Great color commentary on Ecuador

this is another comment i received in response to my earlier post about ecuador...

The Ecuadorians will allow their top leaders a certain amount of leeway regarding lies, corruption, and incompetence, but Gutierrez crossed the line when he packed the court. In phone conversations my wife has had, family and friends have told her that was just too much arrogance; it couldn't be tolerated. Arrogance toward a significant portion of the population not tolerated? What a concept.

Yesterday the Ecuadorian people chased their president. First his helicopter took him to the airport in Quito in an effort to run, only to find the people had closed the airport by standing on the runways in mass. A family member of my wife's said the same occurred in Guayaquil in case the president tried to flee there. So Lucio then went to a military base in an attempt to fly out, apparently only to be essentially told "Sorry, dude, you're on your own." The people were indeed pissed. Finally, it seems, he managed to hide in an embassy for shelter.

The Ecuadorian experience leads me to wonder where the proverbial line is drawn here. How much would we take before saying no mas?

my reply...

great comments...! i love it...! people standing on the runway at the airport in quito and guayaquil...! having been in both airports a number of times, i can visualize it perfectly... there's nothing like hearing from somebody who's got intimate connections and the insight to go with them...

i don't want to be guilty of overstatement or of creating unnecessary drama but it feels like my "proverbial line" is close to being drawn... i've been hanging out in argentina quite a bit as it is and enjoying their much less repressive (for now, i guess) atmosphere...

but what would it take before we collectively say no mas...? dunno... good question... things have been getting progressively uglier and uglier since the election debacle of 2000, well past what i would have thought would have been the public's gag factor ... ask me the end of next week after frist's appearance at "justice sunday" and the floor battle on judicial nominations plays out...

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