Sept. 2, 2007 (LPAC)--In his weekly radio address Sept. 1, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa warned that his political opponents are attempting to overthrow him and his Vice President, using a "dirty, mafioso" report prepared by the electoral watchdog agency, the Expenses Unit. That entity, which is controlled by the opposition PRIAN movement, is accusing Correa of financial "irregularities" during last year's Presidential campaign.

Last week, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) imposed a $1 mn. fine on Correa's Alianza PAIS movement, based on an Expenses Unit report accusing the President of failing to reveal the origin of funds used by his campaign, and resorting to shady accounting practices. The TSE also accused Correa's former campaign treasurer of irregularities, and removed him from his current post as the Governor of Guayas. The President noted how strange it was that the opposition Presidential candidate, multimillionaire businessman Alvaro Noboa, had only been fined $300,000, even thugh he spent "five times more than I did."

There is nothing frivolous about Correa's statements. As former "economic hit man" John Perkins has warned on at least two occasions this year, the Ecuadorian President is right to fear, not only for the stability of his government, but also his life. "I am very afraid of what may happen to Rafael Correa," he told the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language Telemundo T-52 TV network in early August. "I think his life is in danger," Perkins said, adding that Correa's attacks on the International Monetary Fund, and the foreign banking and political factions that have decimated Ecuador's economy over decades, had made him "a very important target."

Statesman Lyndon LaRouche has charged that, implicitly, it is the circles around former Secretary of State George Schultz, the international sponsors of Correa's domestic opposition, that are gunning for the Ecuadorian President. Correa told Ecuadorians in his weekly message that "if they could," the opposition "would overthrow us. Be on the alert," he warned. "They are desperate, looking for any pretext to hurt the government."