The coup d'etat in Ecuador is just another sign of the right-wing's total disregard for the rule of national and international law.

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Today, rioting in the streets of Ecuador's capital, Quito, by the state's police has pushed the country to the brink of total collapse. President Rafael Correa has been hit by a tear gas canister and is now being held in a local police hospital against his will. Reports say that he is virtually alone, except for a few body guards at his side. Little is yet known about the real backers of this coup, but it is currently believed that former Ecuadoran President, Lucio Gutierrez, is one of those who sponsored it.

This marks the second coup d'etat in the Western Hemisphere in as many years and the fourth one already in this new century. All the coups have been against leftist-leaning governments where the leaders were elected through Democratic means.

In late June, 2009, Honduran President Zelaya was overthrown and his government disbanded by right-wing activists who were opposed to his offering of a referendum that asked the people if they were in favor of changing the country's draconian constitution. Although the US never officially backed the coup, they never opposed it either, even though they were obligated by international and American law to cease all commercial activity until the legitimate and democratically elected government was reinstated.

In 2004, the US backed a small band of idiots in Haiti that made world headlines by attacking small villages and then waiting in the rich enclaves of northern Haiti for the US military to whisk democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power and into exile in Africa.

In April, 2002, Venezuela was the first one to be targeted by the right as a US-backed coup d'etat toppled the democratically elected President Hugo Chavez. In an amazing reversal of past coup d'etats, the people of Venezuela went to the streets en masse and demanded the return of President Chavez. Within two days, President Chavez was restored to power and the coup leaders went in hiding in the US.

Time and again we see democratically elected presidents overthrown by right-wing radicals who have little if any regard for the rule of law and the rights of the citizenry. Time and again we see how the right-wing is supported and financed by the US and the far right in America, much to the dismay of the poor and destitute of the people of the country in question.

Yet, if we listen to the rhetoric of American propaganda media, it would seem that the left is to be feared. They denounce all left-leaning groups as revolutionary and dangerous, elements that are to be distrusted and knocked down whenever possible.

In the US, the media never discusses the obvious, the fact that time and again right-wing radical groups, quite often with overt backing from the US government, use violence and mayhem to achieve what they could never get through the ballot box, leadership of the country.

In recent years, we have seen an increase in this total disregard of national and international law by the far right, while the left is continually condemned as being the ones outside of the law.

The story in Ecuador is still too early to tell, but one thing is certain, the left had nothing to do with these latest developments. President Correa is a staunch ally of President Chavez of Venezuela and Ecuador is a very active member of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America. Once again we see that the left achieves its victories through the ballot box, while the right prefers coup d'etats and the total disregard of the rule of law.

Authors Bio:

66 year old Californian-born and bred male - I've lived in four different countries, USA, Switzerland, Mexico, Venezuela, and currently live in the Dominican Republic - speak three languages fluently, English, French, Spanish - have worked as a journalist for Empower-Sport Magazine. I am a retired Supply Chain Specialist.