A recent article by The Guardian's environment writer David Hill on the recent protests in the Ecuador was titled “Protests by 1,000s of Ecuadorians met with brutal repression.” It claimed the police were teargassing and clubbing protesters in capital Quito, while in other regions the police were “specifically targeting female protestors’ 'intimate parts.'”
While Hill's bio on The Guardian states that he is a “freelance writer based in the Amazon,” teleSUR English is based in Quito and has been covering the protests in the country over the past few months and was on the ground and witnessed and reported significantly different scenes from this week's protests in Quito.
teleSUR English's team put together a video that demonstrates how Hill's article was riddled with errors and misrepresentations and how The Guardian got Latin America wrong, yet again.
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The article only quotes anti-government protesters, while ignoring and failing to interview at least one of the thousands of pro-government Ecuadoreans who were rallying in front of the presidential palace at the same time as the opposition riots were taking place just a few blocks away.
Also, footage by teleSUR from the riots, featured in the video, shows the same anti-government protesters The Guardian chose to portray as victims attacking police with projectiles and fireballs and about anything they could get their hands on.
While the police did show great restraint, officers eventually reacted with teargas to disperse the violent crowds and prevent them entering the presidential place.
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Leaders of the opposition parties, whose members were interviewed by Hill, have been calling for a coup against President Rafael Correa; Carlos Perez is openly calling on the military and the police to “rebel.”
Meanwhile, President Rafael Correa maintains more than 60 percent approval rate.
Watch our short feature for more on why The Guardian, and many other mainstream western media outlets, gets Ecuador and Latin America wrong.