESTURING CORREA TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FORMER ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT, RAFAEL CORREA, SAYING: "I have two prison orders in Ecuador for the most ridiculous thing. No one has paid any attention to it at the international level, but it is to prevent me from returning and to prevent me from participating, above all, in the elections, because they know that we are going to win. Let's see how things go and if my presence is necessary, I'll go." CORREA TALKING
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 15:19
- Keywords: Rafael Correa Brussels exile Ecuador Lenin Moreno Nicolas Maduro
- Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001B08MNGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa denied on Tuesday (October 8) he was orchestrating a coup against the government from his self-imposed exile in Belgium, after being accused of stoking the worst unrest there in years.
Protests over an end to fuel subsidies have erupted across the country, prompting President Lenin Moreno to accuse Correa, his predecessor and one-time mentor, of trying to overthrow him with help from Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
"They are such liars," he told Reuters. "People can't take it anymore. That is the reality," he said, referring to austerity measures brought in by Moreno with support from the IMF.
Moreno has abandoned the leftist policies of Correa's time as president from 2007 to 2017, a rare period of stability for a country accustomed to political turmoil but which ended in corruption allegations, which Correa denies.
Thousands of indigenous protesters have marched into the capital for a sixth day after Moreno announced a measure to eliminate fuel subsidies to reduce the fiscal deficit. A national strike is planned for Wednesday.
In a defiant national television address on Monday evening, Moreno, who has left the capital Quito, said he would not back down on the fuel price hike in the face of what he called a "destabilisation plan" orchestrated by Correa and Maduro.
Correa, who lives in Belgium, has fiercely criticised Moreno, including with a video circulating on social media where he sings "Ecuadorians, to the streets ... Goodbye, Lenin!"
Sitting in an empty office with an Ecuadorian flag and his official photograph as president, Correa said he would be ready to return, possibly as a candidate for vice president, if new elections were called.
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