Gutierrez thrust himself into the national spotlight in January 2000, when he led a group of disgruntled junior army officers and 5,000 Indian protesters in an uprising that drove the widely repudiated Jamil Mahuad from power in the midst of the country's worst economic crisis in decades. Gutierrez was imprisoned for six months after the coup and expelled from the army.
In his address Wednesday, he said he would take strong steps against "the corrupt oligarchy that has robbed our money, our dreams and the right of Ecuadoreans to have dignified lives." "If sharing and showing solidarity, if fighting corruption, social injustice and impunity, means belonging to the left, then I am a leftist," he said, drawing cheers. But he added: "If generating wealth and promoting production means belonging to the right, then I am a rightist." That remark drew fewer cheers.***
After failing to take power in a coup in 1992, Chavez was elected by the country's poor, and took a grand tour of America's "Fan Club" - Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. The Axis of Evil became the "Axis of Oil."
Eighty-two billion dollars, the combined 2002 revenue of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq - the OPEC's Top Three - can buy lots of terrorism, and lots of weapons of mass destruction. At least Saudi Arabia and Russia are willing to step in when Chavez's Venezuela is losing its market share. At its January 12 meeting, OPEC oil ministers recommended hiking the cartel's production by 1.5 million barrels a day. We won't have to push our SUVs this winter - and we won't be sending our troops to Iraq on bikes. I guess it's time to send those thank-you notes to King Fahd.***