President is Rescued

Thank you for your prayers for Ecuador. Last night after nearly 16 hours being held hostage, President Correa was rescued by Ecuador's armed forces. Early in the morning yesterday, Correa went to the presidential palace to answer police concerns over a new law that he and congress passed cutting bonuses in the public sector. This essentially meant that the police would not be receiving their unmerited annual bonuses. Despite Correa's presidency having raised the minimum wage of a police officer from $200 a month to $750, the police were unhappy and sequestered Correa and went on strike. By noon yesterday all of the schools in the city had sent their students home and vandals, bandits and criminals took to the streets to take advantage of a city void of a police force. There was mass looting in grocery stores, malls and even some banks were robbed. By 2:00 in the afternoon the city was a ghost town with only a hand full of cars and people on the street, all shops and stores locked up and closed for the day.

For the greater part of the day there was a stalemate between the national police force holding Correa captive and his cabinet which refused to overturn the new law. During the time, the military began to mobilize into the city of Quito, take over the airport and position themselves near the Police hospital Correa was being kept in. Simultaneously, various bands of the rogue police officers made their way to television stations as well as the "antena farm" at the top of Pichincha (mountain de-marking the western border of the city) to attempt to cut news feeds. The picture you see is of a military helicopter circling the antena farm looking for those policemen trying to sabotage the news feeds.

As the sun started to set the tension on the news channels grew as did the sounds of gunshots that echoed off of Pichincha. By about 8:30pm the military forces had positioned themselves around the perimeter of the hospital and the firefight began. Glued to the television my roommates, a few friends and I watched the battle unfold as the stoccato of gunfire resounded through the valley. Finally at about 10:30 pm the television showed a rush of military escorts pulling Correa out of the hospital and into safety after which he was immediately escorted to the presidential palace where he spoke to the mass that had been gathered in vigil during the day. His firey speech to the crowd was impassioned with his resolve that the country would continue to move forward, justice would prevail and the forces that seek to derail democracy would be dealt with.

Today, all seems to be back to normal. There are cars on the street, shops are open and police officers are patrolling the city. This doesn't end this way though. There are many heads that will roll and there will be backlash. Correa's statement today claimed that there will be no forgiveness for those involved in this attempted coup.

Please continue to pray for this country and its leadership. I believe this to be an incredible opportunity for the country's leaders to clean up a lot of the corruption that exists within the police department as long as there is a genuine desire on behalf of the politicians to bring about change.

Please continue also pray for the missionaries that are in Ecuador as rumors of US involvement in the insurrection circulate and could possibly cause some animosity towards us.

Blessings, thank you for your prayers.