Security & Strategic Review October 2010 (ISSN 1741-4202)

So were the 30 September events in Ecuador an attempted coup, or a police mutiny over pay that was exacerbated by provocateurs within the force who were given an unexpected opportunity by President Rafael Correa's decision to confront the protesters in person? As in the case of Honduras, Venezuela and Correa's allies in the Alba alliance cried coup, the Organization of American States (OAS) followed suit and virtually all regional governments did likewise but did not subscribe to the majority Alba view that the US had been pulling the strings (not shared by Ecuador). The denouement suggests that, if this was a coup plot, it was a particularly ill-planned and badly executed affair.