Jean-Guy Allard

CARLOS Alberto Montaner and Lucio Gutiérrez plotted from the United States the attempted coup in Ecuador this past September 30, when Quito’s principal police regiment rose up against President Rafael Correa. The Ecuadorian head of state confirmed this in an interview with French journalist Ignacio Ramonet, published in Le Monde Diplomatique.

"The week before the coup, Lucio Gutiérrez, Carlos Alberto Montaner and (Colonel) Mario Pazmiño —who was none other than director of intelligence in the Armed Forces and who we threw out because he was on the CIA payroll — met up in Miami," Correa explained to Ramonet.

"You can see the statements... They met with corrupt bankers, people who had fled the country, the ones whose assets we confiscated, and who are probably the ones who are financing all of this," the Ecuadorian president continued.

"There they spoke clearly, ‘In order to do away with 21^st Century Socialism, we’ll have to do away with Rafael Correa.’ Thus, at this stage of the game, we do not believe in coincidences. Those statements were made one week before September 30, and then, Lucio Gutiérrez is traveling outside of the country. There you have the real conspirators."

Correa noted that Gutiérrez’ partners even predicted a presidential assassination: "You can see the statement of one of Gutierrez’ Assembly representatives, that Thursday morning, when he said: ‘The police are going to lynch the President.’ There’s the recording. Gutiérrez’ brother (Gilmar) was sergeant at arms in the Assembly; they followed his orders and he revolted against the Government. So clearly, there were links. And there, behind the scenes, they manipulated all that."

President Correa explained how in Miami, that same day, Gustavo Lemus, an Ecuadorian known for his links with Gutiérrez, burst into the Ecuadorian Consulate in the midst of the Quito events, with a bunch of military coup supporters and Cuban-American extremists.

Lemus has been exposed in Ecuador as a torturer and is suspected of having covered up the murder of two adolescents when he was chief of torture for León Febres Cordero’s Social Christian government (1984-1988).

Lemus was seen taking part in the conspiracy meeting called by Montaner, a CIA agent and fugitive from Cuban justice on September 23 (seven days before the attempted coup in Ecuador).

The meeting, under the title: 21st Century Socialism in Ecuador, took place at the Banker’s Club, 1, Biscayne Tower, 14th Floor, Miami, FL, and was sponsored by the Interamerican Institute for Democracy (IID).

Located in Miami, the IID is an front organization for the Cuban-American mafia and its Venezuelan, Ecuadorian and Bolivian affiliates. In recent months it has organized "tributes" to characters as controversial as Armando Valladares, the Cuban-American terrorist who conspired both in Santa Cruz and in Tegucigalpa, and who was awarded a prize for the defense of human rights.

With other extreme rightwing groups, this past November 17 the IID organized a veritable summit of coup plotters and terrorists in the Capitol Building in Washington, chaired by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Its director is none other than Carlos "Chulupi" Sánchez Berzaín, former right-hand man and defense minister of Bolivian ex-president Gonzalo "Goni" Sánchez de Lozada, both fugitives from Bolivian justice for perpetrating the "Gas War" of October 2003, which left more than 60 dead and close to 500 wounded.

Also present at the Miami meeting called by Montaner and Gutiérrez was Colonel Mario Pazmiño Silva, ex-chief of Ecuadorian military intelligence, dismissed from the army for his collusion with the CIA.

In 2001, Pazmiño’s CIA membership was exposed during the Angostura bombing. Pazmiño was expelled from the Armed Forces and the intelligence unit that he was running was disbanded.

One of the most active participants in the failed coup d’état was Reserves Colonel Galo Monteverde, who managed the crowds organized by the conspirators. Together with Gutiérrez, Monteverde took part in the coup d’état against former Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad, in January 2000.

In the Miami meeting, Montaner affirmed, "Gutiérrez is one of the most powerful political choices within the country and one of the hopes of the democratic recovery for Ecuador."

For his part, Gutiérrez made a statement in support of Pazmiño by accusing Correa of "demolishing the security institutions."

A few hours after the failed coup d’état, Montaner appeared on Colombian television together with Gutiérrez, in order to denigrate President Rafael Correa. Montaner opened a television show on NTN 24, the channel of the Colombian right wing, by mounting a slanderous attack on the head of state.

"If they had got to killing him at that point (...) that would have given rise to a bloodbath in the country, why did he do that? You don’t do things like that. That isn’t presidential behavior — taking off your tie and defying the police," he said.

Referring to Gutiérrez as Mr. ex-president, Montaner asked him: "¿Did you really intend to remove Rafael Correa from power?"

And the coup conspirator responded, "I refute President Correa’s assertions that there was an attempted coup d’état in Ecuador. There was nothing more than a protest by angry police officers.... "

Since the coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009, Montaner, who has been living off his "Anti-Castro" services to the CIA for several decades, has become an apologist for the dictator Roberto Micheletti, alongside U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Armando Valladares, another Cuban-American terrorist collaborator of the CIA.

Like the whole band of coup plotters and ultra-right Latin Americans, he uses U.S. territory, particularly Miami, for launching calls for subversion and destabilization against the Latin American countries which are resisting U.S. domination.