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Chavez and Ecuador?
Evidence emerging of role in Ecuadorean revolt
By Martin Arostegui
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Venezuela might have played a role in the revolt that toppled Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez last month, according to reports that are emerging about events in Quito.
The crisis highlighted Latin America's growing instability last week as Condoleezza Rice made her first tour of the region as U.S. secretary of state.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a trip to Brazil in March, described a growing threat posed by Venezuela. Brazilian press reports said the United States is consulting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with whom Miss Rice held a long meeting on Tuesday, about an Organization of American States resolution to condemn Venezuela.
Miss Rice told a press conference in Brasilia that "political, economic and social challenges" were making democracies in the region "very fragile."
Mr. Gutierrez had tried to model pro-U.S. policies on the type of moderate socialism that Mr. Lula da Silva follows. But this alienated Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an authoritarian leftist who considers Mr. Gutierrez a traitor.
Both men followed similar paths as rebel army officers leading populist movements in their respective countries, but they diverged significantly once in power.
The Ecuadorean leader opened negotiations for a free-trade agreement with the United States and allowed the Pentagon to establish a base in Ecuador's Amazon basin to counter narcotics traffic and leftist Colombian guerrillas.
Mr. Chavez, who has severed military ties with the United States, actively opposes the tax-free economic zone proposed by the Bush administration and has aligned his country with Cuba and Iran.
Although evidence of Venezuela's role in destabilizing Ecuador is sketchy, intelligence sources and some press reports point to a series of meetings in Caracas between Chavez government officials and Ecuadorean opponents of Mr. Gutierrez.
The Caracas daily El Nacional reported that two Ecuadorean army officers who are known enemies of the deposed president attended a special congress last month of the ruling Venezuelan Revolutionary Movement (MVR).
U.S. intelligence sources say Mr. Chavez has financed violent indigenous groups in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, where a revolt in 2003 toppled pro-U.S. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. U.S. and Colombian military officials accuse Venezuela of supporting Colombian rebels, and Mr. Rumsfeld has expressed alarm over Mr. Chavez's declared plans to acquire 100,000 AK-47 rifles from Russia.
One of the Ecuadorean officers thought to have conspired with Mr. Chavez is identified as Col. Patricio Acosta, who turned against Mr. Gutierrez when he allowed construction of a U.S. base in Manta. Former Ecuadorean President Abdala Bucaram, whom Mr. Gutierrez deposed five years ago, reportedly was in Caracas last week.
Mr. Chavez refrained from any official comment as mobs in Quito forced Mr. Gutierrez to take refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. But the MVR mayor of Caracas, Juan Barreto, who is close to the Venezuelan president, said the Ecuadorean leader had "lost legitimacy because he distanced himself from the people who placed him in power."
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