I know I just posted the other day, but seeing as the police rioted and took the president hostage, I figured I might as well post again. The day started out pretty normally, but at 11 a guy came into my class and said that classes were suspended for the day. Then through various sources of information I gathered that apparently Correa (the president of Ecuador) had recently passed a law that the police didn't like. They then scheduled a strike for today that kinda got out of hand. They tear gassed the president and held him hostage in a hospital. Apparently the police are mad because a law was passed that eliminated certain medals they could give out, at least that's what I understood from my host father.
The college I go to here is USFQ and is located in a small town called Cumbaya and is about ten miles outside of Quito. The international kids weren't allowed to leave campus for a while. Apparently the bank across the street got robbed and some students were robbed while trying to get a taxi as well. Since all the police are striking, there's no law enforcement. Thus looting is going on in the city as well. We were warned not to join any riots, so I assume that means I shouldn't loot either.
So while all this excitement was going on, several other students and I decided to play ultimate frisbee on campus. We were told that the campus was the safest place to be, but later they told us to go home while negotiations were going on. Walking home from my bus stop was pretty exciting. Like I've mentioned before, I stick out a tiny bit here so I would have been a prime target for a mugging in the lawlessness going on right now. I did make it home all right though. It's still kind of ambiguous whether or not we're going to have class tomorrow, and since I have a test, it would be nice to have it canceled. The test has already been postponed two and a half weeks, so I figure an uprising would be a good enough reason to delay it some more. I had a volcanology field trip planned this weekend as well, but that's liable to be canceled as well. I'll keep you guys updated on any more craziness and revolutions going on here.
It'd be funny if the uprising wasn't enough for the teacher to postpone the test further. (Funny for me, that is, since I don't have to take it.)
ReplyDeleteOnce the excitement was over, the media in the U.S. stopped reporting on the final outcome. Is everything back to normal and do you now have greater freedom of movement? What happened to the police? Most importantly, did you have your test?
ReplyDeleteYeah, everything's pretty much normal. We weren't supposed to leave for the weekend, but I did anyway. I think some police got punished but the majority are still around. We're technically in a "state of exception" which I think is sort of martial law, but I don't know. It's not really different. Classes were canceled on Friday so I did miss the test. Having a coup day is probably the best reason to miss class.
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